Short Reviews of Short SFF
Review of Adrian Ward, “The Unnamed City, As Seen at Three Points,” Adventitious no. 4 (Aug 2026): 221-226 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
There was something elusively beautiful about this story; it reminded me of the visceral feeling I got when I first visited Tiryns, in Greece. I’m not sure what really happened in it; I mostly just spent my reading time soaking it up. Which turn out, in the end, to be what the story itself was all about.
Review of Elijah J. Mears, “Saul & Noah’s Hot Bouleutophagy Summer,” Adventitious no. 4 (Aug 2026): 117-134 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
In case you’re like me and weren’t 100% sure what bouleutophagy, I’m not spoiling anything about this extremely hilarious — while simultaneously almost too real for comfort — story by glossing it as “eat the rich”. The word may not yet show up in my go-to dictionary, Wiktionary, but I certainly hope it will be there in years to come! (I also did a double-take, and enjoyed, seeing the city I lived in for the first 10 years of my life get name-checked — its one of those that usually only people who’ve been there know of it!)
Review of Hannya Kay, “All Aboard,” Adventitious no. 4 (Aug 2026): 214-220 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
There was something wildly, surprisingly creepy about this story.
Review of Jeanna Cammarano, “Hello,” Adventitious no. 4 (Aug 2026): 205-213 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
It’s hard to know what to make of a story like this, whether I should take it as it seems to be, or to read it as a metaphor for some contemporary events. Either way, it’s not a very happy story.
Review of Rio Lombana and Kaitlin Schmidt, “Life Imitates,” Adventitious no. 4 (Aug 2026): 82-104 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was an exceptionally creepy piece. The horror in this story is that even when Mari does everything right, it still isn’t enough to save Karley.
Review of Audrey Zhou, “Mother’s Mother’s Daughter,” Adventitious no. 4 (Aug 2026): 62-80 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Body harm, death of a parent.
Weird and a little bit creepy, and sad and fierce, but ultimately hopeful: This was a roller coaster of a witchy story!
(First appeared in Silk and Sinew 2025).
Review of Stewart C. Baker, “The Spacefarer’s Guide to Connecting With Your Daughter’s Descendants,” Adventitious no. 4 (Aug 2026): 168-177 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Oh, this was a glorious story — full of love over generations and forgiveness and parenting mistakes and recoveries. I nearly cried while reading it, and was so delighted by the ending.
Review of Ruth Joffre, “A Hole in My Heart the Shape of the Multiverse,” Adventitious no. 4 (Aug 2026): 147-166 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The looping back and forth through time and space and character in this story is effortless in a way that can only have taken Joffre considerable effort and attention and care. I loved this story in the way that I loved Natasha Pulley’s The Kingdoms (which I utterly adored).
Review of Holly Schofield, “The Grammar of Jespersen-b,” Adventitious no. 4 (Aug 2026): 136-145 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story reminds us that just because a planet may not have any humanoid or humanlike lifeforms on it, it doesn’t mean we weren’t colonizing it just the same when we land on it and force it to conform to our own needs. I particularly enjoyed the way that Schofield uses linguistic metaphors in her depiction of unsettlement, longing, and disorientation.
(First published in On Spec 33, no. 4, 2023)
Review of Priya Sridhar, “How to Lose to Death,” Adventitious no. 4 (Aug 2026): 106-109 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
There was such a lot of complexity twisted into such a short story. I found this both ephemeral and satisfying!
SFF Reviews