REVIEW: “Down To The Root” by Lisa Papademetriou

Review of Lisa Papademetriou, “Down To The Root”, Clarkesworld Issue 205, October (2023): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.

Across time, space, and civilization, feelings remain the same – often simultaneously all consuming and incomprehensible. Sometimes what drives you is simply a determined feeling, and sometimes that simple feeling is the most important thing of all.

A story about space battles and planets with cyclical time. Also a story about relationships, friendship, and a sense of faith and hope.

I also feel like Luriel is the kind of friend everyone should aspire to be. True to her duty and her friend, while traversing the confusing journey of life.

Two things to remember from this story – there are a million ways to die, and taking risks gives you strength.

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REVIEW: “Prism” by Nick Shafir

Review of Nick Shafir, “Prism,” Assemble Artifacts 2 (2022): 97-118 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

The narrator is off to test their potential as a Querier, a person in charge of gathering information that will contribute to determining what, exactly, are the Prism Events. We see their interview with an astronomer, we hear about their own experience with the first Prism Event, and the twist at the end is both fitting and not so telegraphed in advance to not be a surprise. But the entire thing was let down for me by a simple inconsistency in how the main character was presented. First, they say “It’s fortunate that in a job like this, being emotionally attuned wouldn’t do me any favors. That’s part of the reason it was a good fit for me” (p. 98). But then just a few pages later — “I’d been warned about keeping my sympathy in check when I took the assignment” (p. 101) and on the next page there’s a reference to “my unintentionally callous nature” (p. 102). So: sympathetic/empathetic or not? Which are we to believe? I’m not sure I can buy this being simply an unreliable narrator when the explanation of inconsistent author strikes me as more likely. And as soon as I am worried that I’ve got an inconsistent author, it makes me uncertain about everything else I’m given in the story.

A real shame, because the idea had potential, I think.

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REVIEW: “Love, Happiness, and All the Things You May Not Be Destined For” by Lindz McLeod

Review of Lindz McLeod, “Love, Happiness, and All the Things You May Not Be Destined For,” Assemble Artifacts 2 (2022): 62-96 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I know it’s still early 2024, but this story is an exceptionally strong candidate for being my story of 2024. The conceit is novel: Georgia meets up regularly with other versions of herself, at different ages, both learning how her life will turn out from the older versions and in turn teaching the younger ones the same. And the twist(s! plural!) at the end are glorious and unexpected and perfect.

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REVIEW: “Misty Moon” by Elizabeth Hinckley

Review of Elizabeth Hinckley, “Misty Moon,” Luna Station Quarterly 56 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was definitely a story that is aimed at the horse-person readership demographic (a demographic I’m not a part of). I waited quite awhile before I got anything speculative, and while I was waiting I felt that the story could’ve benefited from just a tad more editing than it got (e.g., two “in facts” in the opening paragraph is just a bit clunky, and it was heavy on the telling and light on the showing).

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REVIEW: “First Ship” by Eric Lewis

Review of Eric Lewis, “The Family Proof,” Assemble Artifacts 2 (2022): 45-61 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Corralyn Fan-Anders has spent the last 16 years in stasis, on the first manned mission to another star system. When she awakens from stasis, everything goes smoothly — until another ship, impossibly, appears.

For someone as clever as Corralyn must have been, she seems remarkably obtuse about the possibility of technology improving in the time that she’s been asleep. That, combined with some bad judgment and poor decision making, made her a relatively unrelatable, unsympathetic character. The story was billed as a comedy, but I didn’t quite see that side of things; maybe other readers will have a different experience.

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