The Magazine of Fantasy \u0026 Science Fiction, September/October 2021 (F\u0026SF, #757) by Sheree Renée Thomas

The Magazine of Fantasy \u0026 Science Fiction, September/October 2021 (F\u0026SF, #757) Reviews

• 
  Leroy Erickson

  A pretty good issue. Several good stories with one very good one.
  
  Lincoln Michel - The Haunted Hills Community and Country Club - 4 stars
  - A unique idea, gathering haunted houses into one location and selling them to people who are desperate to buy houses. Fairly well written.
  
  Brian Trent - The Scorpion and the Syrinx - 4 stars
  - Set in a universe where Rome had discovered and colonized/conquered North America. In this story they are fighting the Aztecs, and magic is real. A good story.
  
  Erin Barbeau - Ice Fishing on Europa - 4 stars
  - A social misfit takes a job monitoring under-ice probes on Europa. When disaster strikes, he meets an intelligent native of Europa, also a social misfit. A neat story.
  
  Matthew Hughes - The Forlorn - 4 stars
  - In a world of magic, with rigidly enforced guilds, a "discriminator" is hired to find a missing woman, a young magician trainee. Another good story.
  
  Octavia Cade - Seedling - 3 stars
  - A short short story, a variation on Hansel and Gretel. Interesting but just OK.
  
  Nuzo Onoh - The Abomination - 4 stars
  - A baby is born with both male and female external sex organs. He/she is supposed to be killed, but is rescued and raised by a young mother who has lost her husband and all of her children to plague. The baby grows up healthy, but is shunned and tormented by the other children of the village. Many years later, there is payback. A good, well told story.
  
  E. A. Bourland - To the Honorable and Esteemed Monsters under My Bed - 5 stars
  - A young boy in an unhappy home resorts to writing a letter to the monsters under his bed to try to persuade them not to eat him. The monsters reply in like fashion. An exchange of letters continues until both sides achieve their aims. A very good story.
  
  Carl Taylor - Split the Baby - 4 stars
  - A couple is divorcing. They have a single boy child and both want him. They come up with a modern, digital solution, which is best for them but not for the boy. He disagrees. Another good story.
  
  Lora Gray - And in Rain, Blank Pages - 3 stars
  - A man flees an abusive relationship and meets a very unusual person who invites him to live at his apartment. Ultimately, he finds out that he's in another abusive relationship and has to flee again. An OK story with a unique twist.
  
  Amal Singh - Her Dragon - 4 stars
  - In a land of magic, a young woman is preparing to take over as the new "maker" from her grandmother. After her grandmother dies, she travels to another land to find herself. Good but not great.
  
• 
  Fernando Goulart

  An excellent edition. My favorite stories were:
  
  “The Forlorn” by Matthew Hughes - Discriminator Cascor searches for a missing Mage’s apprentice.
  
  “The Abomination” by Nuzo Onoh - A psychological horror story about a hermaphrodite girl rejected and banned from her family.
  
  “To the Honorable and Esteemed Monsters under My Bed” by E.A. Bourland - A funny tale about a boy, who exchange letters with the monsters under his bed.
  
  “The Scorpion and the Syrinx” by Brian Trent - An anternate history story where Roman Imperium reaches the Americas, abs clashes with Aztec civilization
  
  “The Haunted Hills Community and Country Club” by Lincoln Michel - A humorous story about Real State agents who sells famous haunted houses
• 
  John Loyd

  9 • Haunted Hills Community and Country Club • 18 pages by Lincoln Michel
  OK/Good. Ingrid moves from the city and debt to become a realtor for Haunted Hills, where the houses are more affordable.
  
  27 • The Scorpian and the Syrinx • 24 pages by Brian Trent
  Very Good+. Claudius is killed by scorpions. The praetor calls in Decimus, who deals with the supernatural, to find out how to keep the Azteca from unleashing any more havoc on them. Clever mystery. Great character, speculative portion well set up.
  
