REVIEW: “Spirit Alembic Keeper” by Emma Burnett

Review of Emma Burnett, “Spirit Alembic Keeper,” Adventitious no. 2 (Apr 2026): 137-144 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: military conscription

Before the conscripts go off to war, first they go to August — leaving their souls behind, to be preserved untainted, until their bodies are done battling. But of course, bodies don’t go to war to come back. August’s profession is both vitally important and endlessly futile. There’s a feeling of inevitability about this story: You don’t know quite how it’s going to end, but that it will end in the only way it possibly could. When that ending comes, it is very satisfying.

(First published in Uncharted, year unknown)

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REVIEW: “Penance” by Jennifer Hudak

Review of Jennifer Hudak, “Penance,” Adventitious no. 2 (Apr 2026): 101-108 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I love a genre-bending story like this: It has all the trappings of a moderately generic SF setting, but the story itself is a story of gods and mortals and the one being who hears the voice of their god when they should not. I’m a sucker for this kind of story, so I enjoyed “Penance” very much — especially it’s absolute killer ending.

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REVIEW: “Passing Through” by Laurie Doyle

Review of Laurie Doyle, “Passing Through,” Adventitious no. 2 (Apr 2026): 45-49 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Sometimes a good story is one that can hint at a much broader world behind the brief snippet the story lets you see. Sometimes, a good story is one that gives no context, no background, no explanations, nothing to help you understand what is going on. Doyle’s story is one of the latter, and I loved it precisely for that reason.

(First published in Manawaker Studio’s Flash Fiction Podcast 2024.)

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REVIEW: “Madam Strzyga’s Pagan Pest Control” by Katharine Tyndall

Review of Katharine Tyndall, “Madam Strzyga’s Pagan Pest Control,” Adventitious no. 2 (Apr 2026): 27-31 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

“Catholic solutions won’t work for pagan problems,” Madam Strzyga tells an anxious client (p. 29), in this funny little story that’s almost noteworthy for how mundane it is considering how fantastical it is. Pests are pests, whether they are natural or supernatural, I guess!

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REVIEW: “Fragments Recovered From the Wreck of the Seaglass” by E. M. Linden

Review of E. M. Linden, “Fragments Recovered From the Wreck of the Seaglass,” Flash Fiction Online 152 (July 2026): 17-23 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Speculative historical botany! Who wouldn’t love a story about speculative historical botany — I definitely did. And this story nailed the ending: the final sentence was an absolute chiller.

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