Short Fiction (and a poem) Tuesday

I enjoyed Tony Pi's "A Sweet Calling" this week for the whimsical candy-magic and what seemed to me a Chinese feel to the setting. (I'd love to be told if it seems meant to evoke a particular era or culture within China or elsewhere in Asia.) The dilemma of hiding his magic but wanting to help the people was also nicely done.

I also read (just this morning) Patricia Russo's "Wishes and Feathers" and enjoyed that, especially the little details that Lopi notices that identify a person's origin. It flirted with the Eddings-style everyone-from-X-country-behaves-thus silliness...but it never fell over that edge. Instead it seemed to be very aware of the little quirks we pick up from our peers wherever we happen to live.

And just for something different, I loved this week's poem in Strange Horizons, F. J. Bergmann's "The Planet of Ideal Readers." If you're like me, the title alone should intrigue you enough to go read it (and it's short, besides...).