Each month, I supplement my full magazine reviews of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus with Magazine Minis, in which I read a handful of intriguing stories from a couple magazines, despite not reading them cover-to-cover. To open 2026, I’ll be looking at the year’s first issues of Asimov’s and Kaleidotrope.

Asimov’s

Three stories immediately stood out to me from the January/February 2026 issue of Asimov’s, starting with the cover story: The Greenway by Susan Palwick. It takes place in a frozen land, starring a mother isolated with her children after her own mother’s death. In this world, people tend to die with vegetation growing inside them, and their bodies are planted in hopes they’ll grow food for the living. But with the winter fields too hard for planting, the lead must give her mother’s body to the traveling caravan that brings spring in its wake. On the surface, it looks like a story that will spend most of its time worldbuilding, but underneath is a touching tale about isolated survivors trying to do their best by both the previous and the next generation. 

More inexplicably strange is All My Birds by K.A. Teryna, translated by Alex Shvartsman, a full-on magical realism tale in which a grieving lead, searching for the lost ticket that will allow her passage out of her city, suddenly finds birds bursting out from within her. At first, she’s baffled, but the story sees her learning to move on with her life in the face of the inexplicable. Very much a vibes-over-plot story that’s perhaps a bit too magical realist for my tastes, but it’s a compelling read nonetheless. 

Stay by William Preston is another story featuring loss, but in this case, it’s the lead trying to prepare for his own death by training an AI copy of himself to take care of his dog after he passes. Though I’m not the biggest fan of sci-fi dog stories, I do enjoy exploring interactions with different versions of a person, so I was intrigued to give this one a try. But ultimately, while it’s told well enough, it really does center on the dog in a way that plays out about how one would expect. It will doubtless appeal more to sci-fi fans with more of a soft spot for canine companions. 

Kaleidotrope

The Winter 2026 issue of Kaleidotrope has a sizable handful of stories that caught my attention. Magie Vol, Ogies Toe by CL Hellisen is another loss story, in which the lead and their sister must find a way to satisfy the ravenous ghost of their mother. It’s a short tale following their attempts to understand the trials and dissatisfactions of their mother’s life to find out what it is that she may need in death. 

Confessions of the Little Seer by Emily Linstrom is another ghost story, featuring a charlatan medium who flees to old Florida and is suddenly faced with the genuine article—not for vengeance but for the chance at a new start. It may be a story that follows familiar patterns, but it’s well-told and a satisfying read regardless. 

Take Flight by Dan Peacock features a familiar sci-fi setting: a dying Earth populated mostly by the stubborn or impoverished, as regular launches shuttle more and more people to a fresh start among the stars. The ornithologist lead and his wife remain earthbound, holding out hope that their son will realize that his persistent humanitarian efforts are hopeless and that their only chance lies in space. But the sighting of what was thought to be an extinct species of bird injects new purpose into his life, one that persists in spite of the hopelessness that colors everything. It’s a story that expertly blends the small-scale storyline with big questions about family and morality, making it my favorite of today’s set. 

The Savior of the Three Lands by K.M. Veohongs is written in second-person by the daughter of a power-hungry despot, turned into a competent ruler by the same magic that keeps killing everyone else in his family. But her interlocutor, stolen from another land with quite different ideals, is appalled that so many women keep throwing themselves on their swords to take the edge off his tyrannical reign. While I could’ve stood for a little more complexity in the ending, this one does a wonderful job digging into the lead’s complicated feelings and the assumptions she’d never thought to question—it’s well worth the read!

January Favorites

• Take Flight by Dan Peacock (short story, Kaleidotrope)