Review of L. L. Madrid, “The Ruby Level,” Flash Fiction Online 132 (September 2024): 25-28 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Five short snippets comprise this story, all slightly disjointed from each other and yet still managing to depict a dark and rather horrific narrative. Deliciously unsettling.
Review of Carlie St. George, “The Weight of Your Own Ashes”, Clarkesworld Issue 212, May (2024): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
A deeply layered story of identity, and what a sense of self could mean. The protagonist is multi-bodied, with a single soul. What this effectively means in terms of perception, acceptance, and gender identity to themselves, and to other single-bodied organisms, like humans, is the journey of this story.
There are also moments of beauty, like a passage about symphonies, that also show how all those experiences shape Yonder, the protagonist. A great story with many lovely elements.
Review of Rich Larson, “To Harvest a Cloud,” Flash Fiction Online 132 (September 2024): 21-24 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Tso arrived in town on the driest day of a very dry year, bringing his own cloud in tow. On one reading, this starts off as a gentle story of how he brought his cloud to those who needed it within the town, in exchange for the town’s welcome and hospitality; but while I couldn’t help but think of one of my favorite song lyrics (Genesis, “Mad Man Moon”): “Within the valley of shadowless death, they pray for thunderclouds and rain. But to the multitude who live in the rain, heaven is where the sun shines.” What must it like to be Tso, to always live in the shade, to never rejoice in the warm embrace of the sun? That felt rather sad to me. And then the entire story turned much darker, and the lyrics became even more apt.
Review of Marilyn Hope, “Nosebleed Weather,” Flash Fiction Online 132 (September 2024): 17-19 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a horror story but with a very weird bent. If you’re in it for the wild and unusual, this will be a story you’ll enjoy. Death, murder, poison, botany, this story’s got it all.
(First published in X-R-A-Y October 2021.)
Review of Stefan Alcalá Slater, “Tornado Breakers Don’t Cry,” Flash Fiction Online 132 (September 2024): 8-11 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
On the one hand, this is a story about a tornado breaker whose role is to protect her town from the dangerous twisters. On the other hand, it’s equally a story about how we fail our parents, and how our parents fail us. The metaphor rests upon the story overtly but lightly, never bogging the story down but instead helping it to shine.
Review of Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, “Reviving a Traditional African Genre: The AfroSurrealism of Ngano,” Fantasy Magazine 84 (October 2022): 39-41 — Read here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
While in the last five years or so I have made an effort to read more spec fic outside the western/European tradition, including especially African speculative fiction, I still feel like quite a novice when it comes to the details and differences of traditions that I didn’t grow up with. Ndlovu’s article is an excellent piece for me, therefore, because it’s a concise introduction to a particular tradition — Ngano — clearly explained with Ndlovu’s own experiences hearing, reading, and writing it interleaved.
AfroSurrealism, for Ndlovu, is a way “to capture the flavor of the absurdity and horror I experience daily as an African woman” (p. 39). Ngano, a story telling genre (traditionally oral story telling) from Zimbabwe, is made up of five elements (pp. 39-41):
I was particularly interested in Ndlovu’s discussion of how each of these elements shape the structure, as opposed to the content of the stories.
I would love to see more short essays on different non-European genres of this type!
Review of J. M. Lee, “The Nightland Express” (EXCERPT), Fantasy Magazine 84 (October 2022): 28-37 — Read here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This excerpt is chapters 3 and 4 of J. M. Lee’s 2022 novel published by Erewhon Books.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from reading an excerpt, especially one that apparently doesn’t start at the beginning (if I enjoy the story starting from chapter three, what does this say about the necessity of chapters one and two? I wondered). As it turns out, I didn’t feel the lack of those initial chapters; these two chapters were more than sufficient to introduce me to the two main characters (one whom we’re clearly meant to like and one whom we’re clearly meant to be exasperated by!), and get me interested in knowing more of their story. Will I pick up and read the whole book? I’m not sure. Did I enjoy the excerpt I read? Definitely. These two chapters were pretty much pure historical fiction, centered around the Pony Express in the 1850s, but there were a few hints dropped here and there that things might not be quite what they look like on the surface…
Review of Jennifer Hudak, “Sturgeon Moon Jam,” Flash Fiction Online 130 (July 2024): 20-23 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The “folk tale” subgenre is one that isn’t as often seen in speculative fiction, but that’s what I’d classify this story as — not a retelling of an old story, but a genuinely new folk tale. It’s a sweet little story, perfect for summer time.
(First published in Fantasy Magazine December 2022).
Review of Vivian Chou, “Perfect Vaca, No Filter,” Flash Fiction Online 130 (July 2024): 15-19 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
We all have read stupid online hotel reviews, so the genre that Chou chose for this story is perfectly familiar. However, I think we can all agree: Hotels that experience alien invasions maybe deserve at least one 1-star review!
Full of humor and wickedly realistic, this was a fun little story to read while traveling.
Review of Tess Lloyd, “Salisbury Confederate Prison, North Carolina, 1864,” Flash Fiction Online 130 (July 2024): 12-13 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this story. It was more a vignette than a story: An artful depiction of a specific time and place, but without enough for me to sink my teeth into to really get in to it.
SFF Reviews