  51 • Ice Fishing On Europa • 13 pages by Erin Barbeau
  Good+. Theo is at a lone outpost on Europa and supplies are running low, meds are out, and the resupply is not there.
  
  64 • The Forlorn • 42 pages by Matthew Hughes
  Good/VG. Cascor is hired by a wizard to find Ioveana. This leads him to an individual who is trying to follow her to a lost city/artifact in the desert. Along the way picking up Vento who separately is also trying to get his hands on whatever is out there.
  
  128 • Seedling • 3 pages by Octavia Cade
  Fair/OK. Starvation forces parents to abandon Hansel in the woods. Not that other fairytale.
  
  131 • The Abomination • 53 pages by Nuzo Onoh
  Very Good. IHAA is an abomination, born with both male and female genitals. Before she can be culled by the witchdoctor, a widow snatches her. The widow raises her, everyone else in the village shuns her or worse. Ego, her biological sister, hates her the most because of the effect of her existence on the family and on her in particular. Starts with a foreshadow, then the events that led up to that day.
  
  184 • To the Honorable and Esteemed Monsters Under My Bed • 12 pages by E. A. Bourland
  Good/VG. Boy writes an erudite letter to the monsters. The monsters are impressed but still want to eat him. There are a few more letter exchanges that start sounding like negotiations.
  
  205 • Split the Baby • 14 pages by Carl Taylor
  Good/VG. Harrison's parents are breaking up but both want their child. They've decided on digital pressing. This story just like the previous story has a young protagonist mature beyond his years with some traits of the eight year old melded in. I love the antithesis within the character(s).
  
  231 • And in Rain, Blank Pages • 13 pages by Lora Gray
  Good. The narrator is running away from Tony. Into a diner where he is befriended by Felix, the waiter, who can't talk, but can communicate. Felix is kind and soothing and takes him home.
  
  244 • Her Dragon • 12 pages by Amal Singh
  OK. Misha's grandmother is the maker. Princes and Dukes request garudas and other animals. Misha dreams of making a dragon.
  
  enough VG stories so this issue gets rounded up to 5 stars.
• 
  Richard

  For me, the novella and novelettes were the issue's highlights. The shorter works were engaging, but not quite as stellar as the longer fictions.
• 
  Kam Yung Soh

  An interesting issue, with good stories by Brian Trent, Matthew Hughes, Nuzo Onoh, E. A. Bourland and Carl Taylor.
  
  - “The Haunted Hills Community and Country Club” by Lincoln Michel: a real estate agent gets a job selling haunted houses at a community. As first, it goes well, as the houses sell at below market rates and the owners don't mind the hauntings. But then comes a horror that no real estate agent can overcome.
  
  - "The Scorpion and the Syrinx" by Brian Trent: a fascinating story of an alternate world where the Roman Empire reached the Americas and allied with Native Americans against the Aztec empire. On a river between both sides, a supernatural investigator looks into the death of a tutor, and discovers magic being used to bring death and settle historical scores between enemies.
  
  - “Ice Fishing on Europa” by Erin Barbeau: a researcher in Europa meets an unusual friend, and together they learn about each other's loneliness as they make a journey together.
  
  - “The Forlorn” by Matthew Hughes: a light fantasy about an investigator sent by a magical scholar to find a common acquaintance. The journey would lead into a desert that used to hold a temple that made the mistake of trying to contain a god that did not want to be there. The end of the adventure hints of more magical journeys in the future.
  
  - “Seedling” by Octavia Cade: an alternative Hansel and Gretel tale, where Hansel is left in a forest, finds an unusual girl he calls Gretel, and they both do others things to survive when there is no Gingerbread House.
  
  - “The Abomination” by Nuzo Onoh: an African fantasy-horror story about a person who becomes known as The Abomination and shunned by villagers. But one day, she meets a spirit king and makes a request that, in time, would lead her to fulfil her revenge on the village for shunning her and later using her to appease the gods for a famine that now ravages the village.
  
  - “To the Honorable and Esteemed Monsters under My Bed” by E. A. Bourland: a series of letter exchanges between a boy and monsters under his bed starts off sounding humorous but gradually gets a horrifying edge when they make agreements with each other to stop bullies and an apparently abusive parent.
  
