July 2024 (Issue 170)

We have original science fiction by Dominique Dickey (“The Last Lucid Day”) and Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko (“The Heist for the Soul of Humanity”). We also have two terrific flash pieces: “The Only Writing Advice You’ll Ever Need to Survive Eldritch Horrors” from Aimee Picchi and “The Aliens Said They Want to Party” by Joel William David Buxton. Plus, we have original fantasy by Vanessa Fogg (“The Red Queen’s Heart”) and Carrie Vaughn (“Between Above and Below”). We also have a flash story (“Songs of the Sorrow of Thorns”) from Amayah Perveen, and another (“A Guide on How to Meet the Deity of Many Faces”) from Oyedotun Damilola Muees. All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with book reviews from our terrific review team.

Cover art by Madison Brake

July 2024 (Issue 170)

Editorial

Editorial: July 2024

by John Joseph Adams

Be sure to read the editorial for a rundown of this month’s content!

Science Fiction

The Last Lucid Day

by Dominique Dickey

Author spotlight

You’re asleep in dreams of your father holding your head underwater, so the call from Magnolia Assisted Living goes to voicemail. “I didn’t raise a son of mine to count on his fingers,” your father says in the dream—because ah, yes, it’s all of your worst moments rolled into a single nightmare. You hear the beeping of your alarm and you know you’re dreaming, but you can’t wake up any more than you can pull yourself free of your father’s hands.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Dominique Dickey

by John Joseph Adams

I did a lot of digging into the idea of “closure” and how looking for closure can become detrimental. It doesn’t matter how smart or well-adjusted you are. Like a dog chasing a bird, you can chase closure right over the edge of a cliff. The narrator of “The Last Lucid Day” is someone who has done the homework: He’s likely been in years of therapy; he knows the language of complex trauma, parental neglect, attachment styles, and so on.

Fantasy

Songs of the Sorrow of Thorns

by Amayah Perveen

The ballads of grief are sung in the moonlight. You were a minute old when you knew this story predates your mother’s mother’s mother’s birth. But the knowledge within was older still, notched inside you like food through the umbilical cord. And there it had coiled since you were but a seed, pulsating under your navel and releasing into the air on the sharp crescendo of your first cry on the eighth of Shaʽbān. The window panes shattered. The town mourned.

Science Fiction

The Only Writing Advice You’ll Ever Need to Survive Eldritch Horrors

by Aimee Picchi

1. Second Person POV: You’re a good person, although your ex doesn’t believe it—and here you are, writing in the second person, which your ex says is a limiting, even off-putting POV, simply to get his attention, to tell him your side of the story. Your boyfriend broke up with you last week after confessing he had doubts about your character. What really hurts is that since the breakup, he’s left your emails and texts unread.

Nonfiction

Book Review: The House Where Death Lives, edited by Alex Brown

by Arley Sorg

If you’re looking for an innovative take on haunted house stories, Arley Sorg recommends The House Where Death Lives, edited by Alex Brown.

Fantasy

The Red Queen’s Heart

by Vanessa Fogg

Author spotlight

Anything can be bought or sold at the Night Market. A dozen hummingbird tongues curled like tiny snails, basted in honey and chili oil and served on a silver tray. A mermaid’s song, caught in an antique bottle of smoked glass. A gleaming dagger carved from the ivory of the last true unicorn-whale. Gowns of moonlight and mist, trimmed with sea-foam lace. The lost diaries of one’s youth.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Vanessa Fogg

by John Joseph Adams

I love night markets, and I love magical market stories. So of course I wanted one day to write one myself! I was also thinking about parenthood, about the baggage that we bring to it, about learning to be open and present even when that’s really hard. About vulnerability and defensiveness in general. And about the inevitable calluses that we acquire through life, the armor that we don to survive.

Science Fiction

The Heist for the Soul of Humanity

by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko

Author spotlight

The simulation blossomed around Nadja Gavrić like a hypercube unpacking itself into three dimensions. The plain metal floors of the Roses’ cargo bay turned the shiny white of faux marble. The walls closed in, became a circular chamber. Display cases sprang up around the perimeter. Nadja stumbled backward when her right arm suddenly joined an exhibit of Cometborne funerary instruments.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko

by John Joseph Adams

I googled “how to structure a heist” and got a lot of “here are the one hundred and nineteen essential plot beats for a heist,” so that was a dead end, because I don’t believe in more than, I don’t know, two plot beats at a time. So then I watched a bunch of heist stuff in the hope that it would all just sort of passively pervade my mind. The Thomas Crown Affair, Leverage, and so on.

Nonfiction

Book Review: The Melancholy of Untold History by Minsoo Kang

by Aigner Loren Wilson

If you’re looking for a complex story about a fascinating realm, be sure to check out The Melancholy of Untold History, Minsoo Kang’s debut novel.

Fantasy

A Guide on How to Meet the Deity of Many Faces

by Oyedotun Damilola Muees

Here’s a list of items/materials you need for this journey. Please note that these items vary from the purpose of your meeting. Below is a breakdown. — If you have suffered hurt from a miscreant, plunderer, been swindled in trade, or assaulted in any manner, this section is for you. Buy either a three-month-old native brown broiler or a seven-year-old he-goat.

Science Fiction

The Aliens Said They Wanted to Party

by Joel W. D. Buxton

It was close to midnight on the second day of Diwali when we got the message. From deep space—far out past the Kuiper Belt and Pluto, which is not a planet anymore and probably pissed about it—a radio signal penetrated the atmosphere and reached our big-ass dishes in the desert made for this type of thing. Props to NASA, they only took four hours to decode the encryption algorithm.

Nonfiction

Book Review: Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-il Kim (translated by Anton Hur)

by Chris Kluwe

If you’re hungry to read about a decaying empire, batteries made from dead sorcerers, and a battle between a giant mech and a dragon, then Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-il Kim (translated by Anton Hur) is probably for you.

Fantasy

Between Above and Below

by Carrie Vaughn

Author spotlight

Next war, the angel decided, he was going to sit out. Before the dust settled, before hosts rose and fell depending on their actions and inclinations, he fled. Cowardice, maybe. More like pragmatism, he rationalized.

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Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Carrie Vaughn

by John Joseph Adams

Unlike many of my stories, this had a specific inspiration—I was hiking a new-to-me trail in Rocky Mountain National Park, which is near where I live. I found the most amazing, peaceful spot—a kind of still murky pond with lily pads, and a nearby grove of aspens—it was autumn, the leaves had fallen, so the trail was carpeted with gold, and the bare branches reached up to a bright blue sky. It felt like a refuge—a good place to hide.