Short Stories 366:366 — “Molecular Rage,” by Marie Bilodeau

This may seem like an odd short story title to end the year on, but I honestly think it's kind of perfect, and a fantastic thematic story for this, our year of endless trashfire 2020. Originally published in the 2019 September/October Analog, "Molecular Rage" is so very Marie Bilodeau. What do I mean? First, Marie …

Short Stories 366:365 — “The Prisoner,” by Richard Lee Byers

I'm back to Powered Up! An Earth Prime Anthology today, and this time I'm basically reading what felt more-or-less like Captain America and John Constantine team-up fanfic, and I say that with the utmost respect and joy. Because Richard Lee Byers's "The Prisoner" combines the "modified soldier" hero of Victor ("the Sentinel") with an Irish …

Short Stories 366:364 — “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel,” by Christopher Caldwell

I was nervous picking up a book about apocalypse fiction given, y'know, everything, but happily, after reading the foreword, I knew to expect Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of a World that Wouldn't Die would hit on the queer theme and a theme of triumph in the face of adversity. This wasn't going to be …

Short Stories 366:363 — “Love and the Floppy Musketeer Hat,” by Hank Edwards

First off, the title. Can we just stop and tilt our heads in happy wonder at "Love and the Floppy Musketeer Hat"? It's the title of the collection and a particular story therein, and though it's not the first in the collection, I couldn't help but start there because, I mean, title. Right? And it's …

Short Stories 366:362 — “A Big Surprise for Valentine’s Day,” by Jackie Lau

I sometimes think the final books in romance series have an unfair advantage, because by the time you get to them, you're so immersed to the particular author's world building it's like pulling on a warm sweater, and so I often find myself thinking "this was the best one!" when in reality they're all wonderful, …

Short Stories 366:361 — “The Fabulous Animal Jamboree,” by Paul Magrs

Okay, I know Christmas is done, but there was one more of the stories in this collection, Christmassy Tales, that I really wanted to talk about before the closing of the year, so consider it a Boxing Day theme, and I promise it even suits, what with Boxing Day begin about repurposing things and the …