Sunday Shorts — “Shoots and Ladders” by Charles Payseur

Something a bit different today for Sunday Shorts, in that I’m here to chat about a story I found online, Charles Payseur’s “Shoots and Ladders.” Click the title right there to go read it. I’ll wait right here.

Now, I bumped into Charles Payseur via twitter (he’s at @ClowderofTwo) and he’s a force for good in the world of short fiction and queer rep both. If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know how much I love short fiction, and so finding someone like Charles is a freaking treasure trove for me.

And he’s flipping talented to boot.

[image error]There’s a lot to love about “Shoots and Ladders,” not the least of which is the casual queerness. I cannot tell you how much I love reading spec fic pieces where a bisexual character just gets to breathe, where there’s a slice of queerness, yes, but the queerness isn’t the tale in and of itself (not knocking those, either, but come on: the damn future can be queer, and I’m sick to death of it not being remotely so).

This tale doubles down with something I freaking adore: alternate realities, done through a personal lens. The narrative voice is brilliant, the iterations we join the character through are painted so clearly (and with such an economy of words) that even while I was reading I was marvelling. I love that feeling.

Finally, the tone. Oh man, handling that level of dark and light, bittersweet, or whatever you want to call the dichotomy at play here between exploration and a brutal (potential?) nihilism, it just freaking sang. Gah.

I’d be furiously jealous, but I was too busy being impressed.