REVIEW: Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora edited by Zelda Knight and Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald

Review of Zelda Knight and Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald, ed., Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction From Africa and the African Diaspora, (Aurelia Leo, 2020) — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

When I received an invitation to review this anthology, my response was the email equivalent of grabby hands: Oh my, yes, please!!! This is exactly the sort of fiction I want to be reading, and exactly the sort of fiction I want to see more of being published and promoted — stories that introduce me to new worlds, stories that fill gaps in my knowledge of history, stories that bring me into the unknown. So buckle in, and join me on a tour of these thirteen wonderful, wonderful stories, ranging from poetry/flash fic all the way to nearly novella-length. They cover the entire spectrum of speculative fiction, some fantastic, some scientific, some lingering on the borders of horro. As usual, we will review them individually, and link the reviews back here when they are published.

The ARC I read unfortunately had a number of typos in it (as well as no pagination, so we have left page references out of the individual reviews); I hope they are all fixed before the final publication, as they would otherwise mar what is an excellent collection.

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REVIEW: “Fargone” by J. S. Veter

Review of J. S. Veter, “Fargone”, Luna Station Quarterly 28 (2016): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

It only takes a couple of lines for me to viscerally dislike Kush Apbuscan — who does not know how to forgive somoene [at first I thought it was a woman, but when it turned out later on that I was mistaken, this didn’t exactly improve things] for rejecting him and who does not understand the concept of consent. It doesn’t take long for betrayal to be added to the list of reasons I dislike Kush, and from that point on, I have to admit, I struggled to finish this story. At every point when Kush is given the opportunity to fix things, he always ends up making it worse. There was a redemption arc for Kush, but I was frustrated by it, because I’m not sure he deserved one.

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REVIEW: “Wedding Feast” by Jessica Lévai

Review of Jessica Lévai, “Wedding Feast”, Luna Station Quarterly 28 (2016): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

The story opens on an ordinary enough scene — Violet is at the bridal shop with her mother, her sister, and her maid of honor, waiting for the final fitting of her wedding dress. All four women gossip about wedding plans and who the wedding planner is and who else’s weddings they’ve done, and it all seems rather ordinary except there is this huge undercurrent of something that is making all of them uncomfortable. It’s not that Violet’s dress has had to be altered to accommodate her cane, or the implication that she might be missing more than just a leg (possibly also an arm?); it’s something bigger than that, something tied up in a costs she has to pay either for or by her wedding. Lévai builds the tension and uncertainty until I am fairly chomping at the bit: What is going on that I, the reader, don’t (yet) know about?!

I won’t spoil the resolution, other than to say — it was not at all what I expected, nothing like anything I ever would’ve expected, and though it slightly turned my stomach, it was also — pardon the pun — delicious.

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REVIEW: “The Glitch” by Aimée Jodoin

Review of Aimée Jodoin, “The Glitch”, Luna Station Quarterly 42 (2020): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was a strange, creepy story bringing together threads of global warming, population decline, badly written software, and systematic incarceration (or, as it is called, “Rehabilitation”). It was a great example of one of my favorite kinds of writing: Take a bunch of things that are individually all plausible given today’s society, and bind them up into something just slightly horrifying. Very well-constructed, with a smashing ending.

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REVIEW: “The Witch and the Fool” by Emily Swaim

Review of Emily Swaim, “The Witch and the Fool”, Luna Station Quarterly 42 (2020): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This story was a rare exception to my usual dislike of 2nd person POV — partly because it started off with a clearly-voiced “I” who speaking to someone who has just been born, so it’s clear that the narrator is not talking to me, the reader. Instead, Ariella the witch, the narrator, tells not only the story of the nameless “you” she’s addressing, the titular fool, but also the story of her sister Zora, another witch and driven out of the city where the fool was born a long time ago.

Part of this piece felt like it was notes for a grander story, some epic sort of novel. Nevertheless, it was still sufficiently detailed and self-contained, and I enjoyed it.

(Originally published in Complex Fairy Tales, Defenestrationism.net, 2016).

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REVIEW: “The Truth As Written” by J. S. Rogers

Review of J. S. Rogers, “The Truth As Written”, Luna Station Quarterly 42 (2020): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Wow, this was an unexpected story from LSQ! It started off seemingly a cosy urban fantasy — two friends who like to shoplift together, a little shop full of magical items in a mountain village, a shopowner who is clearly a witch — but then shunted sideways into full-on horror. While what followed after that was to a large extent predictable, it was the sort of predictability that leads to a satisfying story: Everything turned out, in the end, the way it should. All in all, nicely constructed.

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REVIEW: “The Wish” by Caite Sajwaj

Review of Caite Sajwaj, “The Wish”, Luna Station Quarterly 42 (2020): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This story is the type of urban fantasy I like — ordinary people living ordinary lives when the universe suddenly takes a left turn and there you are, standing in the library in front of someone who’s acorn you rescued, who is now indebted to you. An ordinary man? Almost certainly not…

This is what happens to Cressida, and the story of how the man? genie? whoever tracks her down until she finally has a wish to ask him for was humorous, sweet, and modern. I enjoyed this story!

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REVIEW: “Minor Mortalities” by EJ Sidle

Review of EJ Sidle, “Minor Mortalities”, Luna Station Quarterly 42 (2020): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

As the opening line of this story tells us, “Theo Everett is not a hitman”. His quarry, Alec Whitemore, is a werewolf — and having a panic attack.

I liked the way the story opened, and the way Theo conscientiously helped Alec through his anxiety. But then Sidle introduced the “wolves imprint on their soul mates” trope, and…I have to admit, I kind of lost interest.

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REVIEW: “Accidental Kaiju” by Dianne M. Williams

Review of Dianne M. Williams, “Accidental Kaiju”, Luna Station Quarterly 42 (2020): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

13-year-old Grendela dreams of becoming not another kaiju (a type of great Japanese monster) like her father and grandfather but an environmental scientist. Maybe there’s more to being a lava monster than smashing buildings and destroying cities. Maybe she could use her special knowledge of volcanos to help power cities rather than destroy them. But unfortunately, her little experiment didn’t go as planned.

This was a cute little story about hopes and dreams and how sometimes when one is a teenager one needs a little help and understanding from their parents and grandparents.

(First published in The Confabulator Cafe, 2016).

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REVIEW: “Moonlight Plastics” by Rachel Brittain

Review of Rachel Brittain, “Moonlight Plastics”, Luna Station Quarterly 42 (2020): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I found this story a little too in the mind of the MC, Sana — there was a lot of reflection and recrimination and meta content that would’ve made sense if I were properly situated in Sana’s world, but unfortunately, I wasn’t. So I had a hard time putting together all the pieces to figure out who she was and what she was doing, and why it mattered.

I also struggled with the abrupt shift in tone: It started off as a commentary on our modern-day tendency to flood the ocean with plastics, and then suddenly it jumped left and became a mermaid romance.

All in all, not the story for me.

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