Several Witty SF/F Stories from 2015--Some Humorous, Some Serious

November 29, 2015 11:44 AM

Heather Lindsley's "Werewolf Loves Mermaid," Sunil Patel's "The Merger," and Emil Ostrovski's "Tragic Business" develop humorous situations from SF/F motifs: cryptid romance, intergalactic business negotiations, and the cycle of death and rebirth, respectively. Lincoln Michel's "Dark Air" combines common weird fiction / horror situations with a very dry, very dark sense of humor. Naomi Kritzer's "So Much Cooking" is a serious SF story about a grave possibility, but it brings the matter home via a witty parody of a cooking blog.
posted by Monsieur Caution (9 comments total)

Whoa, "Dark Air" is pretty great. Thanks for the post.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:59 PM on November 29, 2015

"So much cooking" was great. Thanks for these links!
posted by sevenyearlurk at 1:00 PM on November 29, 2015 [8 favorites]

The Ticket Taker of Cenote Zací is weird and sensual and I loved it. Not trying to hijack your thread with other suggestions. Read this recently and thought I'd share.
posted by jferngler at 1:59 PM on November 29, 2015 [3 favorites]

Only read Werewolf Loves Mermaid of these, but it's great. Looking forward to the rest of them.
posted by kyrademon at 2:53 PM on November 29, 2015

"So Much Cooking" spooked me.
posted by wenestvedt at 4:47 PM on November 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

Naomi Kritzer is SO GOOD. First the one about the cat pictures and now this? Whoa.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:23 PM on November 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yeah, So Much Cooking was incredible. I wanna send it on to everyone I know.

And go buy myself a whole bunch of canned food.
posted by Itaxpica at 10:37 PM on November 29, 2015

I strongly expected so much cooking to end ... differently, and I am pleased it didn't. Still feel surprisingly nervous since reading it! Unexpectedly powerful stuff.
posted by fizban at 2:50 AM on November 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

I really enjoy the Twilight zinger at the very beginning of "Werewolf Loves Mermaid." I enjoy even more knowing that in 20 years, this story will hold up as a sweetly unconventional love story and the Twilight joke will recede into the mists of forgotten pop ephemera.
posted by sobell at 10:41 AM on November 30, 2015