Rocket Stack Rank Sheree Renee Thomas

Showing posts with label Sheree Renee Thomas. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

The Barnum Effect, by Celia Neri

Cover illustration by Stacey Robinson — [Apex]

★☆☆☆☆ Needs Improvement

(Near-Future SF) Meriam’s project uses a supercomputer to produce eerily accurate horoscopes. (4,929 words; Time: 16m)

★★★☆☆ Average

(Fantasy Adventure) Awanshe tells about the big battle where her lover and the Scorpion King were both killed. Except she keeps changing the details. (3,315 words; Time: 11m)

★★★☆☆ Average

(Modern Fantasy) Aislinn’s parents adopted her after they found her gasping on the beach in Ireland. As she grows up, she has strange problems around the water. (3,437 words; Time: 11m)

★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended

(Horror) A monster from the Dominican Republic haunts three generations of a family—even in America. (4,674 words; Time: 15m)

★★★☆☆ Average

(Horror) She thinks she can use her lost sister’s diary to bring her back from wherever she went when an attempted summoning during her band’s performance went badly wrong. (4,989 words; Time: 16m)

Not Rated No Speculative Element

(Mainstream) Someone gets their fortune read from a novel set of cards. (2,455 words; Time: 08m)

Every Good-bye Ain't Gone, by Eden Royce

Every Good-bye Ain't Gone by Geneva Benton — [Strange Horizons]

★★★★☆ A very different kind of ghost story

(Horror) Mixie’s family makes food for the dead to get them to come back to answer questions for their loved ones. She’s surprised her ex-husband’s widow wants them to do this, though. (5,241 words; Time: 17m)

★★★★☆ Sophisticated and Moving

(Modern Fantasy) Dora wants to make a deal with the devil to give her musical talent, but first the devil wants her to experience the life of a real talent who died forgotten. (7,000 words; Time: 23m)

You need to have an interest in the history of rock & roll music to enjoy this story

★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended

(Modern Fantasy Dystopia) A boy whose family members have ways of becoming invisible copes with the specter of an all-out race war. (2,589 words; Time: 08m)

★★★☆☆ Average

(Historical Fantasy) Ayomide was a chief’s daughter, but now she languishes on a slave ship, praying only for a good death. (4,445 words; Time: 14m)

★★★☆☆ Average

(Horror) We remember Lola. We remember how she cared for us. We remember how she died. And we’ve decided to bring her back to life. (2,640 words; Time: 08m)

★★★☆☆ Average

(Historical Fantasy) In early 19th-Century New Orleans, a teenage boy learns he can fly, but doesn’t understand why he must keep it a secret. (4,694 words; Time: 15m)

Tree of the Forest Seven Bells Turns the World Round Midnight, by Sheree Renée Thomas

(Horror) Wilder’s girlfriend wants him to meet her mother. In the middle of the night, in the wetlands near the Mississippi river. (6,724 words; Time: 22m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

This is a reprint of a 2016 story, so it's not Hugo-Eligible

Aunt Dissy's Policy Dream Book, by Sheree Renée Thomas

Xeno-Africa by Angelique Shelley — Read this issue

(Horror) Cassie uses the Sight to earn a living, but visions only come to her in dreams, and some dreams aren’t meant to be told. (7,700 words; Time: 25m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

Recommended By: SFRevu:4

River, Clap Your Hands, by Sheree R. Thomas

Cover illustration by John Jennings — [Anthology]

★★★☆☆ Average

The narrator, a survivor of a hurricane-induced flood, mourns her lost baby and feels that the water is calling to her somehow. (3,000 words; Time: 10m)