I finally dove back into short fiction this month, mostly thanks to three anthologies: Portals, Skull & Pestle, and Worlds of Light and Darkness. All three Are good reads and contain some hits and some misses, but overall the anthologies are well above average, so time spent reading through them was time well spent.
The Berardi was dense and complex, being critical theory, and seemed to lose focus at the end, though overall it had very important things to say and the knowledge contained therein will likely affect my world view in unexpected ways for some time to come.
Michael Sullivan’s Theft of Swords was a rollicking good read, and I look forward to reading more of his work. Fortunately I have at least three other books by him on my TBR shelves.
Two of the short fiction authors in this list – Szmerelda Shanel and Jessamy Corob Cook – have no personal web presence that I could find, so I included links to their entries at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database instead.
Books
- Berardi, Franco, The Uprising: On Poetry and Finance (2021.08.08)
- Sullivan, Michael J., Theft of Swords (2021.08.12)
- Bray, Patricia and Butler, S.C. (editors), Portals (2021.08.26)
- Wolford, Kate (editor), Skull & Pestle: New Tales of Baba Yaga (2021.08.29)
Short Prose
- Goder, Beth, “Candide; Life-“, Clarkesworld #179 (2021.08.02)
- Case, Stephen, “The God Skrae Eats Death“, Beneath Ceaseless Skies #335 (2021.08.11)
- Lambert, Brent, “Faithful Delirium“, Beneath Ceaseless Skies #335 (2021.08.11)
- Holzner, Nancy, “What Time is It”, Portals (2021.08.14)
- Friesner, Esther M., “This Way Out”, Portals (2021.08.14)
- Brett, Evey, “What the Wind Saw“, Beneath Ceaseless Skies #336 (2021.08.16)
- Tregillis, Ian, “Deus Ex Machina”, Portals (2021.08.18)
- Bedford, Jacey, “A Land Fit for Heroes”, Portals (2021.08.19)
- Grant, John Linwood, “Iron and Anthracite”, Portals (2021.08.19)
- Hall, Kate, “The Namesake”, Portals (2021.08.20)
- Koch, Gini (as Ensal, Anita), “Portal Pirates”, Portals (2021.08.21)
- Malan, Violette, “Doorways in the Sand”, Portals (2021.08.22)
- Kemp, Juliet, “Somewhere Else, Nowhere Else”, Portals (2021.08.22)
- Enge, James, “A Stranger Comes to Town”, Portals (2021.08.23)
- Harper, Steven, “Brick and Mirror”, Portals (2021.08.24)
- Cox, F. Brett, “A Bend in the Air”, Portals (2021.08.24)
- Moyer, Jaime Lee, “All the Lost Places”, Portals (2021.08.25)
- Palmatier, Joshua, “Onward to Glory!”, Portals (2021.08.26)
- Popovic, Andrija, “Hard Times in the Vancouver Continuum”, Portals (2021.08.26)
- Hurley, Patrick, “The Cracks in the Road”, Portals (2021.08.26)
- Forsyth, Kate, “Vasilisa the Wise”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.27)
- Sloan, Lissa, “A Tale Soon Told”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.27)
- Ross, Jill Marie, “Baba Yaga: Her Story”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.28)
- Honigman, Charlotte, “The Partisan and the Witch”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.28)
- Shanel, Szmerelda, “The Swamp Hag’s Apprentice”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.28)
- Coates, Rebecca A., “Boy Meets Witch”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.29)
- Cook, Jessamy Corob, “Teeth”, Skull & Pestle (2021.08.29)
- Edelman, Scott, “Answered Prayers”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.08.29)
- Gallacher, Mark, “Pioneer”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.08.29)
- Miller, John Jos., “The Ghost of a Smile”, Worlds of Light and Darkness (2021.08.29)
- Hurley, Kameron, “Judged”, Patreon (2021.08.31)
- Buckell, Tobias S., “Crypto Draconis”, Patreon (2021.08.31)