REVIEW: “Look to the Future” by Louise Hughes

Review of Louise Hughes, “Look to the Future”, Luna Station Quarterly 47 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I love the premise of this story: In a world where ordinarily everyone can see the future, the narrator is one of those who can’t. The entire shape of people’s lives is different on such a premise, and the distress and bafflement at the narrator’s plight is genuine and believable: How can you plan for your future if you cannot see it? “Everyone worried. They narrowed their brows and clenched their teeth and fretted that I was making a Terrible Decision that would Ruin My Life Forever.”

What can you possible decide to do about your future when you cannot see it? Why, study history! And that decision is when the real magic in this story begins.

This story hit the perfect balance of making it all about the characters and their own world and story but leaving enough space within it to “read” the real world into it, almost allegorically. Big thumbs up from me.

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REVIEW: “Bluebell Song” by JL George

Review of JL George, “Bluebell Song”, Luna Station Quarterly 47 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Death.

To listen to the song of the bluebells “was to succumb to a slow madness,” but this doesn’t prevent Old Woman Achan from going out every morning to listen to them, trying to escape an even worse fate. In the end, it almost feels like she’s taken the coward’s way out, and for that reason I found the story emotionally unsatisfactory.

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REVIEW: “After the Storm” by A.M. Faller

Review of A.M. Faller, “After the Storm”, Luna Station Quarterly 47 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

“Lostara Oasis was about to run out of water”, and the Council of Seven have sent Dowsers out into the Barren to find new sources. Aza is one of them, but she’s unlike all the others: She was born outside the capital, to Feral parents who scavenged in the Barren. When she’s sent into the desert without an escort, it’s clear that no one would care too much if she died. But Aza’s too good a pilot and too good a dowser to let a single sandstorm stop her from her quest, and in the end her persistence is rewarded, as she discovers something far more important and valuable than water.

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REVIEW: “Dashing, Through the Spaceship” by Anna Martino

Review of Anna Martino, “Dashing, Through the Spaceship”, Luna Station Quarterly 47 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I’ve been watching a lot of Star Trek lately — DS9 and Voyager, the first time for both series for me! — and when I saw that this story felt like a Star Trek episode, I mean this in the best possible way: Futuristic space-travel that’s still just close enough to now to feel real; junior officers hashing out their pecking order; amusing antics with an animal. I loved it! A truly stellar story.

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REVIEW: “Immortal Coil” by Ellen Kushner

Review of Ellen Kushner, “Immortal Coil”, Uncanny Magazine Issue 41 (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Isabel Hinchliff.

At 44 years old, William (Will) Shakespeare begins to see his long-dead friend Christopher (Kit) Marlowe in the streets of London. Kit leads patient, unflappable Will on a merry chase full of word games before finally revealing the mechanism behind his mysterious ‘resurrection’. Of course, Marlowe (author of Doctor Faustus) lives because he made a Faustian bargain, and now Shakespeare must choose whether to make the same sacrifice in order to receive the same reward.

Among a truly dizzying collection of references to both Shakespeare and Marlowe’s works, “Immortal Coil” seeks to ask and answer one fundamental question: what does it mean to live as a writer? In other words, what is the difference between writing about the world and truly experiencing it? 

Who better to answer these questions than The Bard himself and his ill-fated rival? If you’ve ever wanted to see Shakespeare and Marlowe discuss art, legacy, travel, and death, this is the story for you. 

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REVIEW: “Who Wants to Live Forever?” by Karen McCreedy

Review of Karen McCreedy, “Who Wants to Live Forever?”, Luna Station Quarterly 24 (2015): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

“Who wants to live forever?” they asked, and humanity—stupid, unthinking fools that we were—answered, “we do.”

Ange and Bob both work at the Euro-Asian Space Agency, which means that when the humanoid robots sent off to colonise Mars and Jupiter return to Earth offering people the opportunity to live forever — to download themselves into indestructible humanoid bodies — they’re near the top of the priority queue. Only, they never stopped to think what life would be like if all the bits that make them human that come from their corporeal bodies were gone.

This story started off pretty classic SF but continually edged its way closer and closer to horror, as McCreedy deftly illustrates what life would be like if we could, indeed, live forever. Thanks, but no thanks!

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REVIEW: “Presque Vue” by Tochi Onyebuchi

Review of Tochi Onyebuchi, “Presque Vue”, Uncanny Magazine Issue 41 (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Isabel Hinchliff. 

As she grows up, Sam has to wrestle with the revelation that hearing just one voice in her head is not, in fact, normal. She tracks when it guides her and when it falls silent. Is it nudging her thoughts in a certain direction? What does it want? Only time will tell, but why does she feel like time might be running out?

Clocking in at less than two thousand words, this bite-size story is surprisingly refreshing. It takes a much more holistic approach than many stories which feature internal voices; Sam is a well-developed protagonist with family support and access to mental health services. She struggles to understand and make peace with her unique mental landscape, but she isn’t seriously hindered by it or degraded by her peers. As each new detail of her life story was revealed, I found myself effortlessly picking out the layers of motives in Sam’s life: her motives, the motives of her friends and family, and the motives of the mysterious voice. It’s a fascinating read with a delightful reveal at the end.

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REVIEW: “Helix” by Britt Foster

Review of Britt Foster, “Helix”, Luna Station Quarterly 46 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

“Project Chimera had gone on for fifty years and billions of dollars had poured into its evolution.” It was supposed to be “the pinnacle of human achievement,” and yet instead, Dr. Magdalena Santos is told that the project is being such down, with immediate effect, leaving her in charge of destroying the project’s assets.

It takes a very special scientist to destroy the results of a research project, especially one that had been going so well, and the question the story revolves around is: Is Dr. Santos one of those special ones? Or, if she isn’t, will she get away with it? On the one hand, it’s clear that we’re meant to root for her to not destroy the assets. On the other hand, it’s not at all clear that those who want to shut the project down are in the wrong. The delightful tension between these two threads means that the ending is not entirely comfortable at all.

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REVIEW: “Face Changing” by Jiang Bo

Review of Jiang Bo, “Face Changing”, Clarkesworld Issue 177, June (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.

A quite unique tale about identity in the future. A future where everyone and everything is constantly online. We’re all on the internet and the internet is within us.

A world where Big Brother-esque technological advancement and big data is used to predict behavior in some sort of data based Minority Report, lightly touching on free will vs determinism.

Comprehensive yet flawed algorithms that, while perfect for machines and an idealistic world, can still be fooled by a human being who is intelligent enough and desperate enough.

A fast paced, exciting tale.

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