Review of Rodrigo Culagovski, “BigHappyFriend Likes Humans,” Flash Fiction Online 137 (February 2025): 14-17 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Oh, my, what a bleak story this was! A little gem of black humor wrapped up in a first- (or, maybe third- or fourth-…) contact story. It made me laugh, even if I wouldn’t necessarily call it funny.
Review of Holly Schofield, “Conflict Resolution,” Flash Fiction Online 137 (February 2025): 23-26 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story marches back in time from a drowning.
The way it starts is so sudden, so unmotivated, and so unpleasant that it put me off, erecting quite a barrier that would have to be mounted before I could enjoy the rest of the story. I figured I was willing to give the length of a flash fic story for it to convince me that I should revise my opinion of the opening events, but only that.
In the end, I think I’m ambivalent about this story. The resolution wasn’t too predictable for it to resolve my conflicted stance as a reader.
(First published in Nature:Futures October 2022).
Review of Rebecca Washburn, “A Flame At the Edge of Darkness,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 361-383 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The story frames itself as being about the Darkness — a phenomenon that isn’t quite natural, isn’t quite artificial — and the Flames — the young girls who are the only predators of the Darkness; but in truth it’s much more a story of love and estrangement between mother and daughter. I had some sympathy with Maggie, the mother (from whose point of view the story is told), up until her thinly veiled homophobia was revealed, as well as the way she pretended her religion was “love”, and then I lost all sympathy for her. I spent the rest of the story desperately hoping that she wouldn’t get resolution, that there wouldn’t be redemption, wouldn’t be a happy ending, because that seemed like it would just be too easy. Having reached the ending, I’m not quite sure if I’m happy with it or not.
Review of B. Zelkovich, “The Secret Ingredient,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 154-165 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
If you love either “queers unable to recognize flirting when it stares them in the face” genre stories or stories about love over coffee, this is a story for you! Sweet, light, and entirely happy.
Review of Mae Juniper Stokes, “A Collections Librarian of the Slow-Flying Nautilus,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 91-110 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Book burning (not in the censorship sense, but in the literal sense. Still hurts to read about).
I regularly see my philosophical friends and colleagues asking for recommendations for SFF stories relevant to various topics that they can suggest to their students; I think there’s a good chance at some point in the future I will recommend Stokes’ story for the way it engages with the ethical implications at the intersection of resource management and cultural heritage (with a side dose of immigration and colonisation). This isn’t a topic often explored in story form, and I found this an interesting take!
Review of Amara Mesnik, “Canary, Canary,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 327-347 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
One could describe the premise of this story as: Colonizing men get their comeuppance — and since it comes at the hands of a young woman, it’s rather satisfying. On the other hand, it could also be described as: Unbearably naive woman gets taught a lesson — and since that young woman is the same one, since Saisha only gets to be the heroine because it was her naivety that caused the problem in the first place, it’s also rather frustrating.
Review of Elizabeth Rankin, “A Hint Sugar,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 57-75 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Dieting, calorie counting, fatphobia.
Norah is a baker whose sweet treats are under threat from the newest development in DNA modification: A new diet induced by a shot that changes how sweet things taste.
I confess, I didn’t quite get how this was supposed to work: Is the idea that after such a shot, people would stop eating sugary things because they no longer taste sweet? Why would that be the behavioral change rather than people eating way way more sugar because they could no longer taste it was sweet? (After all, I’m pretty sure sugar’s addictive qualities are not due to its taste, but do to the impact it has on the body.) My constant thoughts about this conundrum unfortunately prevented me from engaging with the story itself as I might otherwise have.
Review of Kelli Dianne Rule, “To Bethany, With Teeth,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 349-359 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story was one of my favorite kinds of speculative fiction: Ordinary world, ordinary life, except everything has just been shifted sideways slightly, so that everything is wrong, is weird, and as a reader you have know idea how or why or where the next weirdness is going to come it. It’s a story that keeps you on your toes. It’s also a little bit creepy and more than a little bit disturbing.
And I gotta say, I would totally watch the hell out of “DIY Me, Bro”!
Review of Jennifer Jeanne McArdle, “When to Choose the Snake God,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 15-31 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: child slavery.
I found this story intriguing because it rejects a lot of tenets that we might ordinarily take for granted — that a captured child might prefer a life of servitude in the empire than the life in the provinces that they’d left behind; that given a choice to return home, that choice might not be worth making; that sometimes it is better to die for a god than to live for it.
Review of Yukimi Ogawa, “Those Uncaring Waves”, Clarkesworld Issue 222, March (2025): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
A hauntingly beautiful novella. So well written, richly layered, and very detailed. This was an absolute treat to read.
A story with an intricately created world usually has that as the highlight of the story. Here, it was the background for another beautiful story. I cannot overstate how lovely this story is – the plot, the emotion, the scale, the world building, the structure – everything so so good.
This novella is a must-read. I can’t even try to put it in a genre or explain “key points”. Read for yourself and see; thank me later!
SFF Reviews