It’s been a busy August in real life, with a family getaway, a couple celebrations, and the beginning of school. But I’ve been plugging along in my reading, and I’ve found some great fiction. Do I say that every month? Pretty much yeah. But I read enough to make it true. Let’s get to it, starting with short fiction!

Short Fiction

August Favorites

As usual, I reviewed Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus, and both “The Sort” and “Something Crossing Over, Something Coming Back” would fit just fine in this category.

• “A Lullaby of Anguish” (2024 short story) by Marie Croke. An emotionally-charged story on voyeurism in tragedy, told from the perspective of someone who profited from it in her youth, as she and her sister try to forget their past, even knowing that the past has a way of reinserting itself.
• “Another Old Country” (2024 short story) by Nadia Radovich. A mashup of folktales from two different cultures that seem to be recurring in the life of a contemporary teenager in a world a bit more magical than our own, where words spill from lips in colors determined by language. I’m not usually one for retellings, but this is engrossing as it is disorienting, and even if I’m not exactly sure how every piece fits in place, I’m looking forward to returning to it.
• “Cretins” (2023 short story) by Thomas Ha. I read a lot of Thomas Ha, but I don’t read a lot of weird horror, and this one slipped my notice. It shouldn’t have–this is a really tremendous story, building a slow and unsettling narrative about living with a science-fictional chronic illness before escalating into something even darker. It’s creepy and deeply thematic and has a real punch of an ending. There’s not much not to like; I’m mostly just disappointed in my social media feeds for not shoving it in my face when it came out.

Strong Contenders

• “I’ll Miss Myself” (2024 short story) by John Wiswell. A very Wiswell sort of story, using the multiverse for group therapy while trying to steer clear of the algorithm’s resistance to true healing. Uplifting and timely, but without quite the punch I’ve seen in others from him.
• “The Rerebirth of Slick” (2024 short story) by Stephen Kearse. Reads like a prose poem, littered with Black pop culture references of which I’m sure I get no more than half. It’s one of those stories that I’m not quite sure how to process, but I can tell it has ambition and power. I see a glimpse, but I think there’s more underneath.
• “The Last Lucid Day” (2024 short story) by Dominique Dickey. The story of a last days of a father both hated and loved, with all the complicated memories involved.
• “The Tangle (Did Not Kill Kitsault)” (2024 short story) by K.A. Wiggins. A fascinatingly strange story structure telling of an uncanny something-or-other in a company town on the border of Alaska and British Columbia. One of the characters is particular frustrating, and I’m not sure the story pulls together for one cohesive impression, but it was certainly a good read.
• “Nine Billion Turing Tests” (2024 novelette) by Chris Willrich. It’s a “man and his AI with the world coming apart” sort of story, with climate disaster and the added wrinkle of a fairly antisocial lead struggling to move on from his wife’s death.
• “When We Make it to Bet-Zelem” (2024 flash fiction) by Louis Evans. Flash doesn’t often stick with me, but there are a lot of heartbreaking images here, along with an exploration of the stories we tell. It doesn’t have long to build, but it’s an excellent finish.
• “I Am Not the One Who Gets Left Behind” (2024 short story) by Eric Smith. A “parenting in an alien invasion” story that uses the “disability helps you stay alive” trope that I’d seen used to great effect in A Quiet Place. It’s heartfelt and delightfully tense, though I’d have liked to see a lot more context for why the main challenge of the tale was so important.

Others I Enjoyed in August

• “Joanna’s Bodies” (2024 novelette) by Eugenia Triantafyllou. A deeply unhealthy friendship slowly revealed through a series of possessions of various bodies, mixed with flashbacks to the time when both characters still possessed their own.
• “The Fragrant Sky” (2024 short story) by Ng Yi-Sheng. A short piece about local legends and secrets kept from conquerors.
• “The Angel’s Share” (2024 novelette) by Martin Cahill. A story about vengeance and the ways in which it can become all-consuming. Not one that surprises with the twists and turns, but it executes its theme well.
• “Father Ash” (2024 short story) by Rachel Hartman. This one sucked me in immediately with an opening that promised a major memory loss plot before turning into something more resembling a traditional fairy tale, though a well-executed one.
• “Where the Water Came From” (2024 novelette) by Jeff Hewitt. A story about the loss of family after long-term space travel, while at the same time a labor strike story in space. Shows some flashes of brilliance, but the ending needed a little more time to breathe.
• “Our Lady of the Clay” (2024 short story) by Daniela Tomova. A fairy tale featuring children in an abusive household risking their lives in search of a creature of magic to reverse tragedy.
• “An Isle in a Sea of Ghosts” (2024 novelette) by J.A. Prentice. A pair of women work together to complete the final leg of a dangerous journey to find the magic that may heal their loved ones, but find that the magic isn’t all they need to heal from their own traumas.
• “Doorbell dot mov” (2024 short story) by Jennifer R. Donahue. A very short ghost story, bordering on flash, that digs into grief and survivor’s guilt but relies a bit too heavily for my preference on the closing line.

