Review of Shannon Norland, “The Stone Children,” Luna Station Quarterly 19 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Bad break-up; miscarriage.
This was delightfully creepy, a story that makes you squirm in your seat while reading it. The titular stone children are cold, and needy, and perplexing, and sate a need in ways which seem all wrong. But none of what went on in the early and middle parts of the story prepared me for the twist at the end.
Review of Krystal Claxton, “The Filigreed Cage,” Luna Station Quarterly 19 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Underage marriage, forced marriage
The overwhelming misogyny and patriarchal structures in this story, imposed upon humans by the Overseers that are (of course!) only doing their best to keep the humans safe and unharmed, made for quite an unpleasant read. While I’m glad that some of the characters managed to escape in the end, I wasn’t so keen on the fact that Valerie only did so in pursuit of her man; there was nothing reflective in the story which indicated a realisation of how wrong the situation set up by the Overseers was.
(First published in Fireside Magazine 2013).
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Review of Che Gilson, “Rose Meets a Gentleman,” Luna Station Quarterly 19 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
10 year old Rose buys herself a pair of thousand league snowshoes with three pence and a wish, and sets off north to find the Snow Queen.
This was a lovely fairy tale about the importance of cherishing your dreams, and how sometimes it’s worth trading in a small dream for the opportunity to obtain a big dream.
Review of J. A. Gross, “Handiwork,” Luna Station Quarterly 19 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Just when this story, set against the backdrop of a complex society — highborns and mid families, nomads and moderns — just when it was really piquing my interest, it ended. It was more a vignette than a story, and as a result was rather unfortunately unsatisfying.
Review of Gabrielle Lissauer, “Ceilidh McCallum Versus the Super Evil Fairy Lady,” Luna Station Quarterly 19 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
If you, like me, read the title and wondered if it telegraphed something about the central characters of the story: The answer is yes, this is told from the point of view of a young girl, probably 5 or 6. Or rather, it’s told (partially) in what an adult thinks the point of view of a child of around that age would be; and I confess that I do not think it was done very successfully or accurately. This might be the story for some of you; it was not the story for me.
(There also appears to be a continuity error: When Ceilidh sets off on her quest, the kitten Trouble is left behind in the ruins of her battlefield; but half-way through her quest, Ceilidh is clutching Trouble close. Since Trouble plays a crucial role in Ceilidh’s defeat of the Super Evil Fairy Lady, this is a problematic oversight.)
Review of RJ Astruc, “Gretel in Her Ever After,” Luna Station Quarterly 19 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Premise: Gretel’s all grown up, living in the city, and selling white goods — any kind of white goods, but mostly ovens, as that’s what she knows best — and trying to come to terms with a past she can’t quite admit is real. As a premise, this is a pretty good one, and one apt to get me hooked. But Astruc combined it with another premise — Hansel all grow up, no longer slim but fat, greedy, slovenly — which too often felt too fatphobic for me to really be able to enjoy this story.
Review of Risa Wolf, “The Long Way Home” Cossmass Infinities 9 (2022): 115-122 — Read or purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Oh, this was a heartbreaker! I could feel it from the very opening scene, when we meet Kari and Sonora (and their new puppy!) and find out just how much they love each other — and also that something is not right. The dramatic tension as we find out what that something is, over the course of the story, is perfectly pitched and left me shattered at the ending.
Review of Tina S. Zhu, “The Long Way Home” Cossmass Infinities 9 (2022): 111-113 — Read or purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a wonderfully sweet little time-travel epistolary story.
Review of Mere Rain, “Seraph in Ruins” Cossmass Infinities 9 (2022): 98-109 — Read or purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Seraph is a monster, and a loaner; whatever the vampires are hunting isn’t her problem. It’s only boredom, boredom that sees her rescue the woman and ensure she makes her way safely out of the zone that has “more monsters than spare parts” (p. 100). Of course, that’s what Seraph tells herself: we, the reader, know it is far more than that.
There’s nothing more enjoyable than smugly watching two characters convince themselves they are not falling for each other until they give up. This story provides all that enjoyment and more, that I read with a smile that just kept getting bigger and bigger.
Review of M. Legree, “Victorian Resistance & the Lords Insectile” Cossmass Infinities 9 (2022): 93-97 — Read or purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story has an excellent title. It’s the one I most looked forward to reading after surveying the table of contents. The story lived up to its title, reminding me, in the bones of its essence, of a cross between Kafka’s Metamorphosis and a Dutch Master’s painting, backed up with a mass of science. Overall, extremely satisfying.
SFF Reviews