#Rec #StoryRec #Novelette

His Greatest Adversary Yet, by architeuthis

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29080227

➜ an original m/m novelette on ao3, starring a dude who got into supervillainy as his post-retirement hobby

➜ I love the main character, and I love that this is a story about older people - people who've had their whole life to learn to understand themselves, but still have the possibility to make new decisions and go new directions and learn new things

➜ and the story is so beautifully constructed too! idk, I don't even remember the details rn, but while I was reading it I was admiring the way the story was using the balancing and forefronting of different story elements to great effect

➜ also the hints of worldbuilding and backstory we get are super compelling

➜ and I love how it ends!

➜ when I finished reading I was kicking my feet and grinning with delight. I love the whole thing

➜ 15k words

#Rec #StoryRec #Novelette

The Name Ziya, by Wen-yi Lee

https://reactormag.com/the-name-ziya-wen-yi-lee/

➜ A secondary-world fantasy novelette about a young woman (the titular Ziya) from the outskirts of empire

➜ when Ziya is offered the possibility of attending a prestigious university in the heart of the empire, what is she willing to sacrifice for it?

➜ I loved the complex dimensions of her relationships with her fellow students, the few who are from the same background as her and the many who are wealthy elites from the dominant culture.

➜ and the other characters so clearly had their own stories going on, even with the details obscured from Ziya's pov!

➜ The choices Ziya makes are both understandable and uncomfortable, as she turns herself into the kind of person she needs to be to succeed in this environment

➜ the story is so thoughtful and nuanced in its depiction of Ziya's experiences and reactions to the realities of living as a minority population under empire

➜ I loved it

➜ 9k words

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

Five Things You Can See, by Nadia Radovich

http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fiction/five-things-you-can-see/

➜ short story about time travel and family and trauma and the impending doom of an apocalyptic future

➜ I love clear the way it shows how love and abuse are not exclusive of each other, how someone can be doing what they genuinely think is the best thing they can do to help someone and yet it's still awful

➜ the tight claustrophobic feeling of a story focused in narrowly onvery few characters is really effective here

➜ ahhhh it's really good!

➜ 5k words

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

The Gulmohar of Mehranpur, by Amal Singh

https://reactormag.com/the-gulmohar-of-mehranpur-amal-singh/

➜ a short story set in India's past, about a Nawab whose small district is under threat from the much larger state it's subservient to

➜ The Nawab is old, his favourite tree is dying, his district ailing. Then someone arrives who says he can cook a dish that will provide the eater with eternal youth.

➜ The story is beautifully written, filled with that weighted sense of the inevitability that comes with time, that all things come to an end

➜ Lovely, thoughtful, evocative, and human. It's great.

➜ 5k words

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

If an Algorithm Can Cast a Shadow, by Claire Jia-Wen

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/jia-wen_06_25/

➜ near-future scifi short story about a woman whose teenage son dies, and who buys a copy of her son's Digital Double to try to make sense of what happened

➜ the focus of the story is on the complexities of the family relationships, and the unknowability of what actually happened

➜ and about the omnipresent eye of the scraping of people's personal data online.

➜ well-constructed and well-written, with a lingering sense of disquiet

➜ 5k words

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

When the Faerie King Toured the Human Realm, by Vanessa Fogg

https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/when-the-faerie-king-toured-the-human-realm/

➜ a lovely and evocative fantasy short story

➜ with a great use of pov!

➜ and a delicate balance of mysteriousness and of exuberantly odd details to bring the story and the world to life!

➜ what's it about? well, the title is a useful brief summary!

➜ 3k words

#Rec #FicRec #StoryRec

Here With You, by acernor

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62283863

➜ original fiction in a fannish context, written for the ship Virgin General Suspicious of Romantic Overtures/Playboy Foreign Ally Who's Very Into Him, in the context of an arranged marriage

➜ I had a great time reading this story! the character dynamics, the secondary world fantasy worldbuilding, the pacing of the various backstory reveals, the wider context of community that they both care a lot about...so many good things

➜ 42k words long

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

Murder in the Clavist Autonomous Zone, by Rich Larson

http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/murder-in-the-clavist-autonomous-zone/

➜ a short story about a dystopian future, a murder investigation, community, and someone who's trying to leave the only home she's ever known

➜ the information reveals over the course of the story are handled so well

➜ and the narrative tone of...hm. of inevitability? of sadness. of people trying their best to hold the line against the constant pressure of external forces. idk it's real good.

➜ written for a Stop Copaganda short story contest!

➜ 4.7k words

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory

Numismatic Archetypes in the Year of Five Regents, by by Louis Inglis Hall

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/hall_02_25/

➜ SFF short story telling of a year of political upheaval through the eyes of someone who works in the minting of coins

➜ and through the coins' archaeological analysis, in the far future

➜ I love this double-vision on events, what the historians can and can't know through the coins, and the struggles and lives of the people who were just trying to get through those times, the desperation and the personhood

➜ 3.6k words

A Heap of Petrified Gods, by Adelehin Ijasan

https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/a-heap-of-petrified-gods/

➜ a short story about a Nigerian immigrating overseas, and what must be given up to do so

➜ a very unsubtle story, but effective

➜ 1.5k words in length

#Rec #StoryRec #ShortStory