Flash Fiction Online #143, August 2025

“Textures” by Lisa Fox (Literary, not reviewed)

“No Laughter in a Vacuum” by Anna Clark

“I Was Made for Loving You” by Angela James (Literary, not reviewed)

“The Body, Electric” by Lauren Kardos

“Dislocated” by Stephen Granade

“The Color of Things” by Eleanor Lennox (Literary, not reviewed)

Reviewed by David Wesley Hill

There are three pieces of original genre fiction in the August issue of Flash Fiction Online, the first of which, “No Laughter in a Vacuum” by Anna Clark, is considered “Fantasy.” In this fantastical milieu, the characteristic differentiating the fictional world of the story from our own is the ability to transfer character flaws, if only temporarily, from one person to another … to someone who is a “personality vacuum.” Frankly, I doubt such a person actually exists—I’ve never met one—which renders the entire premise of the story inconceivable to me, and I was unable to willingly suspend my disbelief … In the next story, “The Body, Electric,” defined as “Science Fiction,” by Lauren Kardos, the protagonist and their partner decide to “vasten” (my term) themselves (see the Frederik Pohl Heechee novels) and become electronic simulacra of themselves … Sadly, at the last minute, their partner chooses to remain mortal, and the story deals with the protagonist’s accommodation to their love’s eventual death as the world degrades around them … A bittersweet tale, which, unfortunately, adds nothing new to the canon … The final genre offering, “Dislocated” by Stephen Granade, considered “Science Fiction,” deals with the side effects of teleportation, a story that owes more to the Marvel zeitgeist (see Ant Man and the Wasp) than to the more rigorous, and chilling, Echo Round His Bones, by Thomas M. Disch. Current SF writers would do well by informing themselves of the history of the genre.