  - “Split the Baby” by Carl Taylor: in the future, when parents divorce, both can take digital representations of their child with them. But things take a turn when the child disagrees with being divided up in this fashion and comes up with his own solution to keep the family together.
  
  - “And in Rain, Blank Pages” by Lora Gray: an urban fantasy about a young person escaping an abusive relationship, only to stumble into another unusual one with a man with a strange ability with words.
  
  - “Her Dragon” by Amal Singh: in a land where imaginary creatures can be created by Makers, a young girl struggles to form a dragon like her grandmother. When she is thrust into the role of Maker, she goes on a journey to discover how and what she is meant to make.
• 
  David H.

  My favorite stories in this issue were probably Lincoln Michel's "Haunted Hills Community and Country Club" and E.A. Bourland's "To the Honorable and Esteemed Monsters Under My Bed", both due to the humor inherent in each.
  
  Unfortunately I didn't like this issue as much as past F&SF, and I think it's because it took me forever to get through the novella in this one, "The Abomination," which was rather dark in a way I don't always like, though it did feature an intersex protagonist, which I enjoyed. Other stories were interesting, but I kept having nagging bits about the premise that undermined the story in ways (I had a hard time believing that the astronaut in "Ice Fishing on Europa" would be put in that situation by their agency, for example).
  
  I don't have much to say about the departments because I read them about 3 months ago and have forgotten what they were about, but this review is mostly for the fiction.
• 
  Michael Frasca

  Good issue. See if you can sense the theme.
  
  Here are my favorite stories:
  
  - The Abomination by Nuzo Onoh
  To paraphrase LBJ—Give the lowest of the low a’ thing’ to look down on and they won't notice you are picking their pocket and will even empty their pockets for you. What happens when ‘this thing’ gets the will—and the means!—to stand up to the abuse? I really liked the way Onoh unobtrusively sprinkled the story with cultural words and markers in a way that even I could suss their meaning and significance. Pairs well with “We Have Always Lived in the Castle.” In fact, it should be short-listed for the ShirleyJacksonAward.
  
  - The Scorpion and the Syrinx by Brian Trent
  Mcmillan & Wife in an alternate history, where the Romans have allied with the Iroquois against the Aztecs. Decimus and the spirit of his dead wife tackle a case of murder by scorpion.
  
  - The Forlorn by Matthew Hughes
  An empty desert with nothing of interest. Why does a powerful wizard’s apprentice spend so much of her time there? A PI—and two nefarious artifact dealers—are on her trail. A Chernobyl allegory?
  
  - The Haunted Hills Community and Country Club by Lincoln Michel
  Move haunted houses to a central location where young folk with bad credit can experience the thrill of home ownership…at bargain prices! An unreal estate story.
  
  - Ice Fishing on Europa by Erin Barbeau
  A kindred spirit can make for a best friend—someone who has your back no matter what. Fishing with John, Episode 4, but with more bonding and peanut butter cups instead of crackers.
  
  - Seedling by Octavia Cade
  Fairy tales are dark and disturbing but the actual story can be even grimmer—what really happened to Hansel and Gretel in the woods. Hope your spine is made of steel and not sugarcane.
  
  - To the Honorable and Esteemed Monsters under My Bed by E. A. Bourland
  A frightened, but clever and imaginative boy tries to strike a deal with the monsters under the bed. Will it be a win-win proposition for both sides? A fun story, especially for lovers of Calvin & Hobbes.
  
  - Split the Baby by Carl Taylor
  A high-tech Judgement of Solomon, but the child has something to say about it. Pairs well with the previous two F&SF Sept/Oct stories. One would think the editor grouped them together on purpose. :-)
  
  - And in Rain, Blank Pages by Lora Gray
  Psychological abuse can be just as devastating as physical abuse while being much harder to recognize and escape from.
  