Novels and Novellas

Reviews Posted

• The Mercy of Gods (2024 novel) by James S.A. Corey. A classic alien invasion series-starter, building slowly with plenty of academic backbiting before the survival storyline kicks in.
• Till We Have Faces (1956 novel) by C.S. Lewis. I put this one off for ages because it’s a myth retelling with a reputation for density, but it’s honestly extremely readable until the fever dream of a final 20%. It’s also skillfully told and thematically complex. Probably the best book I’ve read this year.
• Desdemona and the Deep (2019 novella) by C.S.E. Cooney and The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe (2016 novella) by Kij Johnson. A rare novella review two-pack, with a pair of 2010s quest narratives with strong prose and plenty of theme.
• In Other Lands (2017 novel) by Sarah Rees Brennan. A mashup of portal fantasy tropes and high school tropes, a coming-of-age romance in which a prickly tween with a strong moral compass learns to treat real people as well as theoretical ones.
• Sky Full of Elephants (2024 novel) by Cebo Campbell. A post-apocalyptic road trip novel in which the apocalypse is generally good for Black people, prompting thorny questions about how best to heal from racial trauma.

Other August Reads

• Alien Clay (2024 novel) by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Part first contact, part labor revolt, set on a planet whose environment is weird in a way that calls to mind something like Annihilation, only with the expectation that there are answers to be had. Full review to come very shortly (probably tomorrow).
• The Daughters’ War (2024 novel) by Christopher Buehlman. A war story with a bit of family drama inside, this prequel to The Blacktongue Thief is skillfully told but with appeal primarily to fans of military fantasy. Full review to come.
• The Warm Hands of Ghosts (2024 novel) by Katherine Arden. Yet another war story, but this one with a very different audience. It’s a tale of finding family and sorting through the psychological trauma of the horrors of war, with a ghost story folded in that has plenty in common with Fae stories. Full review to come.
• Lifelode (2009 novel) by Jo Walton. A family drama in large part from the perspective of a character with an unusual relationship with time, told entirely in the present tense (even in flashback scenes) and featuring lead characters who would be pushed to the margins of most fantasy. A wonderful setup that could’ve used a bit more development in the conclusion. Full review to come.
• Haunt Sweet Home (2024 novella) by Sarah Pinsker. A ghost story on a reality show, but in the “ghosts are pushing the main character to get her life in order” sort of way. A quick read with a gripping setup, though the supernatural elements don’t bring the atmosphere I typically expect from Pinsker. Full review to come.
• The Mountain Crown (2024 novella) by Karin Lowachee. A pacifist people with a deep connection to nature (particularly dragons) is conquered by a colonizing empire trying to exploit every resource. The tension in knowing how to fight back provides a clear setup for a series plot, but this story is mostly focused on individual healing and preventing the empire from exploiting one dragon in particular. Full review to come.

SPSFC

We’re getting started for the fourth Self-Published Science Fiction Competition, and if anyone wants to judge with me (do be warned: it’s a lot of reading), the form is open. Book submissions will start September 2.

Misc.

The Hugo Award winners were announced this month! Most of the final stage voting went according to expectations, with Naomi Kritzer winning a pair of awards for some excellent short fiction in “The Year Without Sunshine” and “Better Living Through Algorithms,” both of which appeared on my favorites list in 2023.

I’m always excited to see the longlist, as it’s often full of terrific fiction that just missed getting the kind of buzz that would result in finalist positions. This year, my favorites list was best represented in the Best Novelette list, with nothing in the “just missed” positions but “On the Fox Roads,” “Introduction to the 2181 Overture, Second Edition,” and “The Year Without Sunshine” all in finalist positions. I also found lots to like on the Best Novel longlist, with The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (finalist), Starling House, and He Who Drowned the World.

I was very down on the Best Novella category this year, but The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar was a terrific novella that at least made the longlist, even if none of my favorites were shortlisted. And Best Short Story saw two items from my favorites list, winner “Better Living Through Algorithms” and my personal story of the year “Day Ten Thousand” falling an agonizing two votes short of a finalist position.

With the close of Hugo voting, my r/Fantasy Hugo Readalong has paused for the year, and Short Fiction Book Club has started again–always a wonderful venue to talk about short stories that are so often overshadowed by novels in online discussion.