It's a Jumble

I normally post these short fiction recommendations on a bimonthly basis, but-- gestures helplessly at the world around us now- -I found my focus a bit lacking earlier this spring, and didn't get as much reading done as usual. Last month was a bit better, and as a bonus you get a longer rec list covering the last three months. Fantastical worlds and alternate realities in Beneath Ceaseless Skies “The Ordeal” by M. Bennardo His father had told him of Alpinia’s trials by ordeal, but he had thought they must have certainly disappeared with so many other superstitious customs in so many other places at the dawning of the rational twentieth century. In his work, Bennardo has often used fantastical worlds and situations to explore serious philosophical and ethical questions. In this latest story, he spins an alternate-history story of a young American man on his Grand Tour of Europe. While passing through the (fictitious) country of Alpinia to visit his father’s fri