short story recommendations
I'm not much of a short story reader, mainly because the literary scene in short stories revolves around everything I don't love about adult fiction. However, there are always exceptions!
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Fantasy Magazine has become one with Lightspeed, and this story was in the fantasy section when I went to check it out:
Her Words Like Hunting Vixens Spring
by Brooke Bolander
It's an old Southwest story with the requisite desert parching, immediacy of legend and myth, and a fantastic strong woman with a colorful voice.
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I bought a subscription to IGMS and then promptly forgot my password, not going to read anything for months on end. I have finally fixed that SNAFU, and am trying take advantage before my subscription expires. I recognized the name on this from the Codex forum, but hadn't read anything by the author yet.
The Remains of the Witch
by Tony Pi
This story is set in OZ, but with a richer worldbuilding than any take I've come across--without changing any of the essence of the story we all know. The narrator and her journey both are odd and yet make sense. I was dreading for a second an obvious cruel short-stories-are-grim ending, but it went in a more interesting direction.
***
And I recently went and reread a story I heard at my writer's group ages ago, reminded of it by another story I didn't like as well, and wanted to refresh on the comparisons. It's still charming--the kind of story that I wish was more common in short fiction, because I'd have a place, too...
The Wizard's Calico Daughter
by Eilis O'Neal
A story with a modern girl protagonist who is *in* the kind of fantasy-land children's books often take us--but needs to go beyond that childhood. A fun story with a light mood, but that touch of the weird that pulls you in.
***
Fantasy Magazine has become one with Lightspeed, and this story was in the fantasy section when I went to check it out:
Her Words Like Hunting Vixens Spring
by Brooke Bolander
It's an old Southwest story with the requisite desert parching, immediacy of legend and myth, and a fantastic strong woman with a colorful voice.
***
I bought a subscription to IGMS and then promptly forgot my password, not going to read anything for months on end. I have finally fixed that SNAFU, and am trying take advantage before my subscription expires. I recognized the name on this from the Codex forum, but hadn't read anything by the author yet.
The Remains of the Witch
by Tony Pi
This story is set in OZ, but with a richer worldbuilding than any take I've come across--without changing any of the essence of the story we all know. The narrator and her journey both are odd and yet make sense. I was dreading for a second an obvious cruel short-stories-are-grim ending, but it went in a more interesting direction.
***
And I recently went and reread a story I heard at my writer's group ages ago, reminded of it by another story I didn't like as well, and wanted to refresh on the comparisons. It's still charming--the kind of story that I wish was more common in short fiction, because I'd have a place, too...
The Wizard's Calico Daughter
by Eilis O'Neal
A story with a modern girl protagonist who is *in* the kind of fantasy-land children's books often take us--but needs to go beyond that childhood. A fun story with a light mood, but that touch of the weird that pulls you in.