The week’s best online fiction, with recommendations from FictionDaily‘s editors.
“All In A Day’s Work” by Nick Kolakowski, Satellite Magazine
I’ve been thinking about modernity a lot recently. I think we’re done with it sort of, at least conceptually, but we still live with it day after day because it basically took over and even though we disagree with it, even though we think it’s weird and racist, patriarchal, and colonialist or whatever, we still get really excited when UniQLo opens huge stores all around the world selling ten-dollar jeans without asking: wait, how are these jeans so cheap? Who makes them? Where does the material come from? How does this business operate? Etc. I ate a burrito from Chipotle today, for example. It was good, but it tasted like History. Anyway, this very very short story is basically an epitaph in the form of a list and a short reflection on a father that’s been eaten, I think, by the modernity machine. It’s quick but it’ll stay with you. Plus, it’s Satellite’s inaugural issue. We wish them well.–David Backer
“Dear Charles” by Angie Spoto, kill author
Here we have a cleverly executed (and highly amusing) comment on the evolution, or devolution, of the English language over time, from its more florid demonstrations in the Era of Letter Writing to today’s emoticon-rife textese. You’ll LOL. This is also, if I may be so bold, a particularly strong edition of kill author, which continues to turn out some of the Internet’s freshest, most inspiring examples of experimental fiction that “works,” from new voices and vets alike. Believe the hype. — Ryan Nelson
“We Three Kings” by Jim Harrington, GRIFT Magazine
Holidays tend to get a little wild, and GRIFT Magazine, featuring holiday-themed pieces like “We Three Kings” by Jim Harrington, administers fast-acting satisfaction for the harried crime fiction fan. Harrington’s flash is fun, fast and right on target for the broad base of genre tastes. He manages to be funny, grim, compelling and clever, all within a ribbon-thin space that’s clipped short for your convenience. In “We Three Kings,” some of the best qualities of genre flash are featured: You get the goods and get out – even if our dysfunctional heroes might not – while being carried along by a voice that’s solid in its prose and sure of its tone. Drop the shopping list a moment and give a glimpse at GRIFT. You’ll get a dose of quick crime fiction cure that’ll last you all the way to X-mas.–M. C. Funk
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