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Abstraction Is When I Design Giant Death Creatures and Attraction Is When I Do It for You by Claire Jia-Wen

Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · 16d

Abstraction Is When I Design Giant Death Creatures and Attraction Is When I Do It For a you, by Claire Jia-Wen in Clarkesworld. I'm not gonna lie, I expected something light and funny with that title, and instead it ripped my heart out. Outstanding.
clarkesworldmagazine.com/jia-wen_09_25/

Clarkesworld Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine and Podcast.

clarkesworldmagazine.com

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Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · 17d

Silence, in the Doorway, with the Gun, by Nadia Radovich in Flash Fiction Online. Nature and nurture, lady knights and redos. Fun, sharp, and sad until it isn't.
www.flashfictiononline.com/article/sile...

Silence, in the Doorway, with the Gun

The titular character of the thirteenth-century Le Roman de Silence is born female, at a time when women cannot inherit. To avoid disinheriting his child, Silence’s father raises him as a son. Pers…

www.flashfictiononline.com

Beneath Ceaseless Skies - The Nature of Spells, the Nature of Children by Aimee Ogden

Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · 18d

The Nature of Spells, the Nature of Children, by Aimee Ogden in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. A fascinating, fresh, and ruthless take on Beauty and the Beast. Absolutely stunning.
www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-...

"Go mind your sisters and your brother," Jeanne-Marie tells her. The girl would have had a decent life, before the curse damned them all to this mortal Hell. A roof over her head, enough food to eat—m...

www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com

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Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · 20d

Five Hundred Defects, by Michael Zahniser in Small Wonders. A lovely and fierce story about a QA robot on the lam. Has a lot to say about purpose and care and sentience.
smallwondersmag.com/piece/five-h...

Five Hundred Defects - Small Wonders

You’ll hunt me down, of course. Humans will play it for laughs: “Inspection robot goes haywire, starts inspecting everything!”

smallwondersmag.com

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Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · 21d

Home is Where the Heart Rests, by Chidera Anikpe in Translunar Travelers Lounge. I'm not sure I have the vocabulary to describe it, but it's beautiful and tender and wrenching. An excellent read.
translunartravelerslounge.com/2025/08/15/h...

Home is Where the Heart Rests, by Chidera Anikpe

First, there was Ànyasi; the darkness; an endless void of nothingness. And then there was Àghará; Chaos; atoms spontaneously bursting into being; an existence with no progenitor. And then there was…

Gifted and Talented - Small Wonders

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Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · 25d

Gifted and Talented, by Marika Bailey in Small Wonders. A wonderfully creative take on neuroatypicality and understanding with beautiful prose and some verses.
smallwondersmag.com/piece/gifted...

Being beyond time is a revolution against creation most bodies aren’t built to bear. It’ll kill you, that dark matter time.

smallwondersmag.com

The Last Wills and Testaments of Captain Kolhe, by Abhijeet Sathe

Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · 26d

The Last Wills and Teatamenta of Captain Kolhe, by Abhijeet Sathe in Translunar Travelers Lounge. A privateer captain is summoned over and over again. Lovely, understated but powerful, and impeccably constructed.
translunartravelerslounge.com/2025/08/15/t...

The first man to summon me is Whitney, my boatswain on the Dharini. This is how I learn that Virat didn’t cremate me. My body still lies on the white sand of our cove, rotting in the turquoise wate…

The Significance Cofactor

Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · Sep 2

The Significance Cofactor, by H.H. Pak in khōréō. I don't want to give too much away, but this is extremely good.
www.khoreomag.com/fiction/the-...

Your children love you. They cry as you leave with promises of souvenirs. You need to catch your flight. Ah, but their runny faces as you get in the car—I do not look. You’re raising them well. The g...

www.khoreomag.com

Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · Aug 22

Real Housewives of the Intergalactic, by HJ Ramsay in Translunar Travelers Lounge. A soccer mom inadvertently ends up providing childcare to an alien whole keeping it secret from the government. Very fun and very touching!
translunartravelerslounge.com/2025/08/15/r...

