The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September/October 2023

A better than average issue of F&SF, with one rather gruesome horror story by Max Firehammer. Other interesting stories are by Maricar Macario, Christopher Mark Rose and a moving story by Douglas Smith about the sacrifices to be made for saving the universe.

• "Shining Shores" by Max Firehammer: a fascinating horror story featuring the 'Orcadian folktale of the Nuckalavee'. It starts with a woman search for her writer friend who has gone missing in a seaside town. Things would go downhill, and horrifying, from there when it involves a water god who enjoys toying with primates.

• "Bayanihan" by Maricar Macario: in a future where more of the Earth has been covered with water and aliens exists, one Filipino whose family migrated to Mars makes a journey home to Earth. But she finds that much has altered since she left, except for one old robotic nanny who reminds her of where home is.

• "Sort Code" by Chris Barnham: two people keep meeting as they are apparently 'bumped' though different time settings. Mixed into it is a story of a fatal accident both were involved in and musings over just why they keep seeing each other in different time scenarios.

• "What We Found In The Forest" by Phoebe Wood: two girls enter a forest in search of their adult selves, only to find each other instead.

• "Three Sisters Syzygy" by Christopher Mark Rose: an unusual story that starts off with an astronaut shifted to another universe where she now on a mission with her sisters to visit the moons of Earth. Other mysteries occur when they visit the moons, leading to a meeting with alien technology that would change all their lives and leave them with memories of the encounter.

• "Mixtapes From Neptune" by Karter Mycroft: on songs played while one explorer, who helps make an important discovery on an outer solar system moon.

• "To Pluck A Twisted String" by Anne Leonard: a mother's son returns from a magical city, angry and disappointed, and is later taken away to be imprisoned without a cause given. The mother's determination to learn what crime he had cause would lead her to a discovery about the power of her son's broken guitar.

• "My Embroidery Stitches Are Me" by A Humphrey Lanham: an uncomfortable story of a person who has embroidery stitched into the skin by her loved ones.

• "Upstairs" by Tessa Yang: a family shifts home 'upstairs' into a tower with better living space, leaving their old, poorer lower level home behind. But the past has a way of catching up, when an old acquittance presses her to get new customers for their illicit goods. The backlash would sever her relationships, perhaps for the better.

• "Teatro Anatomico" by Getty Hesse: on the night of a carnival, a public anatomy lesson turns strange when the corpse is still animated, and the person who did the cutting makes an unusual request to the corpse in return for giving it a 'life'.

• "Night Haul" by Andrew Crowley: a truck driver hauling an unknown cargo drives through the encroaching night. Then, a radio conversation with a fellow trucker makes him realize the cargo he's carrying may be the cause of the enveloping darkness, and now he may have the dreadful task of getting rid of it.

• "On The Matter Of Homo Sapiens" by Kel Coleman: two robots in the future on a treasure hunt debate the pros and cons of bringing back one particular harmful organism that once ruled the earth.

• "Sugar Steak" by Jenny Kiefer: a meal in an unusual restaurant leads one person to develop a deadly kind of dental problem.

• "Growths" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman: a mother brings her small daughter to meet her father, who turns out to be other than human, as evidenced by the daughter's extra arms. The meeting would be on deciding what to do with the extra arms and the wishes of the daughter.

• "If I Should Fall Behind" by Douglas Smith: an interesting and moving story of a boy and girl running away from Chasers who want to kill them. The boy has the ability to see what may happen in the future and uses it to avoid them, again. But this time, the universe has a 'glitch'. Eventually, one Chaser meets him for a private chat, in which is revealed the reason for the glitch and the price to be paid to fix it. In the end, he pays it but, with a change in the plan.