Review of Emma Burnett, “Spirit Alembic Keeper,” Adventitious no. 2 (Apr 2026): 137-144 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: military conscription
Before the conscripts go off to war, first they go to August — leaving their souls behind, to be preserved untainted, until their bodies are done battling. But of course, bodies don’t go to war to come back. August’s profession is both vitally important and endlessly futile. There’s a feeling of inevitability about this story: You don’t know quite how it’s going to end, but that it will end in the only way it possibly could. When that ending comes, it is very satisfying.
(First published in Uncharted, year unknown)
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