Cas' Short Slices (Reviews)
Cas' Short Slices were a series of reviews for my favorite short stories, previously posted on reddit. Each comes paired with a full length novel or novella that comes stylistically or thematically close. These are #1 to #5 (by date of posting, not ranking!).
- Selkie Stories Are For Losers, by Sofia Samatar
There are stories to read and forget. There are stories that linger in my head long after, shouting to be remembered. Then there are stories that haunt me like a ghost, that don’t need to shout for me to never let them go.
Selkie Stories… draws you into the heartbreak of a teenage girl lost in the mysteries of her broken home and the stories she tells herself to make sense of it all. It carves a window into her burgeoning relationship with her co-worker Mona and her own darknesses. In the narrator, Sofia writes pain and hope and grief and the reckless desperation only young love can bring.
Even for a short story this piece is brief, spanning a mere three thousand words. But those words pack a hell of a punch, enough to leave me breathless – and that’s a magic of its own.
Read it yourself here at Strange Horizons.
Hungry for more? Check out How To Be Both by Ali Smith, a Man Booker-nominated novel with similar themes running throughout, gorgeous prose and characters that’ll make you cry.
- Love Is Never Still, by Rachel Swirsky
Sometimes when you chase after something, you find in the end that what you’ve been looking for only exists in the figment of your imagination. Inside your head, the object takes on a life of its own until it diverges from real life. It’s always painful to realize what you wanted all along was never really there in the first place.
Rachel Swirsky takes the classic story of Galatea and Pygmalion and casts all players under scrutiny. Not just the artist and his sculptor but behind them, the affairs of Aphrodite who gave life to a statue and her contentious relations with the remaining Greek pantheon. It’s a love story, but also more than that. This story explores how nature shapes who we are, the many faces of desire and how it can change into something darker, something unpleasant.
I tend to wax over good prose but it’s such a hard quality to define, let alone master, that I have to give it mention here. The descriptions are vivid and strong, each scene painted clear without falling into the pitfall of purple prose. And these words aren’t window dressing – the author knows what she wants to say and how to say it. This story is a long one – more novelette than short story – but definitely well-worth the read.
Read it yourself here at Uncanny Magazine.
Hungry for more? Check out Glimpses by Lewis Shiner.
This is a book I really love, and it’s all but unknown in these parts. Ray works as a radio repairman in 90s’ Texas, who finds one day an album by The Doors appearing in his workshop. Only thing is, the album’s never been recorded and released. Over time, Ray learns to walk down alternate timelines into the past – where he has the possibility to change things and make a difference.
Lewis tackles difficult themes such as the obligations of someone trapped in a loveless marriage, alcoholism and the struggle not to project your needs onto others. What’s more, he does them justice.
On surface level, these two are nothing alike but the parallels are there in the characters of Ray and Pygmalion, both of them are looking for something more without knowing what it is they really want.
Want something closer to Love Is… in theme? Try Galatea, by Emily Blunt. A different take on the story, presented in the unusual form of interaction fiction. It’s well-written and considered to be one of the best in it’s genre. Available online here.
- The Dancer On The Stairs, by Sarah Tolmie
There's been a lot of clamour recently for stories that aren't entrenched in darkness and grit. We're all tired of seeing depressing things in social media, in the news. Sometimes all you want is to see a ray of light shining at the end.
Enter The Dancer... where a young woman finds herself awakening on an empty flight of stairs, stretching forever in both directions. She's thrust into another world with no preparation, not even sharing a common language with the people there. Without crichtén - the coin of the stairway - she has no way past the guards stationed on each floor. And crichtén isn't something that can be bargained for. So she wanders on, lost and hungry and desperate to learn and navigate a culture entirely alien from her own.
Why I love The Dancer... is that ultimately, it's a story about kindnesses. From the guard sympathizing with her plight to the old pilgrim sharing his knowledge of the world with someone hapless as a newborn, it tells you that while the world may be cold, it isn't cruel. There are people out there who are willing to reach out to those in want, and to extend a hand into the dark.
Read it yourself here at Strange Horizons.
Hungry for more? Check out The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. Much lauded by /r/fantasy, this book contains much the same warm tones and hope carried by The Dancer... If you haven't checked it out yet, I'm adding my voice to the chorus telling you to do so now!
