WE ARE SUPERHEROES (on a molecular level)

Jun. 23, 2012 at 3:58pm with 424 notes

I am always looking to make people read things that I love—this makes me a dangerous woman to stand next to while looking bored and bookless. I also have a deep, undying love of short fantasy. It’s a genre that doesn’t get a huge amount of attention, but it is full of blindingly brilliant things and almost all of it is available online for free.

These are my favorites. They are completely fucking great:

Zen Cho - Prudence and the Dragon

The sort of story that you want to copy line by line into your IM window so that everyone in your contact list can know how hilarious and perfect it is. It is about Prudence, and a dragon; it is about love and friendship. There is a sequel! You should also read the sequel.

Yoon Ha Lee - Ghostweight

Yoon Ha Lee writes gorgeous sentences, and reading her is like seeing events through a veil of lace or smoked glass. This story is about origami starships and playing solitaire and fate.

N K Jemisin - On the Banks of the River Lex

N K Jemisin writes really lovely novels; if you haven’t read Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, go go go! However, this is what introduced me to her and it is, without a doubt, one of the most wonderful things she’s created. It is about Death, and belief, and intelligence and the apocalypse.

Genevive Valentine - Semiramis

This story is about sleeper agents and ecology and becoming invested in hopeless causes. One of my metrics for the level of great in a story is how rabidly I seek out the other things the author has written. I walked to the bookstore in 95 degrees to get at Valentine’s new novel after reading this.

Alyx Dellamonica - The Cage

This is a story about lesbians and werewolves. It has been recommended to everyone within shouting distance of me, is now being recommended to you. It is not pulpy fluff, and it is the most human thing you’ll read all year.

Cat Rambo - The Mermaids Singing Each to Each

This story is about a lot of things, and while one of these things is sexual abuse, it is handled carefully and it makes for a powerful story about gender, love, mermaids, and bodily autonomy. It has a beautiful, anxious setting and nobody would ever tag it as trivial.

Tamsyn Muir - The House that Made the Sixteen Loops of Time

I had to look really hard to find this story, because I had forgotten the title and the author and everything about it aside from the premise and an image of tiny glass crabs. It is a fantastic bit of strange domesticity and it is about not knowing how to say what you want. I am so excited to have dug it out of the internet again.

Catherynne Valente - The Days of Flaming Motorcycles

This is a story about not understanding zombies. It is a really good bit of Cat Valente, and probably one of my favorite zombie stories. It is the sort of zombie story that is both ridiculous and funny and tragically believable.

Kelly Link - Magic For Beginners

This is a story about a television show we all wished we had seen, and about growing up. It is classic Kelly Link for not going in the direction that you expect a story to go. (I also suggest The Constable of Abal, which was the first Link story I read, but it is not available online.)

Kij Johnson - At the Mouth of the River of Bees

Kij Johnson is an amazing writer, and I suggest that you read everything that she has on her site (although watch out for Spar, it’s the definition of NSFW) but this one is my very favorite. It is a quiet, lovely story.

Octavia Butler - Speech Sounds

Speech sounds is about communication and a dusty, slow apocalypse, and it is the most knife-in-the-gut story about loss. Octavia Butler writes these tightly crafted beautiful things, and her stuff is classic.

Brooke Bolander - Her Words Like Hunting Vixens Spring

I read this story quite recently, and it is great! It is a bluebeard re-telling with revenge and foxes and Santa Muerte.

Hannu Rahanieme - Elegy for a Young Elk

This is a story about poetry and it has a talking bear. I desperately need to re-read it, but I promise that it does not disappoint.

Sarah Rees Brennan - Queen of Atlantis

This is a bit of YA at its very very best, and Sarah Rees Brennan. It is about maidens and monsters.

(To be expanded as need arises.)