#Rec #StoryRec #Novelette

His Greatest Adversary Yet, by architeuthis

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29080227

➜ an original m/m novelette on ao3, starring a dude who got into supervillainy as his post-retirement hobby

➜ I love the main character, and I love that this is a story about older people - people who've had their whole life to learn to understand themselves, but still have the possibility to make new decisions and go new directions and learn new things

➜ and the story is so beautifully constructed too! idk, I don't even remember the details rn, but while I was reading it I was admiring the way the story was using the balancing and forefronting of different story elements to great effect

➜ also the hints of worldbuilding and backstory we get are super compelling

➜ and I love how it ends!

➜ when I finished reading I was kicking my feet and grinning with delight. I love the whole thing

➜ 15k words

#Rec #StoryRec #Novelette

The Name Ziya, by Wen-yi Lee

https://reactormag.com/the-name-ziya-wen-yi-lee/

➜ A secondary-world fantasy novelette about a young woman (the titular Ziya) from the outskirts of empire

➜ when Ziya is offered the possibility of attending a prestigious university in the heart of the empire, what is she willing to sacrifice for it?

➜ I loved the complex dimensions of her relationships with her fellow students, the few who are from the same background as her and the many who are wealthy elites from the dominant culture.

➜ and the other characters so clearly had their own stories going on, even with the details obscured from Ziya's pov!

➜ The choices Ziya makes are both understandable and uncomfortable, as she turns herself into the kind of person she needs to be to succeed in this environment

➜ the story is so thoughtful and nuanced in its depiction of Ziya's experiences and reactions to the realities of living as a minority population under empire

➜ I loved it

➜ 9k words

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

Five Things You Can See, by Nadia Radovich

http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fiction/five-things-you-can-see/

➜ short story about time travel and family and trauma and the impending doom of an apocalyptic future

➜ I love clear the way it shows how love and abuse are not exclusive of each other, how someone can be doing what they genuinely think is the best thing they can do to help someone and yet it's still awful

➜ the tight claustrophobic feeling of a story focused in narrowly onvery few characters is really effective here

➜ ahhhh it's really good!

➜ 5k words

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

The Gulmohar of Mehranpur, by Amal Singh

https://reactormag.com/the-gulmohar-of-mehranpur-amal-singh/

➜ a short story set in India's past, about a Nawab whose small district is under threat from the much larger state it's subservient to

➜ The Nawab is old, his favourite tree is dying, his district ailing. Then someone arrives who says he can cook a dish that will provide the eater with eternal youth.

➜ The story is beautifully written, filled with that weighted sense of the inevitability that comes with time, that all things come to an end

➜ Lovely, thoughtful, evocative, and human. It's great.

➜ 5k words

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

If an Algorithm Can Cast a Shadow, by Claire Jia-Wen

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/jia-wen_06_25/

➜ near-future scifi short story about a woman whose teenage son dies, and who buys a copy of her son's Digital Double to try to make sense of what happened

➜ the focus of the story is on the complexities of the family relationships, and the unknowability of what actually happened

➜ and about the omnipresent eye of the scraping of people's personal data online.

➜ well-constructed and well-written, with a lingering sense of disquiet

➜ 5k words

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

When the Faerie King Toured the Human Realm, by Vanessa Fogg

https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/when-the-faerie-king-toured-the-human-realm/

➜ a lovely and evocative fantasy short story

➜ with a great use of pov!

➜ and a delicate balance of mysteriousness and of exuberantly odd details to bring the story and the world to life!

➜ what's it about? well, the title is a useful brief summary!

➜ 3k words

#Rec #FicRec #StoryRec

Here With You, by acernor

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62283863

➜ original fiction in a fannish context, written for the ship Virgin General Suspicious of Romantic Overtures/Playboy Foreign Ally Who's Very Into Him, in the context of an arranged marriage

➜ I had a great time reading this story! the character dynamics, the secondary world fantasy worldbuilding, the pacing of the various backstory reveals, the wider context of community that they both care a lot about...so many good things

➜ 42k words long

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

Murder in the Clavist Autonomous Zone, by Rich Larson

http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/murder-in-the-clavist-autonomous-zone/

➜ a short story about a dystopian future, a murder investigation, community, and someone who's trying to leave the only home she's ever known

➜ the information reveals over the course of the story are handled so well

➜ and the narrative tone of...hm. of inevitability? of sadness. of people trying their best to hold the line against the constant pressure of external forces. idk it's real good.

➜ written for a Stop Copaganda short story contest!

➜ 4.7k words

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

Numismatic Archetypes in the Year of Five Regents, by by Louis Inglis Hall

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/hall_02_25/

➜ SFF short story telling of a year of political upheaval through the eyes of someone who works in the minting of coins

➜ and through the coins' archaeological analysis, in the far future

➜ I love this double-vision on events, what the historians can and can't know through the coins, and the struggles and lives of the people who were just trying to get through those times, the desperation and the personhood

➜ 3.6k words

A Heap of Petrified Gods, by Adelehin Ijasan

https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/a-heap-of-petrified-gods/

➜ a short story about a Nigerian immigrating overseas, and what must be given up to do so

➜ a very unsubtle story, but effective

➜ 1.5k words in length

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

At an expression of interest from @Forestofglory I have put together a rec post of female-focused sff short stories from the last 5 years that are interested in human connection and/or material culture, and usually have a hopeful mood.

you can find them here! https://sophia-sol.dreamwidth.org/475548.html

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

The Golden Tooth: A Solo Show by Orion Cabrera
by William Alexander

https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-golden-tooth-a-solo-show-by-orion-cabrera/

➤ an sff short story written as the script for an experimental theatre piece

➤ I love the conceit of the piece, and seeing as it unfolded more and more just where it's going with everything

➤ about the mythologising of history, the "discovery" of the americas by columbus, the power of theatre, and ghosts

➤ perhaps a bit blunt in its themes in the end but I had a lot of fun anyway!

