A new issue of Asimov’s, a review copy of Otherside, and several eye-catching pieces from Uncanny have given me a nice three-zine spread for this month’s Magazine Minis. As always, I have plenty of short fiction to recommend, so let’s get to it. 

Asimov’s

A quick scan through the new fiction in the July/August 2026 Asimov’s immediately brought two tales to my attention, starting with The Hydrological Cycle of Souls, or the Assembler of Scattered Creations by Minister Faust. It’s an entry in what is meant as a linked collection of eco-optimist short stories, in this case featuring a kidnapping plot by a terrorist group that sees the development of sustainable agriculture in the desert as a threat to traditional farming practices. The worldbuilding is fascinating here, and it has me curious about other stories in this universe, even if I wasn’t quite satisfied with the resolution to the main plot. 

The other story that caught my eye was Alan Smale’s Roma Delenda Est, an alternate history in which an aging Archimedes is kidnapped by Hannibal to serve as a tutor for his son. The famed inventor takes a dim view of Carthaginian culture but eventually takes his opportunity to influence where he can. As an alternate history, it’s not earth-shaking, but it’s an entertaining read for those with a fondness for wise mentor figures making a difference. 

Otherside

Once again, a thank you to the editors of Otherside for providing me a review copy for the June 2026 issue. While they publish a lot of poetry and flash fiction that’s well out of my wheelhouse, almost everything else in the table of contents for this issue looked fascinating. I ended up picking out four to read, one reprint and a trio of original stories. 

The reprint, Two People by Ben Francisco, opens with the lead finding that his husband has been mysteriously doubled, and both instances seem more interested in each other than in him. It isn’t that they fail to include him in their projects, it’s that they have obsessive projects–to be worked in concert–in the first place, including one that will take them deep beneath the sea in search of the ineffable. It’s easy to see this story as an exploration of relationship difficulties through a speculative lens, but it’s one where I keep screaming at the characters to stop being so enigmatic and actually communicate. That leads to some frustration for the reader, but perhaps the frustration is intended. Your mileage may vary. 

We Who Have Been Raised by Tigers by P.V. Vamsidhar is an understated, personal story about a technology that allows people to remember their past lives. It’s told in two timelines, with a present-day tale interspersed with flashbacks to the lead’s former life as a tiger princess. That old life was interpersonally complicated, and so is the way it informs the lead’s understanding of his own life and gender identity. This isn’t the sort of story that will solve much, but instead quietly follows as the lead dives into some fascinating introspection. 

First to Rot by J.N. Howell is a very short piece told by two first-person narrators, visually distinguished by a change in font. Both have been raised on harsh worlds whose environmental conditions prevented them from burying bodies, and now they’re isolated together on a third world, moving past the scars of their upbringing to slowly build tenderness and affection toward each other. The emotional progression is believable, even in a short space, and the narrative parallelism provides a satisfying flourish. 

But my favorite of this issue, and perhaps my favorite of the entire month, is Remade, Reshaped, Remembered by Sydney Paige Guerrero, which opens with the lead returning from a portal fantasy adventure to be confronted with a shocked and angry mother. Her mother knowing about the portal at all is enough to subvert typical genre expectations, but it quickly becomes clear that this is no surprise to the lead—her mother’s own journey and subsequent yearning to return has shaped the lives of their family and generated no little resentment on both sides of the relationship. The reader barely sees what had happened in the other world; instead, the journey forces a direct reckoning with so many feelings that had been pent up for so long. The portal fantasy story is common enough to see all manner of creative approaches to it, but I’m not sure I’ve read a portal aftermath tale that so adeptly confronts the swirling emotions that arise from the return. The reverse culture shock hits hard, and fraught mother/daughter relationship is truly tremendous in a tale that’s excellent through and through. 

Uncanny

My feelings about Uncanny are often mixed, but they reliably produce eye-catching tables of contents, so it’s no surprise to see me dive into four stories from Issue Seventy, including a pair by authors I’d enjoyed immensely in the past. 

Perhaps the most eye-catching was Immigrant Girl from the End of the World by Hannah Yang, in which a girl growing up on a dying Earth is sent back in time as a refugee to 2004. She and a childhood friend have a scheme to bypass the memory adjustments and try to find each other in the past, but she quickly finds that the search is much more difficult than expected; moreover, it’s immensely difficult to integrate into a society that she knows is doomed. More than anything, this story is a call to action even in the midst of circumstances that seem bleak—it’s the only antidote to apathy and despair. The author makes a bold choice with the resolution of the interpersonal plot, and I admit I had mixed feelings about its conclusion, but the themes come through loud and clear. 

Magical Girl Eater by Angela Liu is another that hits the themes hard. It’s a short piece from the perspective of magical girls recalling their rise from anonymity to fame, with a focus on the extreme pressure from their sponsors to increase their marketability, even when it squeezes out their long-time fans. The cultural criticism isn’t subtle, but Liu writes it in a way that lends an emotional immediacy and keeps it from falling into didacticism. Cap it off with a hard-hitting ending and the result is a remarkably strong story despite the trim word count and a plot that could’ve easily turned rote in less skilled hands. 

I’m always interested in weird memory stories, so I was absolutely up for Extracted from an unravelled braid by Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga, in which a girl from a Rwandan expat family returns to her parents’ home to undergo a procedure that literally braids cultural memory into her hair. This story has a lot to say about the third culture upbringing that leaves the lead feeling disconnected from her roots, a feeling that’s only intensified by the way those who remained aggressively litigate which versions of the old stories are truly authentic. Throw in a dollop of foreign capital profiting off the memory technology, and there’s a whole mass of fascinating themes swirling around this one. At times, that multiplicity of themes make it feel like the story is trying to do too much, but it’s certainly thought-provoking and delivers some strong emotional beats. 

Finally, Lincoln and the Harvester C-100 by R.S.A. Garcia is a second story set in the world of the Nebula-winning “Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200.” I hadn’t read the previous story, but this one is enough fun to make me want to circle back. The general plot structure—the lead and her bot find a clever way to protect her property from outside encroachment—is familiar enough, but the execution makes it so much more than just that simple plot. The narrative voice is a pleasure to read, and the colorful characters make the whole thing come alive. If the previous story is anything like this one, I can see why people liked it so much. 

June Favorites

• “Lincoln and the Harvester C-100” by R.S.A. Garcia (short story, Uncanny)
• “Remade, Reshaped, Remembered” by Sydney Paige Guerrero (short story, Otherside)
• “Magical Girl Eater” by Angela Liu (short story, Uncanny)