Short Fiction Thursday

I've actually had a little more of a chance to read some short fiction this past week, and there were three that seemed especially worth noting.

First, I just discovered that Electric Velocipede's new incarnation as an ezine has already begun. That in itself merits mention--I liked EV's selections in print and am looking forward to the online version. After signing up for the newsletter so that I don't miss any future announcements, I picked one of the stories at random, "Dancing in the Winter Rooms" by David Tallerman, and I have to say that it was a good choice to begin on. It's the story of a generation ship and the doctor who realizes they've long since missed the planet they were sent to colonize. His attempts to change the customs of the small society on board the vast ship do not go over well.

Second, "Held Close in Syllables of Light" by Rose Lemberg in Beneath Ceaseless Skies is one of those where the richly imagined society is a large part of the pleasure of the story. That society has sprung up around trade and a form of magic that involves names and words and the making clockwork kinds of contraptions. In the course of the story, the heroine challenges social customs, uncovers mysteries, and is forced to take powerful action that will change her life. It's a rich story, and a setting I would love to revisit in other stories.

Finally, "How Maartje and Uppinder Terraformed Mars (Marsmen Trad.)" by Lisa Nohealani Morton in Lightspeed has a wonderful mythopoeic feel to its science fictional tale of the colonists on Mars and their rebellion against Earth control. It is, in essence, a creation myth for its people, and wonderfully written one.

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