Short Reviews of Short SFF
Review of Ava Neumaier, “Baba Yaga in Chernobyl,” Luna Station Quarterly 67 (September 2026): 121-132 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
I loved the idea of this story — take a technological disaster like Chernobyl and reframe it in fantasy terms — but I was less swayed by the execution. There was a bit too much science still in it, and at times the attempts to reach the prosody and vocabulary of a fairy tale came up short.
Review of Morgan Lockhart, “Marigold and the Toad With Cerulean Eyes,” Luna Station Quarterly 67 (September 2026): 67-75 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
If you ever wondered where those enchanted toads came about, or why they need to be kissed in order to turn back into men, this is a story for you! It’s a fun, light-hearted, romantic story, one that leaves you happier for reading it.
Review of Esther Lim, “Rules for Inter-Dimensional Refugees,” Luna Station Quarterly 67 (September 2026): 135-139 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story is written in a breezy comedic tone that I thought I would like, but increasingly did not: it resulted in both refugee status and stalking being treated flippantly — possibly in ways the author did not expect or intend, but that was enough to put me off the rest of the story.
Review of Hannya Kay, “One God Loved Me As I Died,” Flash Fiction Online 156 (September 2026): 33-36 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This is the second story in this volume of FFO that straddles the line between SF and fantasy. It’s got space-ships and incessantly talking gods, a great combination! It’s also another one that turned surprisingly sweet in the end. All in all, a short, satisfying read.
Review of Margaret A. Hanson, “For the Good of the Engines,” Flash Fiction Online 156 (September 2026): 29-32 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was one of those delightful stories that tells you on its face that it’s science fiction, while concealing (albeit not too hard!) the fact that it’s really fantasy. Sweet and adorable.
Review of Stewart C Baker, “How to Cross a Covered Bridge,” Flash Fiction Online 156 (September 2026): 24-27 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Whoever would’ve thought a bridge could make a reader so sad?! Baker must have some kind of magic, because that’s exactly what they conjured up with this story (even if I think it didn’t necessarily need the final page).
Review of Elitsa Dermendzhiyska, “By Candlelight, By Blue Jeans,” Flash Fiction Online 156 (September 2026): 20-23 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a story of ordinary, every day magic — which despite its ordinariness is one of the most powerful kinds of magic out there, as this story, set behind the Iron Curtain, shows. I loved it.
Review of Jonathon Burgess, “Ghostwalking,” Flash Fiction Online 156 (September 2026): 16-18 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Gosh, this story was beautiful and touching and perfect: Generations in three pages, stuffed full of love and protection.
Review of Elijah J. Mears, “Guardian of the Thresholds” Flash Fiction Online 156 (September 2026): 12-15 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
It must be some sort of cosmic fate that made me read this story on the day friends welcomed home three new kittens today and I’ve been inundated with photos, but it made reading it all the more adorable — and more touching.
(Also: every trans kid should have a guardian cat to help them cross their threshold.)
Review of Daniel Roop, “Welcome, Welcome.” Flash Fiction Online 156 (September 2026): 8-11 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a lovely little tour through a child’s fear that death comes for us all — and that death can come in many ways! — to the adult who realizes that all the myriad ways one can die are always ways one can live. It was very sweet.
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