The Roundup hits it’s 10th installment! Five stories again this week. We have some darkness, some fun, some serious looks at both the evil in our history and our potential future (but with a side of hope), and lots of weird!
“Your Damnation Will Be Infinite” by Hadeer Elsbai from The Dark #34
Our first story for this week’s roundup is (as should be unsurprising given the name of it’s home) dark. It’s a tale of a couple vengeful Egyptian women taking an opportunity offered them for freedom, consequences be damned. When I’d finished reading it I could hear a line from The Ballad of Black Tom in my ears: “I’ll take Cthulhu over you devils any day.” Lovecraft’s great evil doesn’t get as explicit a name check in this story, but the sentiment fits.
*Note: The Dark is currently running a Kickstarter to fund it’s next 2 years. If you’ve got the funds they are definitely a market worth supporting. I’ve previously included stories from The Dark in my Second and Fifth Roundups.
This story from Fireside Fiction is a fascinating (and cutting) tale of an alternate fantastical America where magic and mythic creatures existed alongside the real horrors of slavery. It feels like a glimpse of an urban fantasy history of America. In this world the teeth of slaves used in Washington’s dentures come with consequences. And each it’s own micro story.
I love the format of this story. It’s options such as these that the short story writer can apply to their craft that has made me a life long fan of the shorter story lengths. Phenderson Djèlí Clark packs so much into this story by the way he writes it and yet it feels like a “fast” story. To have so much density to a story that flies along is impressive.
Oh, and make sure to take the time to enjoy the accompanying illustration by Odera Igbokwe. It’s gorgeous.
“Unplaces: An Atlas of Non-Existence” by Izzy Wasserstein from Clarkesworld #138
I’m always a fan of weird, as anyone following along with these Roundups should know by now, and all speculative fiction could be said to be at least a little weird, but starting with this story we began truly ratcheting up the levels of strange in this week’s roundup stories.
Here Izzy Wasserstein brings us another great use of the potential for non-traditional styles the short story format allows. This one is told through annotated excerpts from the book named in the story’s title. Hannah Leibowitz, a practitioner of Imaginary Anthropology, is hiding in the ruins of Kansas City and trying to find hope in the one last book left to her, while leaving her commentary on it for Lya, in the hopes that, if they aren’t ever together again perhaps the words will eventually reach her. It’s very much a story for our times, with a grim view of the path our society is currently walking, but there is hope, perhaps even a mission for us, in this too.
“The Date” by R.K. Kalaw from Uncanny #20
A fun and short story to loosen up the Roundup, R.K. Kalaw gives us a story of a first (and maybe last?) date unlike any other you are likely to have read. A woman who probably always gets what she wants and doesn’t care who knows it. Another who tends to be much more circumspect but is driven to be bold in this case drawn by, among other things, “the velvet gleam of her exoskeleton”. Yes the weirdness continues in a, perhaps surprisingly, sweet story.
“The Triumphant Ward of the Railway and The Sea” by Sara Saab from Shimmer #42
Our final story is the lead-off tale from the latest issue of Shimmer. As I type this (on March 5th) the story is currently only available to read for subscribers, but it goes live on the website at some point tomorrow.
Here the strange has kicked into full on surreal. Neave is a hard drinking competitive eater who lives on a self-piloted train perpetually cycling between three stops. Srdan, a conductor dedicated to his job who doesn’t remember starting it (and heck, maybe it isn’t even really his job), is her closest thing to a friend. This story gives us mysterious train cars, food, booze, a stark soviet-feeling aesthetic combined with lush prose, and the foreboding sea, which took Naeve’s family and calls out for her, and perhaps everyone else too.
This story is a great example of another sort of short story I enjoy. The kind where you’re not even 100% sure you understand it, but that’s ok, because like some pieces of visual art it’s worth it just to spend time and take it in and visit more than once, because it reveals more of itself in repeated viewings. That might not be to everyone’s taste, but if like me it is sometimes to yours then I highly recommend this.
And that is it for this week’s Roundup. As always, you can find a page with links to all of my Roundups here. Also, as always, if you find something you really like: share it with others!