The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August 2021

A better than average issue with some interesting stories. Those that I enjoyed are by Michael Swanwick, Yukimi Ogawa, Lauren Ring, Phoenix Alexander, Lisa Lacey Liscoumb, Paula Keane, Rowan Wren and Tato Navarrete Díaz.

• "Whatever Happened to the Boy Who Fell into the Lake?" by Rob Costello: a dark fantasy take of an abused boy who lives with his father after his mother vanished. Yet, he feels echoes of his mother, and it is only with the discovery of an old fairy tale does he understand the connection between himself, his mother and the sea.

• "Dreadnought" by Michael Swanwick: a man who cares for nothing but living his own life in his own way. But an apparently crazed priest keeps harassing him, along with a man with a name like Cthulhu, who appears to be waiting for a sign that evil would take over the land.

• "Her Garden, the Size of Her Palm" by Yukimi Ogawa: a girl gets a job helping an old lady tend her garden and collect samples of life for her. Only, the samples are from different worlds accessible from her garden. But the job is tough, and she might decide to take another job.

• "Tulip Fever" by Bo Balder: in a future where global warming has flooded the world, a girl with 'immunity' to ingested microplastics ekes or a living on a floating platform. But visitors fun a land give her an opportunity to leave her current life, but not if it means abandoning the others on the platform.

• "(emet)" by Lauren Ring: an interesting story that looks at a programmer whose is starting to get second thoughts while working on an image surveillance program. Her own skills at crafting living Jewish golems and programming would combine to provide a way for her to protect people who may be harmed by her own work.

• "Cat Ladies" by L.X. Beckett: in a future where global warming has dispersed people, one person works as a law officer in a mobile village, going to make enough to return to get family. But her latest investigation may involve turning in friends who have misused resources for a greater good involving cats.

• "The Penitent" by Phoenix Alexander: a tale of a being born as a kitten full of malice. But in a twist, it knows it should not be evil and returns again and again to try to put right what it has done wrong.

• "And for My Next Trick, I Have Disappeared" by Chimedum Ohaegbu: a fantastical tale of a person somehow caught in a bus and slowly having her emotions and thoughts consumed by the bus, until she figures a way off it by thinking back on her emotions and relationships.

• "How to Train Your Demon" by Lisa Lacey Liscoumb: the usual woman summons a demon story, only here the demon is asked to do housework for the woman and gets to eat cookies. But it is still a demon and does a favour for her in the only way a demon knows how.

• "Woman, Soldier, Girl" by Priya Chand: a story is a woman soldier in a steampunk India that, after being defeated by the British, is forced to work for a British family while hiding her machinery and soldier background from them.

• "Bridge for Sale" by S. Cameron David: a short short story about a conman selling the Brooklyn Bridge to an unusual customer.

• "Picass-O-Matic" by Paula Keane: a robotic plastic surgeon decides to get artistic on its patients, but perhaps takes the changes to be made too literally.

• "Minotaur" by Maia Brown-Jackson: a story of a maze, a Minotaur and two girls destined to meet in the maze.

• "Perdition" by Rowan Wren: a story of the daughter of the Devil who is sent to Earth to make it into a better Hell. But instead, she finds love, and it would change lives.

• "Mamá Chayo's Magic Lesson" by Tato Navarrete Díaz: a young witch listens to a story from her grandmother, also a witch, and picks up a lesson on being selfish and thinking only of ourselves.