Review of Jennifer Lesh Fleck, “This Island Toward Which I Row and Row, Yet Cannot Reach Alone,” Flash Fiction Online 141 (June 2025): 8-12 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
I love it when a title is almost an entire story in itself.
I love it even more when the story that goes with the title is not at all what I thought it would be, and yet the title is exactly right for the story.
Review of Heather Pagano, “The Growing Song,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 147-173 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The Growing Song that Anila’s choir sings is one that urges the Dawlee sprouts to grow, to rise up from the base of the Atlantic ocean according to a careful blueprint that will eventually provide sustainable housing. This is a story of how aliens fleeing the destruction of their own planet landed on earth unknowingly bringing with them the saviour of our planet. In that respect, the story starts off feeling very much like fiction — the idea that we could welcome immigrant, refugee aliens rather than destroy them seems far away from our current reality. But sometimes it’s good to read stories about how we would like humanity to be, rather than how it is! And as it goes on, humanity-as-we-know-it reasserts itself in all sorts of recognizable and disappointing ways — but also in ways which actually make it hard for me to sympathise with alien-Anila, rather than her human-husband Thomas. A lot of ambivalence in this story!
Review of Keira Reynolds, “The Black Hill,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 191-213 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a simple story (albeit long): There’s some magic, some Irish mythology, some lesbian love, and not much more — well-enough written, but nothing extraordinary or unusual or unexpected.
Review of Caroline Shea, “Something Broken, Someone New,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 15-34 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Child terminal illness.
This is a story of two forgotten children living in a forgotten airport — are they shadows? Are they ghosts? For much of the story the reader doesn’t know, and it seems like even the children themselves don’t know. Only towards the end is it revealed how they got there, why they are there, in an intimate portrayal of sibling rivalry and love. It’s a strange little story; I enjoyed it.
Review of L. Fox, “Oathbinder,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 303-319 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
There was something about Fox’s use of language in the opening pages — how the words sort of slipped and rolled sideways — that was purely magical. The feeling of the prose translated, for me, into a feeling of the world itself, slightly strange, slightly confusing, full of depths that I definitely couldn’t quite understand. This is probably my favorite story of the entire issue.
Review of Rebecca Harrison, “Mother Maggie,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 127-144 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Harrison tells this story through the medium of podcast transcript [1], effectively just a dialogue between the two hosts, Tasha and Claudia. Their show appears to be a mixture of folklore, sensational stories, baking, and digressions [2]. I enjoy this sort of medium because it means there things don’t get bogged down in unnecessary description; but at times I also couldn’t really get into it for the same reasons I can’t get into actual podcasts — they’re just a bit too tedious for me. Despite the tedium, though, there was an eerie, creepy pull as this horror story developed.
[1] At least, I think it’s supposed to be a podcast, or maybe a radio show (esp. as the hosts mention their “international listeners”). However, at one point Tasha says something that indicates she’s sharing a photograph, so maybe it’s actually video transcript.
[2] If you are not already familiar with the reference half-way down p. 129, go watch this, you won’t regret it.
Review of M. E. Garber, “The Family Ghosts,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 37-47 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Most families are haunted to some degree by the ghosts of their ancestors, but in this story, family ghosts are so much more than that —
“We are your family, your community, your past and your future” (p. 38)
and leaving means not only losing your family but also your history.
The metaphor is obviously one for generational wealth, support, etc. (or the lack thereof!) but its obviousness didn’t detract at all from my enjoyment of the story. I always approve of a story of someone who manages to escape bondage and find freedom.
Review of Ana Wesley, “Ends and Means,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 261-281 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
It’s another post-apocalyptic story, two women desperately running and trying to stay safe, never sure where they will sleep, what they will eat, who will betray them next. There’s been a lot of these such stories lately, it feels like, and one thing I’ve realized lately is how few post-apocalyptic settings ever really go deep into worldbuilding. The apocalypses are rarely articulated, the enemies often feel interchangeable, the central characters — while varied and interesting in themselves — too seem like they could be swapped from one setting to another without their stories fundamentally changing.
All this to say: There’s been so many stories of this ilk in recent years that it’s now going to take something special for one to stand out for me. It took Wesley’s story a good five pages to get going, but then I finally started getting glimpse of something at least a little bit different: post-apocalyptic fantasy, rather than SF.
Review of JM Cyrus, “A Bedtime of Fire, Alchemy, and Ice,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 243-258 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Solo parenting a gaggle of young kids while you’ve got experimental research notes you need to write up is never an easy thing — whether or not your research is magical! But Morwedd’s wife is away, so she’s got no choice but to make the balance work.
What I loved most about this story was its portrayal of the sheer *joy* of parenting young children. Yes, under-5s are exhausting and relentless and complicated to parent, especially when there’s more than one of them; but so often it feels like people don’t talk often enough about how much fun it is to be a parent, how joyful it is. So this story just made me happy.
Review of Vrinda Baliga, “Fatherhood,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 227-240 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Pregnancy after infertility; pregnancy complications (positive outcome); eugenics.
Dr. Mishra’s entry into fatherhood isn’t at all what he hoped it would be: First, unexpected complications result in an emergency c-section for his wife; then, there’s a surprise inspection at work. Unfortunately, the research that his lab conducts and the child who will hopefully soon be coming into the world are intimately connected, and not necessarily in a good way! This is a story of administrative paperwork and interfering relations, of science fiction becoming fact, and of a whole new form of fatherhood. Even though I could see pretty close from the start where the end was going to be, this was still an enjoyable read.
SFF Reviews