- Fox Magic, by Kij Johnson
Throughout mythologies there are countless variations of the story of the changeling wife. Selkies, huldras and crane wives play on the theme of captive spirits lured into the world of men by force or trickery.
In Fox Magic, Kij Johnson allows us a glimpse of the inverse through the eyes of a kitsune, or fox maiden. The unnamed narrator grows infatuated with the master of the property on which she and her family resides. The man is married with a wife and son. She is a fox, she does not care. And in this way the story delves into the quiet horror of seeing a person trapped in a waking dream, in what another thinks is love.
The nature of magic is that it's often cruel, giving power to one and not another - easy enough to parallel in the real world. So we have to not just look but see, and realize when it's past time to let things go.
Read it yourself here at Kij Johnson's website.
Hungry for more? Check out The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld by Patricia McKillip. Though she writes with a lighter touch than Kij, Forgotten Beasts... is very much in line with the themes in this short story - how strongly magic tempts when it promises to give you your heart's desire, how affection needs to be a two-way street.
- Second Person, Present Tense by Daryl Gregory
Nobody can choose the circumstances of their own birth, and some people come into being in more unusual ways than others. Most of us create an identity for ourselves through the passing of time and gathered experience. For Terry, it's nowhere near that simple.
The moment Terry comes into existence her parents are waiting to claim her, parents she doesn't remember. The doctor informs her that the drug Zen is responsible for stripping away her knowledge of who she was. Whoever inhabited her body before the overdose, she's gone now and left Terry there in her place. And already she's started to form memories of her own, disparate from the expectations of the people calling her their daughter and wanting her back again.
Second Person... is centered around the themes of self-actualization despite the expectations of those around you. Whoever you were is unimportant, what matters is who you are in the now and in the end, it's up to you to make your identity.
Read it yourself here at Clarkesword Magazine.
Hungry for more? Check out The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker. Chava, the titular golem, comes to life during a voyage to a promised future in New York. But the one who's commissioned her dies in an unexpected manner, she's left unmoored to find her own way in a strange new city.
It's taken me a while to get through these but I really appreciate you putting this together! Hope you can put together another one of these sometime in the future when the time feels right.
Rather than spam the site with new topics, I've decided to put these up as comments on the same post. Can't edit the title, unfortunately. Pinging @xk3 since you were interested!
Cas’ Short Slices, #6 to #10
The world is strange in unexpected ways, when sometimes you find yourself slipping through invisible cracks - or in the case of this story, have something come through and find you.
For Mars, directing starts from the auditions, where he matches real people to the shadows he's cast inside his imagination. In the midst of gathering the actors for a play he's putting together, both the roles of John and Salome are being auditioned for by the same individual. They come as Joe, then Jo. They are perfect, they are as if the characters he's envisioned has come to life - they are a predator with a lure, a dangling hook that he's swallowed whole.
This was an unsettling story to read for me, like a waking dream that sets your teeth on edge. You're drawn you into Mars' head until you're as off-balance as he is, struggling not to fall. Kelley tells us there's a danger and power to stories and the stage, where illusion lies and things take shape in the dark.
Read it yourself here at Kelley Eskridge's website.
Hungry for more? Check out Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman and follow Richard into London under London as the impulsive decision to save a girl's life upturns his own. He is stranded, unable to interact with the world above, left to fend for himself against the dangers of a city he's never seen.
In the far-flung future, it’s not humans alone who have migrated away from Earth tos Irizarry boards Kadath Station, responding to a call requesting aid dealing with an infestation of a breed of extradimensional vermin. At his side is the titular Mongoose, ready for the hunt.
From the brilliance of juxtaposing Lewis Carroll with Lovecraft to the exploration of just how weird ecosystems can get out in the deep reaches of space, Monette and Bear paint vivid depictions of what lies waiting to be discovered amid the stars. But it’s Mongoose who steals the spotlight, from an alien species called the cheshire. Think of a feline eel with the ability to phase between dimensions. Intelligent, instinctive, animal and loyal – there’s nothing about her portrayal I didn’t love.
