Story Recommendations – 2018.11.30

Wow, time has flown by and it’s been way too long since I posted any short story recommendations (or anything else for that matter). So without further delay, here they are.

In the End the World Will Break Your Heart by Kurt Hunt (DSF): An excellent story about the end of the world. What set this story apart was it’s very realistic yet tragically funny behavior of the characters and the, relative to story’s length, large amount of characterization we get without it ever killing the pacing. The speculative element was more of a backdrop to the story than an integral part, but that didn’t stop it from being a great read.

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Love, Death by Caroline M. Yoachim (Escapepod/Lightspeed): Yoachim is one of my absolute favorite short story writers, and this story is a good  example of why that is (this the second time she’s made the recommendations, by the way). The sentence level writing is solid, the characters are well-carved out, and it’s an excellent and original take on the otherwise overused trope of time travel and the theme of predetermination. Definitely worth a read.

Targeted by Clayton Hackett (DSF): I found the speculative element, reading the future through personlized adds, both original and intriguing. The execusion could’ve been better; the story was very “telling” even considering it length, but it still managed to fight it’s way onto the list of recommendations because of the great premise and the humor used in conveying the idea.

Dream Engine by Tim Pratt (IGMS): The story had a ton of great and original idea, and at times it even became a problem as they seemed to be forced in there, killing the pacing a bit. But for the most part, the explanations were kept to a minimum and we’re treated to a great mystery and a speculative buddy cop story with extra dimensions (literary). And for a short story, the characters were very fleshed out.