REVIEW: “The Black-Eyed Goddess of Apple Trees and Farmers’ Wives” by Erin Eisenhour

Review of Erin Eisenhour, “The Black-Eyed Goddess of Apple Trees and Farmers’ Wives”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 308, (July 16, 2020): Read online. Reviewed by Richard Lohmeyer.

In addition to a wonderfully evocative title, this story features and is narrated by a feisty peasant girl named Bi. She has the bad luck to be chosen to receive “the highest honor any young woman can hope to attain in a mortal life”: to cure the province’s plum pox “by praying, fasting, and letting the shamans tear out my heart and eat its ashes.” Naturally, Bi is not thrilled by the prospect and attempts to avoid the “honor” by pretending she is not a virgin and therefore not the kind of candidate the shamans would prefer. This doesn’t work and the rest of the story provides interesting glimpses into Bi’s relationship with various family members, particularly that of her much-loved but deceased sister and her orphaned child. And by story’s end, Bi’s ultimate fate is not quite what anyone–including Bi–expected.

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REVIEW: “The Mad Cabbage” by Céline Malgen

Review of Céline Malgen, “The Mad Cabbage”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact July/August (2020): 81–85 (Kindle) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom.

Contains spoilers.

One day, Nicole is stunned to find that the environment of her cabbage bacteria has gone incredibly acidic. She investigates and discovers that thanks to a childish prank by her lab mate Xavier, her bacteria have mutated in a way that could be very beneficial for her research.

Unfortunately, there’s not much to like in “The Mad Cabbage.” The author explores some neat ideas in microbiology, as well as giving an accurate – well, mostly accurate – portrayal of what graduate school life is like. However, the story suffers from bad writing, so much so that I’m a bit surprised it even made it in print. The prose is clunky and overly expository, full of infodumps and, in some cases, poor English. It’s hard to focus on the narrative when the prose constantly bombards you with unnecessary information.

The plot’s central mystery is mostly well-crafted, with an interesting, albeit scientifically questionable resolution. The character of Xavier, however, is so cartoony that he might as well have a thin mustache to twirl. As a graduate student, he’s simply too villainous to believe.

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REVIEW: “On the Changing Roles of Dockworkers” by Marie Vibbert

Review of Marie Vibbert, “On the Changing Roles of Dockworkers”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact July/August (2020): 90–93 (Kindle) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom.

Contains spoilers.

Mary is a dock supervisor in charge of maintaining the dock’s robot workers. One day, while investigating a malfunctioning robot she discovers that the damage was self-inflicted. Digging deeper, Mary finds out that the robot is trying to prevent a new update that will take away its recently obtained sentience. Now, Mary faces a dilemma: should she help the robot, or wipe its consciousness away?

An enjoyable story, on the short and sweet side. Vibbert manages to give her robot a “motivation,” so to speak, without making it unrealistically emotional. The scenario is plausible, even if a tad unlikely. Some of Vibbert’s metaphors err on the side of silly, like “These logs record every time an electron farts.” However, they rarely detract from the story.

All in all, an excellent short story.

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REVIEW: “Fargone” by J. S. Veter

Review of J. S. Veter, “Fargone”, Luna Station Quarterly 28 (2016): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

It only takes a couple of lines for me to viscerally dislike Kush Apbuscan — who does not know how to forgive somoene [at first I thought it was a woman, but when it turned out later on that I was mistaken, this didn’t exactly improve things] for rejecting him and who does not understand the concept of consent. It doesn’t take long for betrayal to be added to the list of reasons I dislike Kush, and from that point on, I have to admit, I struggled to finish this story. At every point when Kush is given the opportunity to fix things, he always ends up making it worse. There was a redemption arc for Kush, but I was frustrated by it, because I’m not sure he deserved one.

