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![“[animal revolt]”](https://richardleis.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/StarLine454-1024.jpg)
“[animal revolt]”
Three short lines, one ferocious attack.
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Black Tide by KC Jones
Black Tide by K.C. Jones My rating: 4 of 5 stars The Oregon Coast becomes the site for a spectacular and unexpected meteor shower, followed by a grueling struggle to survive by two people already struggling to survive their day-to-day lives. I grew to care about these characters as their story unfolds over an action-packed…
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House of Zolo’s Journal of Speculative Literature, Volume 3
The future is frightening, often radically different, sometimes bleak, sometimes hopeful, sometimes both in the beautiful poems and short fiction included in the latest volume of House of Zolo’s Journal of Speculative Literature.
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“Goodbye to Rock”
“We remind them that road trips and human exploration lead back, without adding ‘if all goes well.’ Ride an explosion, walk on another rocky surface, collect some samples, more vials, return with the samples on top of another explosion. We can be there to cheer them on.”
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Lightspeed, Issue 126 (November 2020)
There’s a humorous tone to some of the stories in the latest issue of Lightspeed Magazine I don’t think I’m really in the right place emotionally right now to completely appreciate, which might explain why my favorite story in this issue is probably “Burn the Ships” by Alberto Yáñez. It’s dark, but also deeply satisfying…
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Flash Monster 2020 Short List
My flash fiction story “A Bird Watcher’s Guide to Malformed and Buzzing Things” earned a spot on the close-but-no-cigar shortlist shout-outs for the annual Flash Monster contest from The Molotov Cocktail!
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“In a Mirror, Dimming”
“Beyond the scarred surface, I saw the bones of the Moon, / the geology of a crime. He would not speak of it.”
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SFPA Poetry Contest
The 2020 SFPA Poetry Contest runs from June 1 through August 31, 2020 and is open to both non-members and members.
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Flashpocalypse Short List
My flash fiction story “The Canal” was shortlisted for The Molotov Cocktail’s latest quarterly flash contest: Flashpocalypse!
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Lightspeed Issue 120 (May 2020)
Lightspeed’s May 2020 issue includes stories by some of my favorite authors, and some new favorites.
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Phreak by JE Solo
Phreak often worked against my narrative expectations with its fragmented, time-jumping, and vignette-style approach, and in the process delivered a singular character whose clear and deeply felt recollections warn us how close we are to delivering a similarly bleak future to the next generation. You’ll want to get your hands on this novel as soon…
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![“[Aliens are here]”](https://richardleis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/42.4.jpg)
“[Aliens are here]”
“Aliens are here”
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Fall 2019 Writing and Teaching
I’m preparing lesson plans and writing new exercises for two fall workshops at the Writers Studio.
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“Crafting Fantastic & Imaginative Worlds” at The Writers Studio!
I’m teaching a new 6-week workshop titled “Crafting Fantastic & Imaginative Worlds” and it uses The Writers Studio method of persona writing and critiquing. It begins Saturday, July 27, 2019.
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Movie Review: Assimilate (2019)
Assimilate isn’t the cheap and nauseating found-footage film the trailer led me to believe it would be, but instead an effective low-budget thriller that relies too much on jump scares but tempers these with earned emotions and suspense.
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“What’s Done Can’t Be Undone” by Reneé Bibby and “CARBORUNDORUM > /DEV/NULL” by Annalee Flower Horne
How does the writer of genre fiction approach difficult subject matter like sexual assault? Two excellent and potentially triggering recent short stories by two fearless writers suggest two effective approaches.
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The 2018 Rhysling Anthology
Neil Gaiman’s “The Mushroom Hunters” was my personal favorite in the collection, along with Mary Soon Lee’s “Advice to a Six-Year-Old” and all her other poems, Linda D. Addison’s “Sycorax’s Daughters Unveiled”, Cislyn Smith’s “Hot”, and Shannon Connor Winward’s “The Raven’s Hallowe’en.”
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Book and Movie Reviews: Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Comparing the movies and the book. The novel has more room for exposition than the film, and in general this additional information is really interesting.
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Asimov’s Science Fiction August 2016
The August 2016 (I’m a little behind) issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction is a really good collection of stories, poems, and essays.
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“The Price of Oranges” by Nancy Kress
One of my absolute favorite short stories. I’ve read “The Price of Oranges” many times, but I always seem to forget how it ends, making each new read a magical, emotional experience all over again.
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“Dancing on Air” by Nancy Kress
Bio-enhanced ballerinas and dogs. Mothers and daughters. The price of passion. This powerful short story is a must-read.
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Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Ted Chiang’s collection of his stories published between 1990 and 2002 is now one of my favorite books ever, full of some of my favorite stories ever. There is not one story in this collection I did not enjoy, and all of them left me in awe. Yes, I’m going to be a little breathless…
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Analog September 2016
First time subscriber, first issue of Analog I’ve read, and I loved everything in it!
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Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey
What I like most about The Expanse series of books by James S.A. Corey so far are the characters. In the second book, Caliban’s War, a few new characters are introduced, including my new favorite, Bobbie Draper, a Martian Marine. Her story is one of two frames, beginning right after the prologue that introduces the…
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Lightspeed Magazine Issue 2 July 2010
I really enjoyed the second issue of Lightspeed Magazine.
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Lightspeed Magazine Issue 1 June 2010
The four short stories in the debut issue of Lightspeed are all fantastic.
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Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 117
Brief descriptions I read about “And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices” by Margaret Ronald and “Things With Beards” by Sam J. Miller convinced me to subscribe right then to a year of Clarkesworld Magazine, and I’m so glad I did.
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Future Visions: Original Science Fiction Inspired by Microsoft
Many of my favorite writers contributed stories to this anthology after they visited with Microsoft about cutting edge technology and speculation about the future.
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Phobos Magazine Issue Three: Troublemake
The poems and flash fiction in this issue tend to feature ornery characters, leading to lots of humor and dark twists.
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Phobos Magazine Issue Two: Emergence
Several absolutely fantastic and often chilling flash horror, fairy tale, and science fiction stories.
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Phobos Magazine Issue One: Zugzwang
Promising first issue.
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The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
All the praise. There are many aspects about The Fifth Season to praise, but it certainly tapped my interest in fantasy with science fiction trappings, especially a healthy dose of geology.
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The Years of Fantasy and Horror
I remember fondly buying a few editions of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling in the 1990s. I was in my twenties and while many of the stories and their level of craft were opaque to me at the time, I felt I had stumbled onto a…
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Her (2013)
The thrill of Her is that in addition to all the ways we can relate to the characters, there is something alien and uncanny about the proceedings that tickles the imagination.
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My Favorites Books in 2013
Most of my favorite works this year were not published in 2013; this just happens to be the year I finally got around to them.
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Buck Rogers, Frontier Guard Among Promising New Web Series in 2010
With a host of promising new productions, independent online filmmakers are leaving fan films behind for projects based on original or licensed content.
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Star Trek: Odyssey – “Illiad”
Notable for its use of green-screen technology to place actors in interesting Star Trek settings, a diverse cast, and gay and lesbian subplots, Star Trek: Hidden Frontier was successful enough to warrant a spin-off: Star Trek: Odyssey.
Richard Leis
Horror Writer & Poet
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