Short Stories 366:153 — “September Song,” by Raymond Luczak

Happy Pride Month! As is likely clear by now, I have an anthology and collection purchasing problem. I adore short fiction (again, super clear by now) and especially I love finding new voices by reading queer anthologies, and as such there are more than a few queer anthologies and collections on my shelf that I'm …

Short Stories 366:152 — “No Honor Among Thieves,” by Heidi Hunter

I'm really enjoying my trips through time with Crime Travel (an anthology of crime stories connected by a theme of time travel), and this latest trip from Heidi Hunter had a couple of nifty twists along the path to keep the reader guessing. It's also got a killer opening line: "It was the sledgehammer in …

Short Stories 366:151 — “The Sacrifice of Pawns,” by Mark Ladouceur

I'm not sure how to approach this particular story without semi-spoilers (consider yourself warned), and it's further complicated by the format of this particular anthology. The Clan Chronicles: Tales from Plexis is a shared-world anthology taking place in Julie Czerneda's Clan Chronicles universe, and takes side characters from said world, places them into the hands …

Short Stories 366:150 — “The Book of Martha,” by Octavia Butler

Oh wow. From Year's Best Fantasy 4, a delightful find in an old paperback I picked up on vacation on a rainy day, this story has so very much going on in it, but is at its core just a conversation between Martha, a writer, and God. She's just somehow, suddenly, standing there with God. …

Short Stories 366:149 — “Glory,” by Lesley Nneka Arimah

The idea of someone "cursed" or shrouded in bad luck is brought rather delightfully to life here in this latest story from Lesley Nneka Arimah's What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky, and I have to say despite her being prickly and borderline cruel and careless, I was rooting for Glory from …

Short Stories 366:148 — “Oliver Gutierrez and the Walking Stick of Destiny,” by Elliott Dunstan

There's this thing that happens way, way too often in fiction where marginalized characters get to have one crack at the list. There can be the white lesbian, and the black woman, and the Deaf kid, and so on, but a Deaf black lesbian? Suddenly reviews fill up with mentions of "too much" or "unbelievable" …