Look, we’ve had thirty-one (31!) atmospheric rivers in California since the start of winter. Every time the sun starts shining, a storm cloud steamrolls right over it. I’m stressed, I’m exhausted, and I’m very moody. So don’t be surprised by the dark tone of most of the stories in my March spotlight of my ten favorite short science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories.
“The Gratitude of Mice” by Yume Kitasei
Have you ever heard about how corvids will sometimes leave gifts of trinkets and baubles to thank humans for helping or feeding them? Well, this story is that but with mice instead of birds. Our narrator discovers their neighbor, Ms. Tanaka, digging up treasure from a box buried in her yard. She claims the gifts are from the mice living in her house. The narrator’s sister tries to get some gifts for herself, but the mice aren’t as reciprocal to her. This short fiction spotlight is about to get real heavy real fast, so it’s good to start off with a delightful amuse bouche.
Strange Horizons (March 6, 2023)
“The Heart Beats Green and Grey” by Steve Toase
A father goes missing and his son returns to his hometown to investigate. When he gets too close to the truth, the people behind the crime come after him. It doesn’t go the way the baddies expect. Three-Lobed Burning Eye publishes “stories of horror, wonder, and the weird”, and this piece is exactly all three. It starts the reader off wondering what’s going on, hits you with some horror, then takes a sharp left turn into weird.
Three-Lobed Burning Eye (March 2023; issue 38)
“Lullaby for the Unseen” by Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas
“I did not want to see a corpse. But I did want to…And it does not count if it is only a tiny glimpse, a sneak peek at the how could this happen and the oh my lord and all the saints, a glance of the but it was merely a child, only a monster would do something like this.” What an opener! Talk about hooking in the reader. Told in thirteen parts, this story about a young girl and the dead boy she hangs out with will send a shudder down your spine. Their friendship, if it can even be called that, is twisted in the ways that only children and horror stories can manage.
Weird Horror (Spring 2023; issue 6)
“Mother’s Teeth” by E. L. Chen
Where the next story is full of hope and satisfaction of a life well lived, this one is full of fear and regret. After his mother dies, Noah is sent to live with his emotionally distant father in his haunted house. A terrible black stain spreads from Noah’s closet, consuming everything it touches. And outside, tapping on his window, is a shadow wearing his mother’s jawbones, teeth clacking on the glass and calling his name. A thoroughly chilling story.
The Dark (March 2023; issue 94)
“Notes from a Pyre” by Amal Singh
A century and a half into the future, girl’s baba dies. Parikshit Mehta was a scholar who documented funerary practices of various cultures on alien planets. Amal Singh tells two stories at once: that of the girl processing her grandfather’s death and her guilt for her perceived involvement in it, and that of Mehta’s reports. The reports, in turn, shed light on the girl’s experiences and changes how she thinks about death, grief, and loss. I loved the way Singh blended Indian culture and cuisine into the story.
The Deadlands (March 2023; issue 23)
“The Serpent’s Daughter” by Avra Margariti
A bittersweet and lightly funny story of a fairy tale serpent and her rebellious daughter. Her mother is a “cold-blooded snake,” but she’s not emotionless or careless. This story is the perfect length, not too long and not too short. Avra Margariti hits the right emotional beats, balancing the ephemerality of flash with compelling worldbuilding.
Flashpoint SF (March 24, 2023)
“The Shadow and the Light” by Su-Yee Lin
Speaking of miserable weather and miserable people, this story from Su-Yee Lin pretty much perfectly encapsulates how I’ve felt much of the last few months. Our nameless narrator lives in a nowhere city doing a soulless job. But then something changes. Something small, but it’s enough to create a ripple. Does our narrator want that change? And what will it mean for them and their isolated little world? Lin does a great job of sinking the reader into the mire of nothingness that is the narrator’s life.
khōréō magazine (March 2023; volume 3, issue 1)
“Triptych” by Avi Burton
A story about a trans clone? Yes please! Delaney is one of three clones of ultra conservative blowhard Senator Marcus Delaney. When the senator kicks it, the clones are brought together by a gaggle of G-men who are going to decide which of the clones will replace the senator…and which two will be eliminated. Delaney doesn’t see herself as an extension of the senator but as her own person living her own life. She may have his genetics, but she isn’t him. A story of self-empowerment and actualization.
Escape Pod (March 9, 2023; #879)
“We, the Ones Who Raised Sam Gowers from the Dead” by Cynthia Zhang
Where “Triptych” was about living your life free of those who would drag you down, “We, the Ones Who Raised Sam Gowers from the Dead” is about demanding justice from—or maybe just plain old taking bloody revenge on—those who deny you your truth. Sam is murdered by some anti-queer bigots who the courts let off with a slap on the wrist and a stern talking-to. His friends raise him from the dead in a vicious act of necromancy, and let him loose on his killers.
PseudoPod (March 31, 2023; #859)
“Zeta-Epsilon” by Isabel J. Kim
“Start at the cleave of it, not at Zed’s meat death or Ep’s centuries-long destruction, but at the moment that Zed halves his own mind and walks away.” Another fantastic opening line! This is the story of Pilot-Commander Zeta San Tano, aka Zed, and the AI spaceship M.K.S. Epsilon, aka Ep, he’s connected to via chip in his brain. Given all the conversation about AI—how it’s not intelligence but artificial intelligence, that it’s nothing more than a mimicry of information—I found this story particularly intriguing. Ep is supposed to be just a bunch of code, but to Zed she’s so much more.
Clarkesworld (March 2023; issue 198)
Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).
