Friday open thread: short fiction

I'm going to start this post with a brief review of some short stories I read this week, and then I will get to the question. I am trying a thing with SFF short fiction this year (namely to read more of it; by 'short fiction' I mean anything shorter than a novella), and am jumping between various online magazines and reading anything that takes my fancy. This week, I read four stories in Beneath Ceaseless Skies — the first two were in a very early issue ('Beneath the Mask' by Aliette de Bodard, and 'Winterblood' by Megan Arkenberg), and the second two were in the current issue at time of reading ('Constant Ivan and Clever Natalya' by M.A. Carrick and 'Notes on The Seventh Battle Of The Queen Of The Ruby Mists' by Mari Ness).

( Short reviews and musings on my tastes in short fiction behind the cut )

So, all of the above basically forms my answer to today's question:

Do you read short fiction? And do you have different markers of enjoyment for short fiction than you do for longer pieces of writing?

It's (almost) a wrap!

We're up to the penultimate snowflake_challenge prompt for 2023: In your own space, do the Fandom Wrap Challenge.



( Answers behind the cut )