I don’t want to nominate flash stories for awards, and it seems pointless to review such short works at length, but I do want to list them and tag them appropriately… hopefully it’ll help others find them! All of these stories are eligible for the Hugos and are under 1000 words – or, in some cases, just barely over 1000 words; I decided to include stories just over the limit, because my word counts might not be perfect.

I’ll also have a separate battle for these stories, I think people like that feature.

Note: I always keep the original capitalization in titles – I haven’t mentioned this before, but the magazines in this entry use different capitalization schemes, and it all looks a bit messy.

Orkish Cornbread by Ranko Trifković (a Serbian man)

from Words without Borders, Dec 2011. Translated by the author

A fun idea, but the translation could’ve used some editing.

The Death Collector by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (a Mexican-Canadian woman)

from AEscifi.ca, Feb 2011

Great, atmospheric, deadly. Similar to her previously reviewed story, except even better. Highly recommended.

The Universe reef by Tobias Buckell (a Grenadan-American man)

from Nature Futures, May 2011

An interesting setting, but little story. This would’ve better served as a backdrop for a lengthier work. (Great point about islands though!)

Futures by Cat Rambo (an American woman)

from The Dream People, 2011

Poetic; not very unique, but well told. Also very short – even for flash.

Every girl dreams of falling in love by Shelly Li (a Chinese-American woman)

from Nature Futures, Sep 2011

This is basically the Super Soldier trope, with Super Soldier Guy further othered by having the POV character be a different person.