The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/August 2023

A better than average issue, with interesting stories by Kristina Ten, DaVaun Sanders, Nick Thomas, Jennifer Hudak, and two standout stories by Peter S. Beagle and Aimee Ogden.

• "Approved Methods of Love Divination in the First-Rate City of Dushagorod" by Kristina Ten: an amusing but chilling tale of a country where the family of a girl resorts to 'approved' divination methods to find a partner for their eldest daughter. But repeated divination failures force the daughter to use an unapproved method, which may provide an unlikely end to her quest.

• "Vanishing Point" by RJ Taylor: two explorers on a surface of a planet encounter difficulties approaching what appears to be a gigantic alien. It never appears to get any closer despite their journey towards it. Then, one of the explorers sees a change in perspective that changes everything.

• "The Very Nasty Aquarium" by Peter S. Beagle: an old lady is gifted an aquarium which she then proceeds to decorate with a castle, a mermaid and a diver, along with some fish. But then she makes the unwise decision to add a pirate to it, which sets off a chain of events that may lead to her possession by a very nasty pirate.

• "The Pet of Olodumare" by Joshua Uchenna Omenga and Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki: a possibly African version of a creation myth of the universe involving a lonely supreme being who creates a loving pet, lesser beings and then humans. The humans and lesser beings would mess up, and end up creating the world we know.

• "Serenity Prayer" by Faith Merino: a short, mildly horror tale of boys preparing for a hunt.

• "We Go on Faith Alone" by K. S. Walker: a house strangely attracts bird collisions, which may be related to the work a person is doing on green energy that may well cause other kinds of attractions.

• "Little Bird" by Jill McMillan: the story of a girl who used to live alone with her father, and the unsettling outcome of a church gathering that may reveal a secret about what happened to the father.

• "Gather Me a Treasure" by Jordan Chase-Young: a person gathers gifts for an offer to bring back a loved one. But the end result may well be a cycle of gift giving.

• "NPC (or Eight Haxploits to Maximize Your Endgame Farming: A Player’s Guide)" by DaVaun Sanders: people are getting hooked on playing a computer game and doing tasks set by the game in the real world to get more rewards. But it would take one big gathering of material to show who gets the final reward.

• "A Half-Remembered World" by Aimee Ogden: a fantastic story of a city on the back of a giant crab wandering the oceans of the world. But the crab appears to be dying, and so might the city. We learn the lives of the people living on the crab through the eyes of a woman who has already lost much (her child and her companion) but in the end may gain much as the reality of the situation becomes serious.

• "A Meal for Fredrick" by Nick Thomas: a family puts together a paper dragon for fun, but it becomes a permanent fixture in their house. Things take a turn for the fantastic when the father begins 'feeding' the dragon to ward off illness in the family. But it would take one serious illness to break the fantasy of the situation: or does it begin a more fantastic one?

• "The Day of the Sea" by Jennifer Hudak: the Sea, in the form of an old woman, approaches a village and is invited in by one family. Others are not so happy to see the Sea, for in her wake, the seawater steadily encroaches on to their village. But the Sea has lessons on how to survive on the ocean that the villagers eventually accept. The question is whether they learned the right lessons from the sea.

• "What to Do When a Protagonist Visits Your Generic Village" by Dan Peacock: a story of the various possible actions a generic villager can do when a warrior protagonist comes for a visit.

• "Pedestals, Proclivities, and Perpetuities" by Celeste Rita Baker: a lady get tossed on to the roof of a house. Turns out, she enjoys it up there and refuses to come down, eventually setting up a business from up there.

• "A Time to Sing" by Eddie D. Moore: dwarfs warriors face off against giants. The winners will sing of the victory.

• "The Giant’s Dream" by Beth Goder: an artist living inside the body of a giant senses changes and starts to talk to the giant in her dreams; or perhaps she is now appearing in the giant's dreams.