Fantasy Magazine #74, December 2021
“24 Reasons You’re Dreaming About Your Ex / 24 Razones Por Las Que Sueñas Con Tú Ex” by Dominica Phetteplace
“Saviour of the Light Market” by Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga
“What the River Remembers” by C.L. Holland
“The Rainmakers” by Megan M. Davies-Ostrom
Reviewed by Mike Bickerdike
“24 Reasons You’re Dreaming About Your Ex / 24 Razones Por Las Que Sueñas Con Tú Ex” by Dominica Phetteplace is a rather challenging piece of flash fiction to follow, unless you understand Spanish, as it’s written in a mixture of Spanish and English, even within the same sentences. This seems to be an unnecessary affectation and makes the presented list difficult to review.
In “Saviour of the Light Market” by Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga a young rich woman wants to gain access to the magical ‘night market’ to fulfill her dreams and so seeks out a sorcerer to gain her entrance to that world. There are several ideas regarding the structure of the mundane world described here that are appealing, but the imagery and point of the ‘night market’ world is less clear and does not entirely convince.
The flash fiction piece “What the River Remembers” by C.L. Holland is told from the perspective of a river that has gone dry, presumably as a result of climate change. It’s an interesting idea and quite effective, given how short it is.
“The Rainmakers” by Megan M. Davies-Ostrom is an intriguing mixture of the fantasy trope of rainmaking and the non-binary world of drag queens. In a dystopian future the world is dryer, and bands of rainmakers travel the land to bring down much needed rain. To effectively do this, they must be in drag, and at such times use she/her pronouns, but when travelling between jobs they do not wear their makeup and use he/him pronouns. The social messaging here is quite overt and may not appeal to all readers, though the story is quite well told, and the prose is reasonably engaging.
More of Mike Bickerdike’s reviews and thoughts on science-fiction can be found at https://starfarersf.nicepage.io/