#ReadShortStories from varied sources (26 to 30)

Another random batch here. It's been a period of slow reading for me, of late. Too much other stuff going on, particularly with important and potentially life-changing deadlines hanging over me. Such is academia. In any case, I have scraped together some stories from various sources (five sources for five stories), all of them interesting reads.

unkind of mercy by Alex Jennings — A slightly creepy story. It reminded me of the episode of Doctor Who with the ghost angels that was part of the Tenth Doctor’s last season finale. With a very different ending, of course. Source: New Suns edited by Nisi Shawl

The Day Girl by Rivqa Rafael — A sort of steampunk story about a woman working in a factory that makes a healing potion. A well written and interesting read that I would not have minded having more of. Source: http://escapepod.org/2019/01/24/escape-pod-664-the-day-girl/

Valentine's Day by Xia Jia — A short and horrifying science fiction story about a Valentine’s Day date gone viral, in a future with minimal privacy in public. Horrific thought, good story. Source: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wnj7p4/valentines-day

Ten Things Sunil and I Forgot to Prepare for, When Preparing for the Apocalypse by Shane Halbach — The title is an accurate description of the story. As well as the list of forgotten things, there is normal prose detailing the situation. Note that it’s a YA story and also that the plan wasn’t very good. Source: http://www.castofwonders.org/2019/01/cast-of-wonders-343-staff-picks-2018-ten-things-sunil-and-i-forgot-to-prepare-for-when-preparing-for-the-apocalypse/

The Tentacle and You by John Wiswell — A flash story about what to expect upon implantation of your new tentacle. It escalated in a compelling way. Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00684-y

Short stories 36 to 40

Continuing the trend, another mix of short stories. My favourite in this batch is definitely the JY Yang, although the two flash pieces (Pinsker and Vo) were interesting, just not that meaty, what with being flash.


The Sewell Home for the Temporally Displaced by Sarah Pinsker — A cute flash story about inadvertent time travel and lesbians. Source: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-sewell-home-for-the-temporally-displaced/

One Saturday Night, with Angel by Peter Ball — Angels are walking the Earth and, while know one knows much about them, it doesn’t look good. The protagonist of this story is being stalked by one, which has a very strong, caustic smell. OK story but didn’t grab me. Source: Sprawl edited by Alisa Krasnostein

Auspicium Melioris Aevi by JY Yang — A really interesting look at cloning and extensive training as a means of duplicating past wisdom to sell. I guessed the shape of the ending but the choice of historical figure to clone (in the case of the main character — there were multiple sets) and the attendant historical details were fascinating. As was the brief interrogation of some of his life choices. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/auspicium-melioris-aevi/

The Psychology Game by Xia Jia — An interesting concept but the way it’s explored is a bit too pedagogical/preachy for my taste. I would have enjoyed a more plotted take. But not a bad exploration of AI and where we would (or wouldn’t) draw the line at giving them tasks. Source: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/xia_10_17/

Twelve Pictures From a Second World War by Nghi Vo — Snapshots from a WWII in which various fairytale/folk/mythical beings took part alongside the ordinary humans. An entertaining but very short story. Source: http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/twelve-pictures-from-a-second-world-war/