Well… It’s been a while since I last did short story recommendations. I needed a break from short fiction, from reading it at least. And while it might not become a monthly segment on the blog again (at least, not yet), it’s time I start diving back into the wonderful world of short fiction.
So, for the first time in a looooong while, here are my latest short story recommendations.
The Geckomancer’s Lament by Lauren Beukes (Uncanny Magazine):
We start of with a strange tale that is simultaneously wacky and deep.
The story follows a small party that, in best D&D style, are on a quest for revenge. Their target is the man who, in different ways, wronged all of them.
The party consists of such a varied casts as a centaur (from Greek mythology), a nyanga (which, as far as I can tell, is some sort of west African spirit), the elf king Oberon, and a necromancer which, you guessed it, is a gecko.
All these creatures suffered at the hands of a colonizer who has wrecked their homelands. And colonization and the way it hurts people in many different ways is definitely a major theme of the story. However, it’s also very much a found-family story, a coming together of people who have lost everything and are learning to start over together.
Aside from the group members’ diverse set of backgrounds feeding into the theme, they’re also a source of a lot of the humor in the piece. My favorite element is definitely the MC that is not just a gecko necromancer, but also a necromancer who can’t actually raise the dead.
This was never an all-out comedy piece, but I had a lot of fun reading it.
From Enceladus, with Love by Ryan Cole (Clarkesworld):
Dezzi is a stowaway on a spaceship travelling from a ruined Earth to one of Saturn’s remaining moons. She leaves behind her drunk dad in search of her estranged and famous scientist mother. But hiding in the ship’s cargo bay quickly becomes a problem, as part of the ship starts to communicate with Dezzi. That’s not just a minor problem, but a life threatening one, because sentient machines breaking their programming was part of what ruined Earth.
Being a blind passenger herself, Dezzi can’t tell anyone. Instead, in her loneliness, despite knowing what a young machine learning might result in, she befriends the ship. Of course, this doesn’t end well.
It’s an interesting premise that could have easily been a fast-paced techno-thriller. However, Cole chose to write this as a very “internal” story, focusing more on Dezzi’s desires. Her longings for a better life, for her mother, for herself to be someone other than the eternal screwup that she feels she is. And the story is all the stronger for it.
Sometimes, the story felt a bit slow, but overall, it was a very enjoyable read, about coping with loneliness and finding peace with being whoever you are.
Blue by Ian Creasey (Inner Worlds):
Newcomer magazine Inner Worlds made it to the list with a short but sweet little piece. It’s a flash fiction story, so it will take me longer to explain the plot than for you to just read the story. But I can highly recommend Blue, if you are hungry for a bite of something slow and melancholy.
It’s a story about memories, about longing for long lost times, about getting old.
The story centers around an old man, experiencing the outside world one last time through an avatar. The science fiction element and the premise isn’t exactly original, but the story is still well worth it for the atmosphere alone.
Toby Backman 