Another set of five free flash stories, eligible for this year’s awards. I’ve also decided to list authors who are immigrants. I haven’t gone over previous posts yet – if you see an immigrant author untagged, let me know!

The English Cemetery by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (a Mexican-Canadian woman who is an immigrant)

from Coffinmouth, Sep 2011

A poetic meditation on expatriate-hood from a local’s point of view, with a touch of fantasy. This is the third story by the author about death in 2011! In case you’re wondering, that’s not meant to be a complaint

Safe Empathy by Ken Liu (a Chinese-American man)

from Daily Science Fiction, Nov 2011

I thought I’d reviewed all of his free stories this year, but apparently not. He doesn’t even link to this story on his website, and I can see why – it’s probably his weakest to day. Also, there’s some very inequal gender-role stuff in there.

 …And A Bottle Of Rum by Melissa Mead (an American woman)

from Daily Science Fiction, Jan 2011

An amusing story about sympathetic magic and teleportation (the author calls it “telekinesis”, but it seems to be mostly teleportation). With pirates. Everything is better with pirates?

Spidersong by Alex Shvartsman (a Russian-American Jewish man who is an immigrant)

from Daily Science Fiction, Oct 2011

Yay, groupminds! Augh. Spoiler: I really disliked the twist at the end – while it is inventive and chilling, it promotes one of my most hated tropes, the evil groupmind. 

Jade Dragon by Shelly Li (a Chinese-American woman)

from Daily Science Fiction, Jan 2011

A take on economic exploitation in future China. Something about it didn’t ring true to me… this is the sort of thing best written from experience.

The author’s comments shed some light on my feelings – she wrote about an event that happened to her in the position of privilege, from the other person’s POV. I think that’s a bad idea and I’m not going to cut the author any slack just because she herself is underprivileged in other respects.