Sunday 24 December 2017

100 Short Story Challenge: Stories 71 to 80

I sped up a little for this batch by throwing in some flash stories after reading a particularly long story that dragged a bit. A mix of sources, again. Notably adding Antipodian SF to Tor.com and Twelfth Planet Press's Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction 2015.

Stories 71 to 80:


  1. Lullaby for a Lost World by Aliette de Bodard — This story started dark and got darker. It’s about sacrifice for the greater good and rebellion against pain and suffering. Source: https://www.tor.com/2016/06/08/lullaby-for-a-lost-world/ 
  2. The Ways of Walls and Words by Sabrina Vourvoulias — This story took a while to grab me, which was unfortunate since it was quite long and a bit slow. It’s about two girls imprisoned and in service, in an unkind situation. The setting is, I’m pretty sure, colonial times in what is now the Dominican Republic. Their histories and friendship were interesting. Source: Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction 2015 edited by Julia Rios and Alisa Krasnostein.
  3. Hold-Time Violations by John Chu — a weird physics story with an emotional twist. The worldbuilding was a little tricky to follow (on purpose, I think), but I liked the story. Source: http://www.tor.com/2015/10/07/hold-time-violations-john-chu/
  4. The Numbers Danced by Laurie Bell — SF horror flash. Tense and with a twist. Source: https://www.antisf.com/the-stories/the-numbers-danced
  5. Good Intentions by Simon Petrie — Flash. A bait and switch shaggy-dog story that made me groan even as I conceded it’s cleverness. Source: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/10063/20171120-0002/www.antisf.com.au/the-stories/good-intentions.html
  6. The Passengers by Botond Teklesz — Flash and shorter than I expected. A snapshot of a future. Source: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/10063/20170920-0830/www.antisf.com.au/the-stories/the-passengers.html
  7. A Reluctant Zombie by Natalie JE Potts — Flash. Amusing. Farts and death were involved. Source: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/10063/20170920-0830/www.antisf.com.au/the-stories/a-reluctant-zombie.html
  8. A Last Supper by Philip Berrie — An odd and dark short story. More zombies. I’m not sure how I feel about this one… Source: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/10063/20170920-0830/www.antisf.com.au/the-stories/a-last-supperhtml.html
  9. Pandora’s Smile by Joanna Galbraith — An amusing and silly short story that I enjoyed. Source: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/10063/20170920-0830/www.antisf.com.au/the-stories/pandora-s-smile.html
  10. Reflections by Tamlyn Dreaver — The setting of this story seemed promising, but I had difficulty getting past the lack of (semi-)scientific explanation as to how the moon could be terraformed. The story of a girl being forced to move away upon the failure of that terraformation didn’t, unfortunately, do enough to draw me in. Not bad, but not enough for me. Source: Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction 2015 edited by Julia Rios and Alisa Krasnostein.


Only twenty more stories to go! Will I make it? I hope so!

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