Four Steps To Hunt A God by Athar Fikry (Strange Horizons; Issue: 12 June 2023)
The opening of Four Steps To Hunt A God by Athar Fikry had me going there for a second. From the title, I assumed it was going to be a short story that’s structured like a how-to guide to do, get, or navigate something or another. It was, but, after the first three paragraphs, I quickly realized it was also so much more than that. The instructions are delivered by a nameless narrator who was a little trite, but mostly there to offer sound advice. I felt the story asked: What would you do to survive? And the way it delved into that through the narrative, combined with some pretty interesting utilization of fantasy elements—like gods, etc.—made for an enjoyable read.
Mirror View by Rajeev Prasad (Clarkesworld; Issue 201—June 2023)
This next one (and last short story I read in June) is about first contact, but the author flipped that around and the story comes from the point of view of a “being” that referred to itself as Foto. It was the kind of narrative that explored topics such as emotions, humanity, connection, and so forth—almost like a character study—except it was through the POV of something that was complex but also looked at those concepts as a novelty. The way Foto gradually built an understanding of its surroundings and the people that lived there made it a really endearing character. So, all-in-all, Mirror View is one of my favorite short stories that I’ve read so far in 2023.
From around the web…
- How I learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the TBR Pile [Molly Templeton; Tor.com; June 15, 2023]
- The Art That Doesn't Yet Exist [Caroline M. Yoachim; Uncanny Magazine; Issue Fifty-Two]