• 
  Joshua Green

  I don���t normally write out reviews, but this is the best F&SF issue I’ve read in my *checks notes* just over one year of subscribing. I loved every single story. Well done, everyone!!
• 
  Rick

  The Haunted Hills Community and Country Club ~ I’ve recently come to realize that I’m not of a fan of ghost stories. Primarily as I don’t believe in ghosts. For me, they just seem to be perpetuating superstitions and archaic religious beliefs. This was a cute story, but not much else for me (3/5).
  
  The Scorpion and the Syrinx ~ Alternate histories! Variant timelines! Good stuff, I just wish it had been longer (4/5).
  
  Ice Fishing on Europa ~ Nice! Beautiful story. I kept worrying that the incident would just come down to a lack of proper medication, that it hadn’t ever happened. Maybe. But the story ends without such a revelation. So I’m sticking with my joy at such an interspecies relationship blooming on Europa (5/5).
  
  The Forlorn ~
  
  Seedling ~
  
  The Abomination ~
  
  To the Honorable and Esteemed Monsters under My Bed ~
  
  Split the Baby ~
  
  And in Rain, Blank Pages ~
  
  Her Dragon ~
• 
  R.

  The first issue of my new subscription I received for Christmas! I absolutely loved the story "The Scorpion and the Syrinx" by Brian Trent. That was a great story and I found myself, as I do with many well thought out alternate history short stories, desperately wanting more from the world in which that story was set.
  
  The other stories in this particular edition were your normal mix of short stories ranging in length and quality to make sure that there's a little something for everyone. All in all, it was a great edition of the magazine though in my opinion.
  
  Every fan of science fiction and fantasy should subscribe to some form of periodical like this in order to support up and coming writers in the craft. The quality you get is generally way higher than buying self published stuff on Amazon or Smashwords, and every once in a while you get real gems.
• 
  Corinne

  Got for free from Kindle Unlimited Aug 2021.
  
  Only Read:
  
  -- Seedling by Octavia Cade - 1*
  huh? flash fiction. retelling. Hansel and Gretel but they aren't siblings. I didn't understand the point of the story. Did not enjoy.
  
  -- Review: Love Death + Robots - I haven't watched all of them yet so I tried to avoid spoilers. I think the reviewer is correct in their questioning of why they aren't advancing the genre at all. "... to put it bluntly, there are troves of ideas in which to cull materials. ... the largely male source material and predominately male points-of-view once again don't seem to reflect where science fiction can go or is going in the present... It's worth a read. They say the second season has less sexual and physical violence against women but fails on the sense of wonder SF can bring.
  
  skipping the others
• 
  Scott Ewen

  My favorite stories in this issue:
  - "The Abomination" by Nuzo Onoh - a girl born with both sets of genitals is shunned by her village as an abomination, until one day when she makes a wish
  - “Ice Fishing on Europa" by Erin Barbeau - a scientist on Jupiter's moon Europa gets help from an unlikely place when her shipment of supplies doesn't arrive on time
  - "To the Honorable and Esteemed Monsters Under My Bed" by E. A. Bourland - a epistolary story comprised of correspondence between an eight year old child and the monsters under his bed
• 
  Daniel Cornwall

  I want to warn you ahead of time, that my ratings of F&SF issues will usually be three stars because some stories touch me a lot, some are meh and a few are Ack! In the September/October 2021 issue, I was most impressed with three stories:
  
  - The Abomination by Nuzo Onoh
  - The Scorpion and the Syrinx by Brian Trent
  - Ice Fishing on Europa by Erin Barbeau
  
  
• 
  Mark Catalfano

  I liked "The Scorpion and the Syrinx" by Brian Trent
• 
  VexenReplica

  2.5/5, rounded up due to the inclusion of Matthew Hughes, my favorite type of popcorn.
  
  Lots of horror in this edition, which is not my cup of tea. Love the diverse voices tho!
• 
  Emelee

  Favorites: “The Abomination”, Nuzo Onoh; “The Forlorn”, Matthew Hughes (Dying Earth/Raffalon); and “Haunted Hills Community and Country Club”, Lincoln Michel.