Seriously, don’t miss out on this. Two powerhouse authors working in tandem to extrapolate an uncanny future from Lovecraft’s works wasn’t something I knew I needed, but now I’m eager to devour everything I can find from this universe.
Read it yourself here at Clarkesworld Magazine.
Hungry for more? Check out Grass by Sheri S.Tepper. Aristocrats on the planet Grass practice the custom of the Hunt, an unspoken treatybinding them to the hippae, a native alien species with a passing resemblance to horses.Monstrous hounds accompany them out and each time they return the aristocrats are fewer innumber, their memories unclear. Surprisingly overlooked when it’s an easy contender to thelikes of Dune, turn the pages and you’ll find well-written characters, complex ideasand an interesting look into the development of traditions both human and inhuman.
Shimera is a female Wergen, an alien settler on the world of Langalana. In her childhood, she encounters two humans – a scientist and her nephew Phinny, whom she’s tasked with teaching their local tongue. She befriends him over the course of passing time as they explore and grow, all the while learning about their shared home and each other.
At its heart, Longing… is a story about unrequited attraction, something that may exist without either party’s desire as one person is pulled to another. For the Wergen, their relationship is coloured by a biological bond. To the Wergens, humanity exudes an aura of attraction. Intangible and encompassing their species as a whole, it isn’t something that they can resist.
And it ends in heartbreak, as such things often go. Long after Phinny has left the planet and the relationship between humanity and Wergens growing strained, Shimera is made to reconcile her childhood with a new ambassador, the son of her beloved Phinny. She tells him their story and in her blossoms a familiar ache.
Read it yourself here at Mercurio D. Rivera’s website.
Hungry for more? Check out Embassytown by China Mieville. On the pioneer planet Arieka, humanity lives alongside the indigene Hosts, where inter-species communication only takes place through paired Ambassadors sharing a single voice.
There are reasons behind what we do. Some of them are obvious as day, some we struggle to find. And some of them we won’t even admit to ourselves in the dark.
Rico’s mother is afflicted with a disease that makes it so every time someone leaves her, she thinks it’s for the last time. Still strong, but old age carries with it the promise of dying. But death is not the only option with the existence of habitat technology, where minds can be uploaded into artificial environments of their choosing. It’s an idea she rejects and one that her son can’t get out of his head, because it means he’ll get to see her again.
This was a difficult story to read, let alone write about. While unassuming, Tom’s writing comes across as clean and concise, bringing the reader’s attention straight to what’s important. Apart from its basic premise, Fragmentation… skims across a surprising number of themes: the implicit fallibility of memory, the give and forgive of love, the borders of transhumanism and more.
Read it yourself here at Clarkesworld Magazine.
Hungry for more? Check out We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. I love this novel. The main character Rosemary struggles to find herself against a blotted-out past and a hunger to reconnect with her missing brother. Though not strictly speculative, there’s a significant amount of overlap in theme and atmosphere with Fragmentation… and this. Highly recommended.
Oftentimes when the world changes, it’s a quiet one. Things don’t suddenly come to a head, instead, they carry on, going wherever they’re supposed to go.
Bears have discovered fire. Somewhere along the way, they’ve become more social creatures. The bears congregate at places where roads intersect, seeking out a new strain of berries. But though they form the title, the story really centers on the relationships between the narrator Bobby, his adolescent nephew and his dying mother. Bobby does his utmost to do right by them, giving what care and love he can at a tenuous and uncertain time.
You could say that nothing happens in this story and nobody would find fault in that. At its heart, Bears… isn’t a story about occurences. Instead, it’s a slow, deliberate contemplation about the nature of passing time and what follows: a sadness for change, but also acceptance, of what the future may bring.
Read it yourself here at Lightspeed Magazine.
Hungry for more? Check out Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. The world has ended but for the survivors, life has not. With the troupe that makes up her family, Kirsten traverses the sparse remains of civilization, in search of remnants of her remembered past.
And that's #6 to #10 done! I've got 9 more of these reviews written, which I'll put up after I sort out the formatting.
Gone and amended it for you. 👍
Thanks! Maybe you could change it to just Cas' Short Slices (Reviews) so the numbers don't need updating ^^
Sorted!