February has come and gone, but it left behind some excellent short stories. This month is a random assortment with no unifying themes. I’ve got dystopian drones, skeleton boyfriends, gift-giving birds, rundown tourist attractions, living dead girls, ghosts, gods, and philosophical debates on morality and ethics.
“BUDDY RAYMOND’S NO-BULLSHIT GUIDE TO DRONE HUNTING” by Gillian Secord
Set in the years after USians conquered the Canucks, this story is written in the style of a brochure. It contains tips for how to find and disable a variety of drones, from ones used by rich assholes for hunting for sport, surveillance drones, and military hunting drones not-so-affectionately called OH SHIT drones. On behalf of all Americans, I want to apologize in advance for our impending invasion and takeover of Canada. (Diabolical Plots, February 2, 2024; #108A)
“The Color of Wings” by Riley Tao
“Momma says there’s no girl in the barn, that feathers ain’t fingers and caws aren’t words, but the girl gives me gifts and I know that she’s real.” Although short, Riley Tao’s story got its hooks in me. A young boy talks to what he believes is a girl who lives in a barn but who everyone else says is a bird. A sad little story about loneliness and loss. (Cast of Wonders, February 29, 2024; #576)
“Evan: A Remainder” by Jordan Kurella
Evan is a trans man who starts hormones during covid lockdown in 2020. He also starts coughing up bones. His husband leaves him, his new boyfriend dumps him, his neighbor friend stops coming over. Evan’s collection of bones grows. I’m trans and genderqueer and sometimes I also feel like I’m coughing up the bones of the person I wanted to become. I loved that this story felt both true and like a metaphor all at once. (Reactor, January 31, 2024)
“First Girls” by Jessica Luke García
“We’re only the beginning. The motion picture reel, unreeling. Our heads will roll before the credits do. We won’t make it to the end.” A lot of to-do is made over the Final Girl—Stephen Graham Jones has a whole book series about her—but the First Girl is often ignored or derided. She deserves what she gets or she’s cannon fodder. She’s not clever or tough enough to survive. The rest of the cast learns from her mistakes. Jessica Luke García gives her a voice here in a twist on a classic horror trope. (Nightmare Magazine, February 2024; issue 137)
“The Ghost on the Server” by Gregory Neil Harris
A couple, Ori and Illy, are trying to scrape enough resources and creds together to get off their space station. Instead, Ori makes a trade for an implant that turns out to be connected to ancient alien tech. I’m always a fan of dystopian space stations and the ragamuffin underdogs making bad choices who live on them. This was a well thought out world. (IZ Digital, February 2024)
“Lost in the Central Stacks” by Laurence Raphael Brothers
I’m a librarian by day, so of course I was going to pick this library-centered story. Our narrator works with the booktrains in the main branch of the New York Public Library. The tracks run through the abandoned central stacks, which is where books keep going missing. Our narrator investigates and finds something a little frightening and a whole lot curious. In each issue, Translunar Travelers Lounge groups several stories together under food categories. This one fits perfectly under Basque cake. It’s got a crunchy outside that belies the sweet softness inside. (Translunar Travelers Lounge, February 2024; issue 10)
“Of Flowing Stone, of Liquid Gold, of Justice, Ash, and Battle” by Malda Marlys
“You are a young god.” Malda Marlys recounts the very long life of a god with eir thoughtful story. The god grows more powerful and beloved during times of war but never forgets the consequences of that violence on their people. Corruption, devotion, rage, forgiveness, all are experienced by the god and its people. What made this piece work so well for me was the use of second person POV. Something about it made the whole thing click into place. (Strange Horizons, February 5, 2024)
“Patience Is the Virtue” by Aimee Ogden
Caroline is alive but she does not live. After an illness, her husband, Howard, did some creepy Frankenstein surgery on her and transferred her brain into a human-sized, lifelike doll. Her life is now narrowed down to whatever her unblinking eyes can see. He calls what he did—without her knowledge or consent—the gift of immortality; if she was allowed to speak, she’d call it a living nightmare. A chilling slice of patriarchal horror. (Weird Horror, Spring 2024; issue 8)
“Welcome aboard the Silva family historic spaceside attraction tour” by Carol Scheina
Inspired by Earth-bound roadside attractions, Carol Scheina’s story is set among the stars. Our tour guide takes a group around to several attractions set on a disused travel route between stations. Teleportation killed the spaceside attraction industry and with it the Silva family business. It’s a light story that gives you the kind of nostalgia-tinged sadness you get when you remember all the little inconsequential things we lost to the churn of modernization and efficiency, like the time lady and moviefone, that satisfying click you hear when you turn a dial on an old television, those brightly colored clear plastic covers on computers, and of course mid-century roadside attractions. (Nature: Futures, February 14, 2024)
“Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” by Isabel J. Kim
Putting my reputation on the line by admitting that I’ve never read “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” or anything by Ursula K. Le Guin (not for any particular reason, I just don’t especially care). I am also not up on the trend of people reimagining or “fixing” Le Guin’s take on the trolley problem. Given all that, it may be a surprise to find Isabel J. Kim’s Omelas twist on my spotlight, but here we are. The premise is exactly what it says on the tin: while most citizens of Omelas are satisfied with the ethical conundrum of leaving a child to suffer alone so the rest of society can live consequence-free, and while some feel so aggrieved they leave town, a few decide to take matters into their own hands by killing the child. No one knows where the children come from—and no one ever suggests just rescuing the kid and taking them out of Omelas—but with each murder a new one is produced and dropped into the pit of despair. The internet got into a huff about this story, but I enjoyed it. What it asks of its audience and what it doesn’t makes for a compelling read. (Clarkesworld, February 2024; issue 209)
