Review of Edward Hodge, “When the Sun Passed Through Me,” Radon Journal 9 (2025): 29-33. — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Hodge’s prose in this story is really lovely and lyrical, bringing a beauty that I don’t often find in futuristic SF. So many expertly deployed turns of phrases — it makes me want to seek out his other work to see if it has the same voice.
Review of Corey Jae White, “Exopunk’s Not Dead,” Radon Journal 9 (2025): 20-25. — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Drug and alcohol abuse.
Wanna read a story about queer guys punching Nazis? Then this is a story for you!
(First published in A Punk Rock Future, 2019).
Review of MD Harrold, “The Cerebral Pitch Experiment” Radon Journal 9 (2025): 7-11. — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This is the sort of SF yarn that doesn’t care very much about reality — it is built out of tropes and stereotypes (scientists go straight to grad school out of high school, don’t require any post-docs before getting jobs, always wear lab coats and work in labs) and pretty much from the start you have an idea of where it is going, what kind of story it is. But I use the word “yarn” precisely because it is that: Even though it is trope-y and full of stereotypes, it was a good fun read!
Review of Dafydd McKimm, “The Ten Declarations of Bozo, Supreme Jongleur of Planet Clown” Radon Journal 9 (2025): 1-5. — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
In 5 short pages, McKimm takes us from the enforced off-world immigration of a persecuted people through populism all the way to straight up fascism. Every step seems natural and appropriate and right, which is part of what makes the story all the more terrifying.
Review of Josh Pearce, “Lacus Odii (Lake of Hate)” Radon Journal 9 (2025): 66-67 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Well, this is quite a prescient poem! I had to go back and check just exactly when in 2025 this issue of Radon Journal came out — and the answer is, two days after the US presidential inauguration. Who knows whether Pearce had insider knowledge of what was to come, or is just very good at predicting the future, the first stanza of this poem cuts awfully close to home, a month on from the inauguration. Want to be thoroughly depressed? Read this poem.
Review of Nadia Steven Rysing, “Dirt.” Radon Journal 9 (2025): 74 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Apocalyptic poetry isn’t supposed to be “nice,” but this one was definitely harsh — but that harshness turned into strength at the end, and it felt something like a victory cry, or maybe a challenge.
Review of A J Dalton, “Review of the Pre-Anthropocene Museum,” Radon Journal 9 (2025): 72 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The ending stanza of the poem is what made it for me.
Review of Holly Lyn Walrath, “Ghosts in the Shell,” Radon Journal 9 (2025): 70 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was the itty-bittiest of little flash fic stories — but Walrath nevertheless manages to pack quite a bit into that one single solid paragraph of text. It’s all introspection and yet it manages to convey a rich breadth of history and scene-setting, capped off with a satisfying ending. I love seeing a well-crafted piece of fiction like this!
Review of Josh Pearce, “Buttons and Soap,” Radon Journal 9 (2025): 68 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The structure of the poem meant I had to read it a couple of times in different orders — once straight through, once with just the parentheticals and once with just the non-parentheticals — to see if I could determine how it should be read, because the first read through just left me confused. The parentheticals alone do make sense, and have a nice rhythm and rhyme to them; but what is left behind when they are extracted didn’t feel to me like it held together.
The upshot is that I spent more time confused about this poem than I did reading it, which unfortunately means this one didn’t work for me.
Review of Veda Villiers, “Dawn, the Humor Bot,” Radon Journal 9 (2025): 64-65 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
I don’t know if this poem was written before or after Trump 2.0, but there’s a certain apocalyptic despair woven through it that makes it feel very timely and appropriate for early 2025. But the poem ends on a note of hope — something we very much need.
SFF Reviews