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REVIEW: “Wedding Feast” by Jessica Lévai

Review of Jessica Lévai, “Wedding Feast”, Luna Station Quarterly 28 (2016): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

The story opens on an ordinary enough scene — Violet is at the bridal shop with her mother, her sister, and her maid of honor, waiting for the final fitting of her wedding dress. All four women gossip about wedding plans and who the wedding planner is and who else’s weddings they’ve done, and it all seems rather ordinary except there is this huge undercurrent of something that is making all of them uncomfortable. It’s not that Violet’s dress has had to be altered to accommodate her cane, or the implication that she might be missing more than just a leg (possibly also an arm?); it’s something bigger than that, something tied up in a costs she has to pay either for or by her wedding. Lévai builds the tension and uncertainty until I am fairly chomping at the bit: What is going on that I, the reader, don’t (yet) know about?!

I won’t spoil the resolution, other than to say — it was not at all what I expected, nothing like anything I ever would’ve expected, and though it slightly turned my stomach, it was also — pardon the pun — delicious.

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REVIEW: “It is Not From Heaven” by Jonathan Edelstein

Review of Jonathan Edelstein, “It Is Not From Heaven”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 308 (July 16, 2020). Read online. Reviewed by Richard Lohmeyer.

I’ve never read a story where a talking fish sparks religious controversy in a community, but there’s a first time for everything. Shemaiah is a fisherman on an island community who, as part of a morning’s catch, finds a fish in his nets that tells religious tales and repeatedly warns: “They are coming.” Who “they” are and whether the fish is accurately prophesying the future is unclear.  Shemaiah takes the fish to the Shevi’im, the theocratic Council of Seventy who govern the community. Instead of clear guidance, arguments and fistfights break out. As the story progresses, the situation escalates to the point where, during the annual Feast of the Sparing “the gathering looked less like a feast than an armed camp on the eve of war.” I won’t tell you how Shemaiah helps to resolve the situation but the title’s story gives a clear indication of his feelings about the fish. My feelings about the story itself, however, are mixed. There is clearly some fine writing here, but I never felt as emotionally caught up in the story as I would have hoped. Perhaps that’s a failing on my part; you be the judge. 

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REVIEW: “The Glitch” by Aimée Jodoin

Review of Aimée Jodoin, “The Glitch”, Luna Station Quarterly 42 (2020): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was a strange, creepy story bringing together threads of global warming, population decline, badly written software, and systematic incarceration (or, as it is called, “Rehabilitation”). It was a great example of one of my favorite kinds of writing: Take a bunch of things that are individually all plausible given today’s society, and bind them up into something just slightly horrifying. Very well-constructed, with a smashing ending.

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REVIEW: “The Witch and the Fool” by Emily Swaim

Review of Emily Swaim, “The Witch and the Fool”, Luna Station Quarterly 42 (2020): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This story was a rare exception to my usual dislike of 2nd person POV — partly because it started off with a clearly-voiced “I” who speaking to someone who has just been born, so it’s clear that the narrator is not talking to me, the reader. Instead, Ariella the witch, the narrator, tells not only the story of the nameless “you” she’s addressing, the titular fool, but also the story of her sister Zora, another witch and driven out of the city where the fool was born a long time ago.

Part of this piece felt like it was notes for a grander story, some epic sort of novel. Nevertheless, it was still sufficiently detailed and self-contained, and I enjoyed it.

(Originally published in Complex Fairy Tales, Defenestrationism.net, 2016).

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REVIEW: “The Truth As Written” by J. S. Rogers

Review of J. S. Rogers, “The Truth As Written”, Luna Station Quarterly 42 (2020): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Wow, this was an unexpected story from LSQ! It started off seemingly a cosy urban fantasy — two friends who like to shoplift together, a little shop full of magical items in a mountain village, a shopowner who is clearly a witch — but then shunted sideways into full-on horror. While what followed after that was to a large extent predictable, it was the sort of predictability that leads to a satisfying story: Everything turned out, in the end, the way it should. All in all, nicely constructed.

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REVIEW: “The Wish” by Caite Sajwaj

Review of Caite Sajwaj, “The Wish”, Luna Station Quarterly 42 (2020): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This story is the type of urban fantasy I like — ordinary people living ordinary lives when the universe suddenly takes a left turn and there you are, standing in the library in front of someone who’s acorn you rescued, who is now indebted to you. An ordinary man? Almost certainly not…

This is what happens to Cressida, and the story of how the man? genie? whoever tracks her down until she finally has a wish to ask him for was humorous, sweet, and modern. I enjoyed this story!

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