The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January/February 2019

An above average issue, with mostly 'mild' fantasy stories (mild in the sense that there is minimal magic involved). Among those that stood out for me are the ones by Carrie Vaughn, Sean McMullen and Pip Coen.

• "To the Beautiful Shining Twilight" by Carrie Vaughn: the fairy king revisits the home of a member of a group of human musicians, who once saved his kingdom, after many years. Time has moved on for her, and she is reluctant to get involved with him again. But he pleads with her to do one more small task, at the end of which he offers her a choice. Will she choose to be involved in his fairy kingdom again?

• "The Province of Saints" by Robert Reed: a thoughtful story about a police office called in to help on a case where an entire family has been killed except for one member, the daughter. As the office interrogates the daughter, whom he has known since childhood, details of their relationship and the family's terrible stranglehold over the local county are revealed. But the ultimate revelation would be about a substance that would be the ultimate cause of the deaths and, predicts the office, possibly the end of civilization. Suffice to say, the substance enhances a particular emotion and causes internal agony when too much is used.

• "Joe Diabo's Farewell" by Andy Duncan: a story about a Native American Indian who witnesses the death of a fellow construction worker in the city in the early 20th century. With work stopped for the day, he takes the chance to dress up as an Indian as part of a display before a film about General Custer. His actions on that day, would make him rethink his relationship with the dead worker. A story with a small touch of fantasy elements.

• "The City of Lost Desire" by Phyllis Eisenstein: a story of a musician with some magical powers of movement that has joined a desert caravan on its way to an old city. The caravan carries a powder that is a powerful mind changing drug and much desired by the king of the city. But things take an interesting turn when the musician is apparently the only one able to open the entrance to an old tower near the city, which makes him a noble person in the eyes of the king; perhaps noble enough to marry his daughter. Political and business intrigue gathers pace in this mildly magical and fantasy story.

• "The Right Number of Cats" by Jenn Reese: a short short about a person who fights off the addition of another cat to her household. The cat must work hard to convince her otherwise.

• "Survey" by Adam-Troy Castro: a disturbing story set in dialogue-form between two people involving a survey whose continuing answers to questions would have a horrifying effect on both the person surveyed and the people whose lives would be affected by the choices during the survey.

• "Blue as Blood" by Leah Cypess: a girl grows up on an alien world where the colour blue is culturally treated with disgust. Then she returns to Earth and continues to have violent emotional reactions to seeing anything blue. Even when the reactions gradually die down, she discovers her relationship with her parents and peers and constantly coloured by her reaction to blue and to grumblings about the way the aliens treat humanity.

• "The Washer from the Ford" by Sean McMullen: a fascinating story involving a man who, after witnessing a stabbing, stumbles into the fairy world that exists among us and discovers not only a gift for seeing other people's emotional states but also a curse that afflicts him. As the story progresses, he learns not only of his capabilities, but also the various links between the human and fairy world that turn this story into an interesting fairy detective story to be solved.

• "Tactical Infantry Bot 37 Dreams of Trochees" by Marie Vibbert: after being involved in endless battles and seeing soldiers die, the remaining battle bots, who have started to distract themselves from the battles by developing 'hobbies', also start having 'electric dreams' and assert their independence.

• "Fifteen Minutes from Now" by Erin Cashier: a rambling, one-sided conversation by a person who claims to be a time traveller sent (multiple times) to torture information out of a potential terrorist who is about to detonate a bomb. Time travel paradoxes mixed with threats are, sadly, not my kind of story to like.

• "The Fall from Griffin's Peak" by Pip Coen: a mild fantasy story about a thief hired to steal a special item from a store with magical protection. Told in a way that makes you sympathetic towards the thief (from the treatment she gets from the people who hire her), but it's given a rather surprising and emotional twist at the end that makes you re-evaluate your conclusions about the behaviour of the thief and the people who hired her.