The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, #759 Jan/Feb 2022
edited by Sheree Renée Thomas
Look I am not going to go super deep into each issue, but let me say how stoked to get these in the mail and you should too.
My favorite novelettes were Bone Broth by Karen Heulers and Prison Colony Optimization by Auston Habershaw. So let us start with Bone Broth, the Off-beat vibe hooked from the first moment. The story had a lived-in feel. The prose was super strong and has me looking forward to her novel mentioned in the intro. Prison Colony Optimization is a classic feeling SF tale that really made me happy, maybe that is the wrong word with such a depressing subject. This is a tale of an AI running a deep space prison. Very cool.
My two favorites of the short stories were doe_haven.vr by Cara Mast and The City and the Thing Beneath It by Innocent Ilo. The first of which was a VR story of future online addiction. A powerfully weird story. The City and The Thing Beneath was my favorite piece, it is a Nigerian set story that has a strong geographical feel and better experienced. That is what I liked about that story is it felt like an experience.
Also of note the opening novella The Art of Victory When the Game is All the World by Eugie Foster was pretty solid and made powerful by knowing the author dies shortly before her death and was submitted after she died from Cancer. I admit I had never heard of her or her work. Now I know she has several collections one of which I am picking up. It wasn’t my favorite thing in the collection but really glad 8 years after her death it was here.
Another great job Sheree Renée Thomas!
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