#ReadShortStories (41 to 45)

More disabled people destroying science fiction in this batch. And a couple of flash pieces from Nature Futures.

I have been too busy using up all of my brain spoons on various things (mostly work) so these preambles might continue to be short for the foreseeable future. Feel free to leave me a comment if you actually miss them.

Birthday Girl by Rachel Swirsky — A look at how approaches to mental illness/neurodiversity in children have changed over a generation. Highlighted by comparisons between the protagonist and her young niece. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/birthday-girl/

An Open Letter to the Family by Jennifer Brozek — An epistolary story set in the far future. A woman tells her family of upcoming medical plans. It was a more interesting take than I expected from the opening paragraphs. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/an-open-letter-to-the-family/

Heavy Lifting by A. T. Greenblatt — A coder/hacker girl working with her slightly douchey friend to tack down factory robots gone rogue in a (vague) post-apocalyptic world. A fun read.  Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/heavy-lifting/

A Picture is Worth by Beth Cato — An amusing flash piece about Martians who have severe ideological differences to the human race. Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00884-6

The Librarian by Robert Dawson — A flash piece about a neglected library staffed only by a robotic librarian. I got an unnecessarily bitter vibe from it, though it wasn’t exactly a bad story. Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00905-4

#ReadShortStories with slightly more variety (181 to 185)

This batch of stories is a bit less homogeneous with a poem from Uncanny that caught my eye and an unplanned re-read (my eyes just slipped and fell). Mostly I'm still making my way through How to Fracture a Fairytale by Jane Yolen.


The Foxwife by Jane Yolen — About a man and his kitsune wife, whom he treats badly once he learns of her nature. It was OK. Didn’t feel that “fractured” though. Source: How To Fracture A Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen

Smile by Beth Cato — A very short but satisfying poem about being told to smile. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/smile/

The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal — A reread for me, after I finished the (first) two novels set in the same world. Interesting to see how some details transferred perfectly into the prequel novels while some minor background details had to shift. I think I enjoyed this story more the second time around, probably because I’m now more invested in the characters and not coming into it cold. Source: https://www.tor.com/2013/09/11/the-lady-astronaut-of-mars/

The Faery Flag by Jane Yolen — A young laird is led into faeryland by his dog, falls in love with a faery and... it doesn’t end badly. I guess that’s subversive but it’s not sufficiently emotive to be interesting either. Source: How To Fracture A Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen

One Old Man, with Seals by Jane Yolen — The story of an old lady living alone in a lighthouse and coming across an old man surrounded by seals. I wonder whether this story packs a more significant punch of the reader is familiar with the source material? I am not and what seemed like the punchline wasn’t very punchy. Source: How To Fracture A Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen

#ReadShortStories or poems from Uncanny (116 to 120)

Another exclusively Uncanny batch today. Not much left to go in Issue Twenty-One. The next batch will contain the last of it, I expect, along with something new. I have quite enjoyed the poems in this issue of Uncanny, more so than in the previous issue. Possibly because they're more narratively driven? Or more narratively driven in the style that appeals to me? Something like that.

Found Discarded: A Love Poem, Questionably Addressed. by Cassandra Khaw — Pretty much what it says on the label. I liked the allusions and conclusion of this one. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/found-discarded-love-poem-questionably-addressed/

drop some amens by Brandon O’Brien — An amusing poem about prayer-bombs falling on various people. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/drop-some-amens/

The Fairies in the Crawlspace by Beth Cato — Horrifying and wonderful. A poem about fairies and a little girl that grows up. I really liked this one. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/the-fairies-in-the-crawlspace/

די ירושה by Sonya Taaffe — According to Google Translate, the title means “Quite an inheritance”. A short poem, with an interesting resonance. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/די-ירושה/

The Howling Detective by Brandon O’Brien — A mysterious murder of an evil person and a lagahoo (loosely speaking something like a Trinidadian werewolf) combine in this powerful story. I quite enjoyed it and the way it engaged with a difficult subject. I got momentarily lost in the chronology, but that’s probably because I was tired when I read it. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/the-howling-detective/