Fantasy Magazine, Issue 94 (August 2023): Fantasy Magazine, #94

By Arley Sorg and Christie Yant

FANTASY MAGAZINE is a digital magazine focusing exclusively on the fantasy genre. In its pages, you will find all types of fantasy-dark fantasy, contemporary urban tales, surrealism, magical realism, science fantasy, high fantasy, folktales, and anything and everything in between. FANTASY is entertainment for the intelligent genre reader-we publish stories of the fantastic that make us think, and tell us what it is to be human. Welcome to Issue #94 of FANTASY! In this month's issue_we bring you short fiction by Davida Kilgore ("My Dear, My Love") and Hana Lee ("Bari and the Resurrection Flower"); flash fiction by Joshua Lim ("Voices of Kings") and B. Pladek ("The Runners"); poetry by Ubong Johnson ("Kumbaya") and Marie Brennan ("Damnatio Memoriae"); and an essay by A.T. Greenblatt.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adamant Press
• Release date: Aug 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215231265

Book preview

Fantasy MagazineFantasy Magazine

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Issue 94, August 2023

FROM THE EDITORS

Editorial: August 2023

Christie Yant and Arley Sorg

FICTION

Voices of Kings

Joshua Lim

My Dear, My Love

Davida Kilgore

The Runners

B. Pladek

Bari and the Resurrection Flower

Hana Lee

POETRY

Kumbaya

Ubong Johnson

Damnatio Memoriae: A History of the Past That Used to Be

Marie Brennan

NONFICTION

Essay: More Than a Journey

A.T. Greenblatt

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHTS

Author Spotlight: Davida Kilgore

Author Spotlight: Hana Lee

MISCELLANY

Coming Attractions: September 2023

Support Us on Patreon, or How to Become a Dragonrider or Space Wizard

Subscriptions and Ebooks

Stay Connected

About the Fantasy Team

© 2023 Fantasy Magazine

Cover by Joeprachatree / Adobe Stock Image

www.fantasy-magazine.com

Published by Adamant Press

From the Editors

Editorial: August 2023

Christie Yant and Arley Sorg | 286 words

This is the editorial we’ve been dreading having to write. We’ve been trying not to think about it too much, but we can’t put it off any longer.

We relaunched Fantasy Magazine in November of 2020–what a weird thing to do at an exceptionally weird time!–and we did it with high hopes, but realistic expectations based on our many years of experience in this field.

It is with real sadness that we have to announce that October 2023 will be our last issue. People will want to know why, of course, and the answer is the expected one: Unfortunately Fantasy never reached a point of paying for itself, and with the Kindle Periodicals mess it’s just not sustainable. We’ve actually carried on a little longer than we originally anticipated, because ending on our third anniversary made sense.

We accomplished what we set out to do, which was to make something special, to offer something distinctive, and to contribute to the landscape of genre in meaningful ways. There were a number of fantastic accolades along the way, including being finalists for two Locus Awards and two World Fantasy Awards, not to mention the work of our contributors landing in Best Of anthologies and various awards lists. Fantasy was driven by our vision, but it wouldn’t exist without our contributors. And we can’t forget the amazing individuals helping behind the scenes, who you’ll learn more about next month. They were all instrumental in Fantasy’s success.

Finally, we couldn’t have done this without you, dear readers. Thank you for joining us in celebrating these wonderful works.

Christie Yant & Arley Sorg

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Arley Sorg is a 2021 and a 2022 World Fantasy Award Finalist as well as a 2022 Locus Award Finalist for his work as co-Editor-in-Chief at Fantasy Magazine. Arley is a 2022 recipient of SFWA’s Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award. He is also a finalist for two 2022 Ignyte Awards: for his work as a critic as well as for his creative nonfiction. Arley is a senior editor at Locus Magazine, associate editor at both Lightspeed & Nightmare, and a columnist for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. He takes on multiple roles, including slush reader, movie reviewer, and book reviewer, and conducts interviews for multiple venues, including Clarkesworld Magazine and his own site: arleysorg.com. He has taught classes, run workshops, and been a guest for Clarion West, the Odyssey Writing Workshop, Cascade Writers, Augur Magazine, and more. Arley grew up in England, Hawaii, and Colorado, and studied Asian Religions at Pitzer College. He lives in the SF Bay Area and writes in local coffee shops when he can. Find him on Twitter @arleysorg. Arley is a 2014 Odyssey Writing Workshop graduate.

Christie Yant writes and edits science fiction and fantasy in the American mid-west. She is a World Fantasy Award and Locus Award finalist as co-editor of Fantasy Magazine; a consulting editor for Tordotcom’s acclaimed line of novellas; co-editor of four anthologies; editor of Women Destroy Science Fiction!, winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Anthology; and the author of just enough published short stories that if you counted them up on your digits you’d probably have a toe left over. She has a website here: inkhaven.net. She presently attempts to balance her dayjob, writing life, and editing life with varying degrees of success.

Fiction

Voices of Kings

Joshua Lim | 538 words

In the land that is now Malaysia, there once was a tribe of monkeys called the Mawahs, whose king was appointed by King Solomon to be the Raja of the jungle. Raja Mawah built himself a throne on the south bank of the Perak River and ruled the jungle fairly.

Dwelling nearby were the Siamang gibbons, who used to have great singing voices. Whenever they sang, animals stopped still and marveled at their tunes. One day, Raja Siamang was singing when a Tiger called to him. O Siamang, you are the rightful king of the jungle!

Raja Siamang was surprised and asked the Tiger why he thought so.

Your voice is the voice of a king, said the Tiger sweetly. Unlike Raja Mawah, whose voice is like a toad.

When the other Siamangs heard of this, they were very happy and began to parade themselves as kings of the jungle. Raja Mawah summoned them before him. Why do you call yourselves kings? he asked.

We have the voices of kings, replied the Siamangs. "We should rule the jungle."

"But I am the king!"

Listen to yourself! shouted the Siamangs. You croak like a toad. We shall rule the jungle, and all the animals will delight in hearing our songs!

The Siamangs pulled Raja Mawah off his throne and seated Raja