A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers by Alyssa Wong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hands-down, totally gorgeous, kick you in the crotch, will not dare to pretend you're a stupid reader, DANGEROUS story.

I love it!

There are way too few stories like this, full of heart and anger and frustration flowing incomprehensibly from either hyperbole or from gigantic world-destroying energies and permutations of time travel and godlike powers. Could be just one. Could be both. Who knows? From one way to read it, it could just be a pair of very volatile sisters that FEEL life so strongly, so loudly, so deeply, that it feels like the world is tearing up beneath their feet in a louder way than going super sayan. OR all these fantasic fantasy elements are perfectly real and they can reset reality after crashing it like a misplaced memory address in a computer.

I mean, WOW.

And it doesn't really end there, either, because the hints in the story and the revealed clarity of tragedy and hate and wild abandon in the face of wrongs done to us gives REALITY to either reading and it even choked me up.

Bravo, bravo, bravo.

This ain't a traditional story by a long shot, but it is a truly fantastic wild ride, like reaping the whirlwind from within the scythe. :)

Barring other reads, this might be my top pick for the short story Hugo noms for '17.

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