In my first two months of Magazine Minis—where I review a few stories from a particular magazine, even if I haven’t read the entire issue—I’ve collected groups of stories that were at least published in the same issue. But some magazines don’t publish multi-story issues at all. And just because a venue publishes one story a week instead of four stories a month isn’t cause for me to skip over them. So today, I’m going to look at three short stories from the fantasy magazine and podcast Podcastle and three novelettes from Hugo-winning Strange Horizons. All six were published in 2024, but apart from that, I’m skipping around with what draws my eye.
Podcastle
I honestly hadn’t read Podcastle in over a year until a new multi-year spreadsheet and a few pivot tables told me that even if I don’t care for one of their sister publications, I actually have enjoyed Podcastle quite a bit in the past. And one of my Short Fiction Book Club friends was quick with a recommendation for a real eye-catcher from this summer: Ecdysis by Samir Sirk Morató. Ecdysis is part fairy tale subversion and part exploration of complicated family dynamics, with the brave heroine facing down the monster entirely in the backstory and the main story being all about living with the fallout.
The monster in this case was a giant sea snake, and in facing him down, the narrator made him human and made him her husband. But losing the only life he’d known isn’t easy on her husband, and while his family seems happy with the results, the lead has some qualms about her relationship with the in-laws. It’s a fascinating dive into social expectations and family dynamics that does a fantastic job really digging into the theme in a short space. That it’s compelling as a fairy tale subversion almost feels like a bonus, but this one is engaging, thematic, and well-characterized.
I’ve always had a soft spot for time travel stories, and I’ve been reading a surprising number of grief stories this year—with many landing among my favorites—so Roti Time Travel by Joshua Lim was always going to find its way onto my list. It’s story of grief turned to obsession, with the main character quite literally living in memory and unable to move on with his life. That’s not an especially unusual take on the topic, but it’s well told and a worthwhile read.
Good Fortune for a Beloved Child by Alexia Tolas is another one where the general shape of the plot isn’t difficult to guess, but it’s told well enough to be a quality read regardless. This one tells of an adopted daughter watching her brother be taken by a sea monster (also a theme in this review, it seems), and navigating the complicated swirl of feelings in her town, her family, and even within herself. What she ultimately discovers will be familiar to experienced genre readers, but her journey remains plenty compelling.
Strange Horizons
Like in the last section, I’m going to lead with my favorite, and what in fact may be my favorite novelette of the entire year: The Aquarium for Lost Souls by Natasha King. It’s a disorienting tale with more than a whiff of slipstream and a tremendous opening, featuring a woman repeatedly navigating unspace with a mortal wound and the embodiment of the Pacific Ocean as a sometimes ally and sometimes enemy. It’s a wild and thoroughly gripping setup.
But for all the audacity of the setting, it’s ultimately a very personal, human story (regular readers of the blog, try to contain your shock) about the lead coming to grasp the chasm between her best interests and her husband’s wishes for her, and how that clash has led to all of the many layers of her current peril. The heart of the story—of a woman beginning to realize the toxic elements of her marriage—is a familiar one, though no less important for its familiarity. But the storytelling is truly exceptional, with a bizarre-but-vivid setting, a compelling secondary character with its own interests and goals, and a delivery that sinks its hooks into the reader from the very first sentence and doesn’t let go until after the story is through. Read this.
It’s going to be hard for the rest of the novelettes in this review to live up to that one, but I still read a pair that I found both interesting and engaging. By Salt, by Sea, by Light of Stars by Premee Mohamed tells of a wizard trying to hide the loss of her magic from those around her, only to be handed an unexpected apprentice the very year the town under her protection is threatened by the peak of the mating cycle of the dangerous beasts in its coastal waters. It’s not a story that lets the lead off the hook for her deceit, but neither is it one that paints her a villain entire, as she truly seeks to mentor an unwanted apprentice even while hiding her own frailty. And while there’s more internal conflict than external, it’s a compelling story with plenty of fantasy danger to supplement the interpersonal plot.
Finally, The Three-Jeweled by Kathy Chao delivers an engaging Ming Dynasty fable, as a eunuch with a brilliant mind for invention adopts three orphan daughters and covertly trains them for the conflict he sees inevitably coming—often without their awareness at all. It’s told in first-person plural, such that the narrators run together while their father springs to life. And while the plot contrivances may lean more to the fabulist than the realist, it provides an engrossing narrative and a compelling finish.
November Favorites
- The Aquarium for Lost Souls by Natasha King (novelette, Strange Horizons)
- Ecdysis by Samir Sirk Morató (short story, Podcastle)