Review of Sadie Leewood, “Dance It Trippingly,” Luna Station Quarterly 65 (January 2026): 271-280 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Drug use.
For the right audience, this could be a fun story. For me, though, it was a drug-dealing/drug-use story — whether it’s fae drugs or human drugs, I’m not seeing much of a difference.
Review of J. Nathan, “Brighton,” Luna Station Quarterly 65 (January 2026): 241-245 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Who doesn’t love a story about enchanted books? Nathan’s tiny little gem delivers a beautiful dollop of happiness.
Review of Marissa Lingen, “Person, Place, Thing”, Clarkesworld Issue 234, March (2026): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
A story about a colony, with many subcolonies. One of those, the translator subcolony, interacts with the first humans they’ve ever come across.
They are all one, and they are all united. This story explores how these two very vastly different kinds of creatures interact.
It’s way more beautiful than that, I’m definitely not doing justice.
Such a pleasure to read.
Review of Amantia Menalla, “Laisha,” Luna Station Quarterly 65 (January 2026): 79-100 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a fascinating, haunting, beautiful story — full of rich, complex characters and threads that I wasn’t entirely sure how they all woven together until the denouement came. The story was on the longer side, yet I never got bored and it never dragged, if anything, it became increasingly more interesting the longer I read. I’d love to read a novella or even a novel by Menalla, if she can replicate this kind of taut story-telling!
Review of Pauline Barmby, “Warp and Weft Rising,” Luna Station Quarterly 65 (January 2026): 265-268 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Barmby manages quite a lot in a very short amount of space. Imprisonment, magic, vengeance, escape, all neatly encapsulated in a well-craft story with not a word too many or missing.
Review of M. McNamara, “Squilla of the Flower Moon,” Luna Station Quarterly 65 (January 2026): 35-52 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Violence against women, sex work.
Bordello Bot Jenny was programmed with Level 14 curiosity, which left her unsatisfied with her intended purpose and longing for adventure. But the adventure she embarked upon wasn’t anything like what was advertised, which is how she ended up as a Bordello Bot.
This story was predicated on the violence and oppression of women and so of course the only solution available was also violent. I’m sure there are audiences for stories like this, but I’m not one.
Review of Feby Idrus, “Ghost Story,” Luna Station Quarterly 65 (January 2026): 25-32 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story was a first for me — my first Muslim ghost story!
There are two ways it can be read, sequentially and chronologically, and while I started off reading it the former half-way through I was confused enough to switch to reading it the latter, which certainly helped.
Review of David D. Levine, “Bend Like the Palm”, Clarkesworld Issue 234, March (2026): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
This story is about a lot of things, and many of those are quite timely.
The worldbuilding was great. I find that a lot of times when the worldbuilding is good and you can tell the writer has spent quite some time on it, the plot suffers for it. As a reader, it makes me appreciate the world, but not the plot progression or the storyline. This story does not have these issues.
A thoughtful story with many good elements – a human story in a sci-fi setting, as good sci-fi stories tend to be.
Review of Christopher St. Prince, “Second Film,” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 33-36 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Drug and other substance use and abuse.
I’ve learned to become leery of the stories the FFO editors tag as “literary” as opposed to something more overtly speculative. These stories always end up feeling more sordid, less imaginative, more disappointing than the speculative stories they publish — which I’m sure is more a reflection on me and my tastes as a reader than it is on the stories themselves. Given all that, this was nevertheless a tight, well-put together story with just enough of an undertone of horror to make it feel like it fits the scope of this blog.
Review of S.L. Harris, “Moonmouse,” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 29-32 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
“People carry their ruin with them wherever they go” (p. 31) is the repeated moral of this story — and yet, despite this grim conclusion about humanity, the story itself is hopeful, almost joyful, a real contrast to the rest of the stories in this issue.
(First published in Short Édition January 2026.)
SFF Reviews