Queer*Welten is a queer-feminist fantasy and scifi magazine, edited by Judith Vogt, Kathrin Dodenhoeft and Lena Richter. Issue 5 contains three short stories and an essay.
Finished on: 5.10.2021
[Here are my reviews of the other issues.]
I’m really happy with my Queer*Welten subscription. Each magazine is different in tone and style, and there’s always something to discover. There’s really nothing more you could hope for.
The Trouble with Time Travel is a short story collection edited by Catherine Valenti and Laurie Gienapp.
Finished on: 6.7.2021
[I won this book in a LibraryThing Early Reviewer give-away.]
I like time travel stories, so this anthology sounded very nice. As usual with anthologies, the quality between stories varies a little, though overall I’d say that it is pretty good, albeit not great, here. Definitely good enough to check it out – you’ll probably finde one or the other story you like here.
Queer*Welten is a queer-feminist fantasy and scifi magazine, edited by Judith Vogt, Kathrin Dodenhoeft and Lena Richter. Issue 2 contains three short stories, a comic and an essay.
Finished on: 22.6.2021
[Here’s my review of the first issue.]
Queer*Welten again offers us a broad range of what SFF has to offer, though in this issue, I think I liked the essay best. The three stories weren’t bad, but just didn’t work for me as well as the essay. The comic that was included isn’t actually part of the SFF spectrum, but it fits the mission of the magazine, so I didn’t mind that. Looking forward to the next issue.
Love Bite is a short story by Azure (available here).
Finished on: 10.6.2021
Plot:
Mercy and Brooke have been dating for a while, but recently Brooke has been going through some changes, turning into a vampire due to a genetic condition. Alienated from her own body and unwilling to drink blood, she has been a cause of worry for Mercy. But Mercy has a plan to get her girlfriend back in touch with herself and her needs. All she needs is a bit of creativity and kink.
Love Bite is a kinky short story with a nice sense of humor and really lovely characters. I was a little disappointed that it’s only a short story – I wouldn’t have minded to spend more time with Mercy and Brooke (kinky or otherwise). The two are just a lovely couple and so vividly brought to life in just those few pages. I loved that Mercy is trans and that her body is described so lovingly. I also really enjoyed this take on vampirism and the artful connections that are made between the lore and BDSM. In short, this story is a whole lot of fun. I can only recommend it.
Queer*Welten is a queer-feminist fantasy and scifi magazine, edited by Judith Vogt, Kathrin Dodenhoeft and Lena Richter. It contains four short stories and an essay.
Finished on: 14.2.2021
Queer*Welten fills a gap in the German SFF scene by having an explicitely queer-feminist mission. That in itself would be reason enough to support it any way you can. But fortunately it’s not all the magazine has to offer – it gives us a wide range of stories that probably has something to offer for everyone.
Misspelled is a short story collection edited by Julie E. Czerneda.
Finished on: 5.2.2021
Misspelled is an anthology with stories all about spells that go wrong somehow. The stories are all humorous in tone, but, as usual, not all of them work equally well. Each story in this collection is introduced by a narrator who also comments on it at the end – a bit like an MC. I found that a little irritating, but not so much that it actually bothered me. Overall, the collection didn’t blow me away, though I liked more stories than I didn’t like.
Read more about each of the stories after the jump.
Continue readingRecognize Fascism is a short story collection edited by Crystal M. Huff.
Finished on: 17.1.2021
[I won this book in an LibraryThing Early Review Give-Away.]
The title of this collection is well chosen – all the stories revolve around fascism, recognizing it, fighting it, preventing it, getting out of it. In their introduction to this collection, Huff notes they were uncertain if they could edit it – whether they knew enough about fascism to do so. But they point out the problem with fascism in a very clear way:
Fascists foster uncertainty in order to undermine the ground you stand on when you declare, “This is fascist.” It’s akin to developing a political Impostor Syndrome, until you are second-guessing yourself at each turn. Fascism evades and evolves, such that you can’t exactly pinpoint it. It is a moving target. It gaslights. If you are unclear about what it is and can’t put your finger on it, pushing back against it is so much more difficult! Fascists then weaponize this confusion to secure your acquiescence.
So, they need not have worried about that, and it shows in the stories they collected that show a broad range of SciFi and Fantasy settings that all come back to the central theme. It is also an excellent example for feminist practice by using clear and extensive content notes for each story, so props for that as well (I will therefore not use Content Notes in this review, unless I discuss something in detail). Altogether, it’s an anthology that is very consistent in its high quality and I really enjoyed reading it.
[Read more about each of the stories after the jump.]
Continue readingMagical Meanderings is a short story collection by Irene Radford, some published under the names Rachel Atwood, C.F. Bentley and Phyllis Ames, and some written in cooperation with Bob Brown.
Finished on: 31.12.2020
[I won this book in a LibraryThing Early Reviewer contest.]
The collection gives us a broad variety of stories, showing how prolific a writer Radford is. Some of the stories are connected to novels she has written, which have a tendency to be unclear for the uninitiated like me. I have to say that while I enjoyed some stories, and didn’t enjoy some others, overall I didn’t fall in love with any of them. Despite the great variety here, I don’t think I will check out more of Radford’s works.
Read more about each of the stories after the jump.
Continue readingSword of Destiny is the second short story collection in the Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski. I read the English translation by David French.
Finished on: 6.8.2020
[Here’s my review of the first short story collection/novel in the series.]
After the pleasant surprise that was The Last Wish for me, I was really looking forward to delving further into this world. Sword of Destiny, unfortunately, didn’t work quite as well for me as The Last Wish. It focused too much on Yennefer who is exactly the kind of female character in a dudebro fantasy that I was afraid the Witcher series would be full of. Still, overall. I did enjoy the collection and since it was actually written before The Last Wish, here’s to hoping that the rest of the books (that I’ll certainly read) will continue the upward trend.
Read more about each of the stories after the jump!
Continue readingThe Last Wish is the first short story collection/novel in the Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski. I read the English translation by Danusia Stok.
Finished on: 3.2.2020
Plot:
After a mission that injured him, Geralt the Witcher has sought refuge in the temple of Melitele where the head priestess Nenneke takes care of him. While there, Geralt remembers other missions he had and gets a visit from the poet Dandelion, his closest friend. But the local prince doesn’t want Geralt to stay and puts pressure on him and Nenneke to make sure that he leaves town.
I have to admit that I was a little hesitant about reading The Witcher novels because it seemed like such dude-bro fantasy to me – and I mostly avoid that subgenre. But I was very pleasantly surprised by this first book in the series. It’s a very good read.
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