The joy of fantasy - two free reads!

While my reading tastes in recent years have shifted towards romance, fantasy has and always will be my first love. This year, I was able to attend CoNZealand: WorldCon 78 - a fully virtual convention celebrating science fiction and fantasy. This was my first big convention and there was so much to see and do, it was rather overwhelming. I'm still working through the backlog of panels but I'm loving the wealth of story recommendations shared by the panelists and presenters. I'm discovering incredible new-to-me authors. My TBR pile, already sizeable, is now HUGE.

To this end, I'd like to share a couple of stories I've really enjoyed in the last week. Best of all, both are free to read online! Watch this space for more recommendations as I slowly work through my list.

Now, with no further ado:

Synner and the Rise of the Rebel Queen by Phoebe Wagner - a dystopian short story featuring skateboards, and

A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djeli Clark - murder mystery in a magical alternate Cairo