Real Housewives of the Intergalactic, by HJ Ramsay

The spacecraft crashed when I was taking my six-year-old son to what had to be the most chaotic soccer organization north of Sacramento.

Yarn as Warm as Dragon’s Breath, by Amanda Saville

Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · Aug 21

Yarn as Warm as Dragon's Breath, by Amanda Saville in Translunar Travelers Lounge. A sweet portrait of grief and a dragon, with knitting and a dragon and sisterhood and a dragon and did I mention the dragon, which I love?
translunartravelerslounge.com/2025/08/15/y...

After surviving yet another day of feigning pleasantness for clients and coworkers, the small, pink, pearlescent dragon sitting on Lily’s doorstep felt like one more damn problem.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies - The Forgotten by Trae Hawkins

Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · Aug 20

The Forgotten, by Trae Hawkins in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Sometimes I wonder if amnesia can be effectly deployed in short fiction, because it works best, to me, when in conversation with what is forgotten. So basically this story nailed it.
www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-...

And though you are aware of your mind’s steady emptying, you recognize that you have come this far, to this land so cold and unforgiving, to support a life you detest. You recognize that, like the For...

www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com

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Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · Aug 18

Deliverance, by Elena Sichrovsky in Translunar Travelers Lounge. Heaven comes to Earth and everyone bears the consequences. Intriguing worldbuilding and I love where it ends.
translunartravelerslounge.com/2025/08/15/d...

Deliverance, by Elena Sichrovsky

My grandma used to say “every terrible thing will fade when that blessed day comes, my dear.” Now that it’s finally happening my only comfort is that she isn’t around to be disappointed.

But Depart Into The Wild Mountains — Baffling Magazine

Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · Aug 3

But Depart Into the Wild Mountains, by Caro Jansen in Baffling Magazine. A different take on extermination and The Metamorphosis. A delight, full of details to make things feel lived-in.
www.bafflingmag.com/issue-twenty...

by Caro Jansen “Another house, another husband opening the door.”

Libra Season — Baffling Magazine

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Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · Aug 2

Libra Season by Gillian Knox in Baffling Magazine. The one where it's always really hard to figure out what to do tonight. Understated but nails the landing.
www.bafflingmag.com/issue-twenty...

by Gillian Knox “We’ve always traveled in packs. Us fair ones.”

Best Face Forward — Baffling Magazine

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Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · Aug 1

Best Face Forward, by Nigel Faustino in Baffling Magazine. An excellent materialization of a familiar feeling, along with just a tinge of body horror.
www.bafflingmag.com/issue-twenty...

by Nigel Faustino “This face is all wrong, and Althea has barely set it flat before she begins the agony of cutting it right back off.”

a woman holding a cupcake with the words good for her above her

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Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · Jul 31

Also:

Alt: Gif from Arrested Development of a woman holding a cupcake and saying "Good for her."

media.tenor.com

Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · Jul 31

Things You Learn As A Werewolf (That Will Come In Handy Later), by Morgan Wilson in Baffling Magazine. Is there a term for this hybrid epistolary-narrative format? It's one of my favorite things, and Wilson pulls it off effortlessly, knowing exactly what to say and what to leave unsaid.

Things You Learn As A Werewolf (That Will Come In Handy Later) — Baffling Magazine

by Morgan Wilson “ 1. How to do your own first aid, because hospital isn’t an option, even outside of full moons. “

Beneath Ceaseless Skies - Woman Like Stone Like Water by Malda Marlys

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Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · Jul 30

Woman Like Stone Like Water, by Malda Marlys in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. So deftly told that I didn't even register the lack of dialogue until most of the way through. I don't think I've ever read anything quite like this.
www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/woma...

The stranger turned at the noise she was making and stared at her rather rudely. (Did plains people not train their children properly?) He didn’t quite seem able to stand, but he scooted away from her...

www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com

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Infrequent SF Microreviews @infrequentsf.bsky.social · Jul 30

This account is finally living up to its name, huh? Oh well. Vacation's over, back to reading!