Favorite Short Fiction of the Week

I was a bit busier this week than last and only managed to read five stories, all of them from the first of issue of the year of either Analog or Asimov’s.

My favorite story was a five-star read from Analog entitled “And She is Content” by Frank Ward. It tells of a sentient AI that manages a space ark delivering colonists to their new home on a new planet. Every one hundred years, she wakes up the crew in order to exercise them before putting them back into hibernation. But as she wakes them up this time, she notices something very different. This is a touching story of caretaking and relationships.

And for the first time this year, I didn’t finish a story I started. This one was also from Analog: “Iron Star Swing” by Kate Orman. It seemed to be trying to do something clever about what happens near the event horizon of a black hole. It definitely didn’t work for me. I never really could understand what was happening and tapped out just passed 12% in the story.

Favorite Short Fiction of the Week

I read ten pieces of short fiction this week ranging from about 1,500 words to almost 25,000 words. To view the entire list of what I read, look at the top ten entries in the table at the bottom of my Short Fiction page.

Two of these stories were five stars for me. The first was Sarah Pinsker’s And Then There Were (N-One). I read it as part of her collection Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea which my book club is reading this month. It is a very strange story indeed. In it, Sarah Pinsker (but not the actual author) is the main character and storyteller. She is invited to a SarahCon where she meets other Sarah Pinskers from across the multiverse (presumably even our author). When one of these Sarahs dies, the insurance investigator narrator Sarah is called on to look into it. This is a fascinating look at both identity and what might have happened if we had only made different choices.

The other story I loved, from the January issue of Uncanny magazine, is A.T. Greenblatt’s The Doorkeepers. The titular doorkeepers are essentially chaperones to small rooms where paying customers can experience a brief glimpse of the near future. The only caveat? Anything you take from that experienced future does not survive leaving the room. So, no Grays Sports Book problems like in Back to the Future II. The story is a well-written exploration of how our choices and behavior can affect our futures. And how trying to manipulate the future doesn’t turn out like we expect.

And only now am I seeing how the theme of choices is integral to both of my favorites this week. Interesting. I wonder if there will be a connecting theme for my favorites next week.

My 2026 Reading Goals

Traditionally, I set a goal each January for how many books I want to read in the year. About halfway through 2025, I rededicated myself to reading more short fiction. Taking that into account, I have not set a goal for how many books I want to read this year. My reading goals are a little more complicated.

This year I plan to have three reading tracks this year. One is to be reading a book, either a novel or nonfiction. At the same time I will be reading short fiction from one of the short fiction magazines I subscribe to and from a collection or anthology. And instead of a goal of books to read, I have set a goal of reading 400 short fiction stories this year. That is a little more than one a day.

So far this year, I am on track having read twenty-one stories so far. You can keep track of what I read on my Short Fiction page. I will continue to share reviews here of each book I read this year. I have also toying with the idea of at least occasional reviews of some of the short fiction I read. But that will depend on other things in my life.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

My book club selected this book as our read in October for horror/fantasy.

It is the story of a young girl (January) who struggles to be good in the eyes of her guardian while her father is out gathering objects for him. She finds a book that tells the story of a woman told by her husband. It tells of doorways to other worlds. January longs to find such doors through which she can escape.

I found the writing in this book beautiful without getting in the way of the storytelling. It was easy to read and touched on topics that mean a lot to me: feminism, misogyny, and self-determination. Highly recommended.

My rating: 4/5

Beginning Before and After the End by Jake Stein

Once again, here a piece that isn’t exactly a story but is very effective for that very reason. It is a story that is being told by a narrator directly to you, consciously so. And the narrator has a very specific goal they are trying to achieve, something they are trying to get you to do. I won’t spoil it for you. It is quite short so I encourage you to go read it.

The writing here is clever in an effective way that draws the reader in. I’d love to talk about what it is saying, but, once again, that would spoil your experience.

Length: 759 words (< 5 minutes)

My rating: 4/5

Anti-Capitalism vs. the Man of Flowers by Naomi Kanakia

At a convention of superheroes, a small group of them discusses what they could do if they really dedicated themselves to making the world a better place. But then they explore what that will mean for them and why they might not want to actually do it.

This story is a fitting metaphor for why we as societies and individuals don’t solve our biggest problems. The solutions are just too mundane, require drudgery, and take too long. They are no fun for the people of means. In the story, this really stirs up the reader’s emotions against the superheroes while, strangely, also making the reader sympathetic to them. Like real life problems, it turns out things are more complicated than they seem.

Length: 860 words (less than 5 minutes)

My rating: 4/5

Savannah and the Apprentice by Christopher Rowe

Savannah is an odd combination of bounty hunter and librarian. Her latest mission is to hunt down the recent killer of a master by his apprentice. She follows him up into the mountains and encounters a “diabolist” who had kidnapped the suspected killer. Things go a little sideways and things are revealed.

If you appreciate stories that are about more than they seem at first, you might appreciate this one. It ends up covering some difficult subjects like abuse. The prose is thoughtful and a bit contemplative as Savannah explores why she is doing what she is doing. Overall it provides an interesting tale told about characters that the reader comes to care for very quickly in this fairly short read.

Length: 6,536 words (25 to 30 minutes)

My rating: 4/5

Dad Went Out to Get the Milk by Osahon Ize-Iyamu

The dad in this story regularly goes out to get milk. Each time he does, he also takes on some amazing, fantastic task and comes back battered and bruised. It seems he is trying to impress his family, but they just want him to spend time with them.

I loved this story! It is such a great metaphor for the male breadwinner myth. Men go out to work each day thinking they are slaying dragons and taking blows for their families. Turns out that their families don’t care so much what happens outside the home. They seek Dad’s presence and care for them over anything that happens elsewhere. And this tale explores exquisitely the feelings on both sides of this conflict. Wonderful!

Length: 953 words (about 5 minutes)

My rating: 5/5

It Might Be He Returns by Fatima Taqvi

What if you had the ability to make everything better for all the people who suffer like you do? Would you exercise it? At what cost? Those are the questions raised in Fatima Taqvi’s story in the Lightspeed magazine. A young street urchin in Karachi, Pakistan sits outside a tailor’s shop. One day, he notices something coming out of the mirror. He goes into the store to talk the tailor and finds himself his apprentice with a very odd set of instructions.

The city itself is a pivotal character in this exploration between the haves and the have-nots. We often think we know what we would do in difficult situations, but do we really? When the street urchin is presented with such a challenge, like most of us, he is confident in saying what he will do. But the charm of this story is that plays with the struggle of what he will actually do.

My rating: 4/5

A Slight Change of Direction

The author seated at his desk writing on his laptop. A bookshelf and standing desk with computer are in the background.

Starting tomorrow my Daily Dose of Empathy feature will change. Until now it has been a very brief comment about a short story that I have rated as five out of five stars with a link to the story. Since not all the short stories I read are five stars, I have come close to running out. So going forward I will be writing a longer (but still relatively brief) review of every short story I read with a link to read the story for yourself.

I have also been publishing a review of each short fiction magazine that I read. I have included brief summaries and ratings for each story. I will also no longer be doing that as it will become a repeat of my daily posts. I will continue to publish a review of every book I read, excluding any collections or anthologies as the stories in those will be published daily.

So far, this website/blog has been an exercise I started and continue for myself. I hope to improve my writing and create a repository of the stories I read so that I can go back and find them when one comes to mind. One thing that will continue is the searchable tables (short fiction read and speculative fiction index). I hope you find it useful as well.