February is one of those months when I'm grateful to do
lists like this. I've been so busy with healthcare problems and editing that,
until I checked the list, I thought I hadn't read anything special. Life can
get so busy that it's easy to forget all the great art that flies by.
As usual, I'm collecting great short fiction and non-fiction
that's free to read on the web.
Fiction
"Between Dragons and Their Wrath" by An Owomoyela
and Rachel Swirsky at Clarkesworld
-No short story has haunted me more in the last month than
this. The dragons are a metaphysical terror, casting a shadow of mutations
across the landscape of two absolutely lovely characters. With scenes whipping by, each has a punch, even in the last line.
"43 Responses to In Memory of Dr. Alexandra Nato"
by Barbara Barnett at Daily Science Fiction - I love stories that creatively use unusual real world formats,
and here's a story told through a Comments thread. It's a bunch of believers
who might be experiencing a haunting, since one of their dead friends seems to
have shown up and is poking at their insecurities. It can't help but be funny
and creepy at the same time, which is hard to pull off, especially with such
limitations. Masterful work.
"Lotus Face and the Fox" by Nghi Vo at Uncanny
Magazine
-Two god-masked figures pull off a little robbery in the
dead of night, and it keeps up its creative enthusiasm from there. It feels
flash-length despite being longer because of energetic pacing and a lovely
handling of its world.
"Ars Longa, Amor Brevis" by David Twiddy at The
Sockdolager
-Two pretentious master-artists bicker over their accounts
of a calamity that their magical arts *may* have brought about. A fine use of
homunculi! I actually beta read this story, but it's only grown stronger since
the version I saw in 2015.