➤ 6k words in length

Hello I have a short story rec!

After We Kill Our Father and Before We Reach the Mainland, by Max Franciscovich
https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/after-we-kill-our-father-and-before-we-reach-the-mainland/

It's about three siblings who, as the title suggests, have just killed their father and are fleeing the island on which they live in hopes of reaching the mainland. It's also narrated in the first person plural.

In only about 5000 words, it paints a really vivid picture of these siblings, what's happened to them, and their complicated relationships with each other and their own bodies. It is also, perhaps unsurprisingly, heavy: be warned for explorations of abuse and some of its effects on a person's sense of self.

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

#Rec #ShortStory #Novelette #StoryRec

Look at the Moon, by Dominique Dickey

https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/look-at-the-moon/

➤ an sff novelette about family dynamics, religion, queerness, trauma, and the beauty of the night sky

➤ it's a horrifying story even as it's also beautiful, exploring its ideas in ways that leave me not quite sure what to think about any of it, but in a way that's clearly done with purpose and care

➤ content note for explicit child murder. I am serious about the horrifying aspects of the story! but if it's something you feel able to read, it's definitely worth it imo

➤ 9k words in length

#Rec #ShortStory #StoryRec

The Font of Liberty, by Elizabeth Porter Birdsall

https://alpennia.com/blog/lesbian-historic-motif-podcast-episode-291-font-liberty-elizabeth-porter-birdsall

➤ as one would expect from the venue, this short story is about historical lesbians!

➤ specifically, historical lesbians working in a parisian printshop in 1830 (2 years before Les Mis is set, if that's relevant for you)

➤ ahhhh I love all the different women in this story, their relationships with each other and their work and their beliefs

➤ and the main character a provincial girl who's finding a place for herself and coming to understand the world of revolutionary paris she's found herself in!

➤ I also love how real and grounded the printshop work is that they all do

➤ it was great from start to finish <3

➤ and yes the author is a friend but I'm not biased at all!!

➤ 5k words in length

consolidated #Rec #FicRec #StoryRec post for my recs from the month of September! lots of really good stuff this month!

https://sophia-sol.dreamwidth.org/471455.html

check out the link for

➤ 2 SVSSS fic recs

➤ 2 TGCF fic recs

➤ 1 Mysterious Lotus Casebook fic rec

➤ 1 SGA fic rec

➤ 1 Vorkosigan Saga fic rec

➤ 2 17th Century Theatre Actors RPF fic recs

➤ 5 original short story recs

➤ 3 original novelette recs

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

After We Kill Our Father and Before We Reach the Mainland
By Max Franciscovich

https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/after-we-kill-our-father-and-before-we-reach-the-mainland/

➤ that's a very evocative short story title right there and it's like. yeah. that's what the story is about!

➤ a fantasy story about three teens who have escaped their powerful and abusive father figure, who are a team in escaping, who might not always like each other but who are bound together in inextricable ways

➤ the entire story takes place in a boat as they make their way away from the island, hoping to find the mainland, but it never feels static, it's always pushing you onward, as you get more hints of the backstory, of what exactly all the context is for the murder and the escape

➤ it's so good!!!

➤ also. it's told in plural first person? which is so cool. The three teens are the "we" and "us" of the narrative voice. it's so well done! I love when stories play with pov.

➤ also. trans characters!

➤ 5k words

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory #Novelette

The Thirteenth Dancer
By Leah Cypess

https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-thirteenth-dancer/

➤ A novelette inspired by the fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses

➤ about one of the princesses who managed to escape, but who comes back

➤ a fascinating reimagining, leaning into the dangerous appeal of the fae, and the desire for belonging, and what you will and won't do for love -- or for freedom

➤ I've read a lot of retellings of this fairy tale and there are a lot of good ones but this one definitely ranks pretty high on the list!

➤ 10k words

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

Linden Honey, Blackcurrant Wine
by M.R. Robinson

https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/linden-honey-blackcurrant-wine/

➤ a lovely short story about a human woman who loves a woodmaiden

➤ about choices, and appreciating your life for what it is, and the passage of time

➤ and old women dancing together in a birch grove in a forest

➤ 3k words

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory #Novelette

We Shall Drink Wine
By Andrew K Hoe

https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/we-shall-drink-wine/

➤ a fantasy novelette set in a historical china, and holy shit it is SO SO SO GOOD

➤ about two sword-brothers, meeting again after decades apart

➤ the way the story circles around itself over and over again, uncovering new layers each time, new complexities, new details about what happened and what is happening -- it's so beautifully constructed and leads the reader on so compellingly

➤ and the story it's telling.....one about love, and trust, and classism, and imperialism, and the threat of monstrous creatures inflitrating......about, at its heart, the relationship between these two men, their importance to each other, and the fractures at the heart of their relationship, and the wide-reaching consequences

➤ I love it so much, it's brilliantly and beautifully done and with such fascinating explorations of its themes!

➤ 10k words