The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June 2018

A better than average issues with interesting stories by Amman Sabet, Matthew Hughes, Melanie West, Nina Kiriki Hoffman and with a chilling horror story by Stephanie Feldman.

• "Tender Loving Plastics" by Amman Sabet: an interesting look at a future where some children are raised in homes run by robotic mothers. The story looks at a girl raised in such a home at various points of her life from childhood to adulthood and her reactions towards her 'mother'.

• "The Barrens" by Stephanie Feldman: a chilling fantasy that starts out as a group of teenagers eager to join in a festival being broadcast on a strange radio channel, only to become involved in what may have been a continuing competition ritual since ancient times that may end in their apparent victory or death.

• "Inquisitive" by Pip Coen: in a future where Inquisitors and fear of inquisitions rule the worlds, one girl (who lacks social skills) is determined to become one herself. But one enemy stands in her way, and she will need to learn and understand what the love of her mother (whom she is oblivious to) really means to her.

• "Plumage from Pegasus: Live by the Word, Die by the Word" by Paul Di Filippo: an unusual future where artists and writers are in charge comes to an end, as the masses rebel against being told to examine their inner thoughts and feelings and yearns for the old world where rules are meant to be broken.

• "Argent and Sable" by Matthew Hughes: the next in the series of stories about Baldemar, this one has him testing out the luck and other changes done to him. It would lead him on a task to retrieve magical gloves for his master. It would require more than just luck for him to successfully perform the task, while keeping himself intact.

• "The Bicycle Whisperer" by Lisa Mason: cute small story about a girl who rescues runaway AI bikes and what its relationship with its owner says about her own past.

• "Unstoppable" by Gardner Dozois: after being disappointed by Dozois' past few stories in F&SF magazine, here is one to make up for it. From childhood, a prince has a peculiar ambition that can only be fulfilled by becoming the king of his country, which involves killing off his own brothers and isolating his sister. But even then, the path to his ambition can only be fulfilled by paying for a sorcerer and could be derailed by a smart enemy general.

• "Crash Site" by Brian Trent: a tale about a race to find a possible rare weapon being carried in a jungle on a planet between two interplanetary corporate groups.

• "What You Pass For" by Melanie West: an interesting tale about a black painter with the ability to 'paint away' not just the black colour of the skin of his 'customers' but also their mannerisms and memories that might give they away as they try to blend into the white culture setting of a highly segregated country. But things come to a head when a ballerina asks him to paint her barely visible blackness away, leading to a queue of customers from other cultures. To what extent should such skin and culture differences by painted away or celebrated?

• "Ku'gbo" by Dare Segun Falowo: a story with a 'magic-realism' feel to it about a child that yearns to escape from her village by following a magical creature that that did not really catch my fancy.

• "Behold the Child" by Albert E. Cowdrey: a child's tantrum can be a terrible thing if not controlled, and this tale shows how bad it can be when this particular child's tantrums are coupled with the ability to move objects to horrible effect.

• "The Properties of Shadow" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman: an interesting alien tale of a being who becomes the assistant to a world travelling artist who makes artwork out of the wastes that civilizations produce. On one particular world, a reporter takes an unhealthy interest in the assistant (and her ability to quietly produce young which start out in shadowy form) which leads to a dangerous break-in of their quarters.