Reading at Dawn - Book Review Blog

For fun, since I'm trying to submit more fiction, I decided to do one review on a short fiction publisher. Daily Science Fiction (aka DSF) is a daily sci-fi publisher, as the name suggests, and I get the stories right in my email inbox.

Day 4 in A to Z challenge

About the Publication: "Original Science Fiction and Fantasy every weekday. Welcome to Daily Science Fiction, an online magazine of science fiction short stories. We publish "science fiction" in the broad sense of the word: This includes sci-fi, fantasy, slipstream-- whatever you'd likely find in the science fiction section of your local bookstore. Our stories are mostly short short fiction (flash fiction) each Monday through Thursday, hopefully the right length to read on a coffee break, over lunch, or as a bedtime tale. Friday's weekend stories are longer."


 http://dailysciencefiction.com/


There are a couple of features about DSF that make it great for readers who like science fiction (obviously if you don't, umm don't read their stories). One is that due to the nature of the name, there are many stories published. It's not quite every single day but close enough that one can accept the title. This means there are chances for many different authors to get published, which is always great (for us writers). And that allows for variety (which readers can appreciate).

This does mean that not every story is going to match the same reader's personal taste. I'll admit sometimes the stories I get end up deleted before I get half way through them. I try but just some sci-fi and me don't get along. Others, I really really like. Personal taste plays a big part but that's the good part about getting them in email. If I don't want to read more, I don't have to do much aside from click on the little trash can image.

This also allows for some playing with formatting that some publishers would be weary to take on. I've seen a couple of stories where they don't look like what one expects from a story. This can be anything from letters, dictation to machine or even a space tech support transcript. Can be very interesting to see what approach different authors take with their writing. The site also has the stories categorized, which is convenient if you are looking for a quick sci-fi read, since they have quite a collection available at this point.

One story that caught my attention recently is The Folds of War by Marcus Gallagher-Jones. It had an interesting set of characters and premise. I stumbled for a second over the Nee-Chan because I'm in the U.S. and only see it in Manga and such but since I've started reading those too I got over that quick. From there, I was hooked because I have a recent interest in paper cranes. I made a couple images with them, so I wanted to see what the story would lead to and I wasn't disappointed. While I didn't quite expect how it would go, it all made sense. Overall, it was a good, quick read.

Anyone who likes science fiction, short in particular, should check out the Daily Science Fiction web site and sign up to get stories emailed to them. If you don't want the emails, then save the link to your favorites and peruse at your convenience. And enjoy the plethora of sci-fi the publisher has to offer.


Reviewed by:
Dawn Embers