Review of Tania Fordwalker, “Lapis Lazuli,” Flash Fiction Online (June 2023): 18-20 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Enslavement.
I love it when an author can successfully take all the typical elements of a fairy tale, and turn them into some new, which is exactly what Fordwalker does in this story.
(First published in Andromeda Spaceways 58, 2013.)
Review of Alyson Tait, “Mother of the Sea” Tree and Stone 1 (2022): 16-17 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This brief, sparse story relies on the reader being familiar with selkie mythology. I like how the ambiguous ending leaves me uncertain whom I’m supposed to be happy for and whom I’m supposed to mourn.
Review of Michelle Kaseler, “Rebirth,” Radon Journal 3 (January 2023): 5-13 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: References to suicide, murder, and sexual assault; forced labor and enslavement.
The process of rebirth takes criminals and turns them into mining drones, an endless supply of prisoner labor. Rebirth is supposed to erase all memory of previous life; people don’t even know that rebirth has happened to them.
Unsurprisingly, one person does find it, and infiltrates a work crew, and attempts to help people remember.
The detail that struck me the most in this story was how even though all the prisoners had been given labels (“A7”, “B9”, etc.), all these labels eventually gave way to nicknames that became names. You can try to erase the individuality out of a person — but it’s much harder than people think.
Review of Stewart C. Baker, “Halsing for the Anchylose,” Fantasy Magazine 72 (October 2021): 29 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This poem managed to tell a complex story in a compact fashion. Reading it, I felt that it hinted at so much more than it was able to say, and I wondered if the title held clues to what the “more” was. Unfortunately, no dictionary shed any light on either term, so I remain intrigued, but baffled.
Review of Jennifer Crow, “Twilight Mind,” Fantasy Magazine 72 (October 2021): 28 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This quiet, reflective poem conjured up some lovely images.
Review of Gwynne Garfinkle, “Emily and the What-If Imp,” Fantasy Magazine 72 (October 2021): 16-17 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
I think lots of people, especially people who take solace in reading and writing speculative fiction, have What-If imps of their own, hanging around and making unwarranted trouble, or if not a What-If imp, one of its cousins. But I think there is some solace in reading this story, whatever kind of imp you’ve got.
Review of Emma Johanna Puranen and Patrick Barth, “A Spark in a Flask”, in Around Distant Suns, ed. by Emma Johanna Puranen (Guardbridge Books, 2021): 73-84 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)
It’s been ages since the last humans left this base on the moon, but SPARC, a Self-sufficient Primordial Atmosphere Robotic Caretaker, knows its duties: to keep the lab, and especially the Flasks, safe and clean and running — and to test the Flasks for signs of life. Computer knows how to adjust the contents of the Flasks as needed, but Computer can’t fix a physical problem if one occurs, only SPARC can. When Computer is no longer able to detect the contents of Flask H40, it’s SPARC’s job to go in and find out what’s wrong — or, in this case: What is wonderfully right.
I found myself responding to SPARC, left behind, sending messages back to an Earth that doesn’t respond, very much the way that people across the world have respond to the Mars rovers, to the satellites sent off to explore asteroids; it’s astonishing how easy it is to anthropomorphise the little machines we send into space. There were moments in this story when I was desperately afraid that SPARC wouldn’t get his happy ending. Because discovering life isn’t enough; one must sustain it too…
A very satisfying read!
Review of Kiale Palpant and Oliver Herbort, “After Colour”, in Around Distant Suns, ed. by Emma Johanna Puranen (Guardbridge Books, 2021): 63-72 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)
This was such an unexpected story — unlike any of the other ones in the anthology. On the one hand, it’s probably as close to a horror story as this collection has; on the other hand, I want to describe it as “Exoplanets x ‘It’s a Beautiful Life'”. Even writing that feels like a contradiction! But it’s not, these competing descriptions really are the best way to explain this short, intriguing story.
Review of Laura Muetzelfeldt and Martin Dominik, “A Momentary Brightening”, in Around Distant Suns, ed. by Emma Johanna Puranen (Guardbridge Books, 2021): 49-61 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)
Content note: Death of a parent.
This was an immensely human story, the story of Karl simultaneously mourning the death of his wife Sofie, navigating his role as now-sole parent of his young son Joshua, and also charting his path through the stars. The science took second billing to the emotion in this story, and yet this was done without sacrificing the science in any way: Though the reader is given little detail about how star lensing works or what it signifies, everything still feels viridical, as if there is far more beneath the surface, if only one wants to scratch. And that’s what I love in a sci-fi story: The sense that there is something real, that this is not just — or merely — a story.
I also particularly loved the writer/scientist reflections from this piece. Muetzelfeldt talks about the challenge that comes in shifting the solitary business of writing fiction into the more collaborative setting of science, while Dominik shares of taking his own aspirations and dreams and turning them into a story for Muetzelfeldt. Their collaborative energies shine through.
Review of Maeghan Klinker and Aubrey Zerkle, “Rise in Perfect Light”, in Around Distant Suns, ed. by Emma Johanna Puranen (Guardbridge Books, 2021): 33-48 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)
This story begins with an epigraph from Sarah Williams’s “The Old Astronomer to His Pupil”, which perfectly aligns with two reflections at the end of the piece, of which I’ll pick out one from each — Klinker speaks of “how science and art can build off one another” (p. 47) and Zerkle of the joy of seeing your dearest ideas “as seen through a[nother]’s eyes” (p. 48). These form a lovely bookend for what was a very satisfying “first contact” story, full of vivid characters and realistic science.
SFF Reviews