The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January/February 2023

An average issue of F&SF, with interesting stories by Stefan Slater, Prashanth Srivatsa, Madalena Daleziou, David D. Levine, Dane Kuttler and Robert Reed.

• “Cowboy Ghost Dads Always Break Your Heart” by Stefan Slater: a lovely tale of a boy with a ghost for a dad. The boy goes through life, half unseen by others. But it is only after he goes to find his ghost dad does he discover that life has much to offer, even to those who are half ghost.

• “A Creation of Birds” by Teegan Moore: in a strange afterlife, a woman is accompanied by a bird as she explores her new world. But she is often called back to her previous life by emotional memories with her mother. In the end, she, the bird and her emotions over things left under in her life would combine to give her some closure and acceptance of her new circumstances.

• “Floating on the Stream that Brings from the Fount” by Prashanth Srivatsa: a fascinating story set in a space empire where stories fuel an Engine to generate the fuel needed for interstellar travel. But the stories are running out, unless a small group of explorers can find a legendary source of stories. As it turns out, some of the explorers would find themselves playing a part in the stories they find.

• “The Past Is a Dream (The Launch of a Blacktopia)” by Maurice Broaddus: a story set as a series of interviews and recordings of the efforts of Ghana to set up and launch its own spaceships in a rather African way.

• “To Give Moon Milk to a Lover” by Madalena Daleziou: an unusual fantasy story of a girl who likes to make cutouts of the moon and a witch who can call down the moon to extract milk from it. Over the years, the girl is troubled over her relationships with other people, but perhaps the moon milk may help her.

• “The Bucket Shop Job” by David D. Levine: a man stuck on Titan at a mining job gets the chance to join a team hoping to steal some valuable indenture contracts. In the end, it is up to him to decide what to do with the valuables when he gets the chance to scam the team himself.

• “Oracle” by Morgan L. Ventura: a short short about a visit to an oracle in the ruins.

• “Off the Map” by Dane Kuttler: a family with many problems is given a chance to start life anew in a new community. At first, it all seems well. Then a storm blows away the disguise. But the family, and their new friends, would be undaunted by the challenges.

• “Persephone’s Children” by C. B. Channell: based on the Greek myths, this story has Persephone and two of her children, Melinoe and Zagreus / Dionysus, meeting together. But it goes wrong when Dionysus tempts them with his drink, causing horrors to be unleashed on the world.

• “Best, Last, Only” by Robert Reed: set part of Reed's "Great Ship" stories, this one tells the story of one particular alien who calls themselves the Best (because they are the best alien species) who are on their way to colonize a new world. Via interactions with some of the immortal humans on the Great Ship (which is travelling through the Milky Way Galaxy), we learn more about the way of life of the alien which evolves around their more gruesome way to get food and the changes that occur when the alien species is, via negotiations and accident, is reduced to one survivor and its relationship with another human survivor when other events occur during the travels of the Great Ship.