REVIEW: “Toys, Going Home” by Eric Del Carlo

Review of Eric Del Carlo, “Toys, Going Home,” Unfit Magazine 2 (2018): Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was an utterly delightful story about a motley assort of Story robears, programmed to make their way back to their holders whenever separated from them, so that they can tell the Story of their travels when they return.

In case any of you are like me and cannot stomach the idea of a story of toys trying to find their way hoome that doesn’t end up happily, well: No kittens were harmed in the making of this story.

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REVIEW: “An Algorithm for Fools” by Cat Rambo

Review of Cat Rambo, “An Algorithm for Fools,” Unfit Magazine 2 (2018): Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

The narrator of this story is doing pretty well for himself, after the alien apocalypse; there may not be many other people around, but that’s okay because he doesn’t really go in for that whole “human commerce, or interaction” sort of thing. It’s so lovely to read a story where I find myself resonating with the main character, and then a bit later on have it explicitly confirmed, by the character themself, that they’re on the spectrum. That frisson of fellow-feeling really helps endear a story to me! And I loved the narrator’s algorithms for coping.

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REVIEW: “Bread of Life” by Beth Cato

Review of Beth Cato, “Bread of Life,” Flash Fiction Online 93 (2021): Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This cosy SF story centers is all about how bread is a tie to home. As someone who lived six years in the Netherlands with a bunch of German colleagues continuously complaining about how they just couldn’t get good bread in the Netherlands (and who’d bring large stocks back with them from trips back home to Germany), the premise was moving and enjoyable. The story should also appeal to any reader who attempted to navigate their Covid lockdown via sourdough starters.

(Originally published in Nature 520, 2015.)

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REVIEW: “The Bones and Their Girl” by Sylvia Heike

Review of Sylvia Heike, “The Bones and Their Girl,” Flash Fiction Online 93 (2021): Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

When a story opens with someone discovering someone else’s bone collection, I’m not quite sure if it’s going to turn out to be a horror story or not!

This one is not. It’s a beautiful, sweet story, of Camille who is struggling to understand the herself that she has become as illness slowly takes over her, and Simon, who sees nothing but beauty in bones.

(Originally published in Syntax & Salt, 2019.)

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REVIEW: “All the Arms We Need” by Kristina Ten

Review of Kristina Ten, “All the Arms We Need,” Flash Fiction Online 93 (2021): Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

The premise of this story is simple: Sometimes, all we need is to be held, and sometimes two arms is not enough. What is better than two arms? Eight, of course, and better than that a thousand. What we learn in this exceedingly sweet story is that if an octopus is a better hugger than a human, a millipede is even better than an octopus.

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REVIEW: “The Song of Leviathan” by Victor Pseftakis

Review of Victor Pseftakis, “The Song of Leviathan” Cossmass Infinities 5 (2021): 84-94 — Read or purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was a delightfully bizarre story, full of flying Bureaucroaks and semi-sentient aqueducts, and of course the titular Leviathan who lives beneath the bridge and is either killer or saviour. There is a strong emotional tension in the story of the narrator and his friends, and the description of how the city first woke up and came alive is vivid and arresting.

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REVIEW: “Recreational WorkHart Use” by Brenna Harvey

Review of Brenna Harvey, “Recreational WorkHart Use” Cossmass Infinities 5 (2021): 57-83 — Read or purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

One of the longer pieces in this issue, this story nevertheless read quick and easily, with a lovely rhythm and crisp pacing.

The setting is distinctly dystopian (the premise of the WorkHart is deliciously creepy), and yet what shines through is Tev and Hoysel’s friendship, real and brilliant and delightful. A second strong point of the story is Harvey’s insightful social criticism via Tev’s critique of Reetus’s economics — Tev understands much better than Reetus does that just because one is poor doesn’t mean that they are undeserving of joy!

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REVIEW: “A Glut of Nothing, and Yet…Something” by Monte Lin

Review of Monte Lin, “A Glut of Nothing, and Yet…Something” Cossmass Infinities 5 (2021): Read or purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Anyone who’s experienced the lows of academia — science denial, departments closing, loss of funding — will find themselves relating strongly to both Jenny the “Taiwanese Pasadena city-rat gone good gone bad” and Tara the “button-down type ready to break out of her box”, the ex-scientist and the scientist thrown together to figure out how to get something — something personal, not science — are both engaging characters with a believable back-and-forth. Other than a few paragraphs that felt a bit claggy and clunky with info dump, I enjoyed this.

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