Tag Archives: Lightspeed

2021 Short Fiction Round Up 7

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Well, the streak was broken. After six straight weeks of roundups I missed getting one done last week. I’m back now though with the 7th installment of the round up for the year and another five stories I read and enjoyed this past week. We’ve got all sorts of stories here. Selections from a travel guide, a horror story with a monster, a more adventure style storry with a monster hunter, a story of a new romance, and a story of trying to put an end to an unsuccessful one. Hopefully that range should mean everyone can find something here to like for themselves.

“Destinations of Beauty” by Alexander Weinstein from Lightspeed #129

This was an interesting piece that is the latest in a series of travel guide style entries “From the Lost Travelers’ Tour Guide” written by author Alexander Weinstein that have been published in Lightspeed since January of 2020. This was my first time reading part of this series but I’ll definitely be reading through the previous entries. This one focuses on, as the name says, destinations exemplifying beauty in some way, but not necessarily happiness by any means. In fact, there is much in these entries that feel filled with the bittersweet, the melancholy, the nostalgic. Many entries feel written by a very weary traveler finding glimpses of very weary people. Despite all that though, I also find myself feeling a bit of longing reading these. The longing for travel we currently can’t partake in, and the unique memories of finding a special place at the end of a too long and tiring day of exploration that will stay with you for the rest of your life. These stories are written by someone who has traveled and explored and they will resonate a bit more for that with readers who have as well.

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2021 Short Fiction Round Up 5

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Welcome back to the Short Fiction SFF Round Up! I have 5 more stories I enjoyed and want to recommend to you for this, my 5th roundup of the year. I should point out that while not present in every story there is a quite a lot of grief and loss in the stories this week. That said, when those themes and experiences are in the stories I think they are handled well and explored with empathy and in the end these five stories each hit me just right when I read them and made me want to share them.

“History in Pieces” by Beth Goder from Clarkesworld #173

I’m always happy to explore stories with interesting structure and this one provides, as it’s name suggests, something of a puzzle structure. Its pieces of the tale told largely out of order come together to paint a picture of exploration and first contact, the beginnings of connection, and tragic ending for some. By the end, the alien archivist, Tan, who is creating the puzzle record, has become a fascinating character. I very much enjoyed moving back and forth through this story and its structure.

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Weekly Fiction Rec Roundup 11

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The Weekly Fiction Rec Roundup returns with it’s 11th installment. I’ve got five stories to share with you this week.There is a lot of despair and darkness in this week’s stories, in particular through our middle three selections that have such a similarity of feel that they could easily fit together in an anthology featuring dark stories of women protagonists who are perhaps uncompromising, perhaps a bit broken, perhaps even unlikeable.

Clearly I was gravitating to the uncomfortable in my reading this weak, though that should not be taken as any condemnation of these stories. We need stories of survival and struggle, both on personal scales and larger and these have it. We also have some interesting sci-fi and a moody, though not dark, not really, jazz-age fantasy to look at. Oh, and this will also be the first Roundup to use in-line notes1Because I tend to be mighty fond of adding parenthetical additions to my main point and I’m kind of liking using this system to both get to ramble on a bit and clean up my presentation., so there’s that.

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Weekly Fiction Rec Roundup 9

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It’s time for another Fiction Rec Roundup! It’s been on a mini hiatus as I took a step back from social media and other things (locking down my Twitter account with privacy settings and staying off Mastodon) for reasons of stress and focusing on job hunting. It only took two weeks for me to realize the steps I was taking weren’t really reducing my stress, so I’ve returned to business as usual.

This week I have five stories I’d like to share with you. We got aliens, time travel, undead, a lot of love and relationships (not all of which work out), goldfish, and a wonderful (if also difficult and painful at times) tribute to the power of stories and books. Continue reading →

Weekly Fiction Rec Roundup 4

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Week 4! We’ve made it a month! Also, for the second week in a row I have a full compliment of 7 stories to share with you (though over on Mastodon I had to double up the recs one day to hit it as flu laid me low and broke my daily streak over there). You can now find a list of links to all the Weekly Roundups here.

This week we have a range of things, including a couple stories that really hit the 2017 feels for me, our first repeat author, and something incredibly fun. Of course, they’re all worth reading or I wouldn’t have recommended them. Finally, a special note: Many of the magazines these stories come from are taking a significant financial hit right now (through no fault of their own) due to the current fiasco happening with Patreon (which is Patreon’s fault). If you enjoy short fiction I urge you to consider supporting the places that produce it, if you can, in whatever method available you’re comfortable with.

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