REVIEW: “Lentils for Breakfast” by Maroon Stranger

Review of Maroon Stranger, “Lentils for Breakfast,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 113-125 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This charming story, of a girl growing up and spreading her wings at the most important institution in the country for her particular brand of magic, starting off such a feel-good story that I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it never did!

Not that there wasn’t anything that went wrong, that Deepika didn’t face any challenges or that everything was sweet (in fact, quite the opposite), but Stranger addresses the racism that Deepika faces head on, and gives Deepika a way out. A truly magical little story.

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REVIEW: “Silver and Silt” by Lydia O’Donnell

Review of Lydia O’Donnell, “Silver and Silt,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 175-184 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I don’t often come across stories featuring male selkies, so that was an interesting novelty in this one. But as with many stories about forbidden love, this one wasn’t really about whether the narrator and her selkie would have their happy ever after, and more about one girl’s path to finding what it is she really wants.

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REVIEW: “Selling Chances” by Louise Hughes

Review of Louise Hughes, “Selling Chances,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 283-289 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Oh, man, what a beautiful story this was, about generational trauma, generational hope, the neverending desire of a parent for their child to have a better life, a better future, a better chance. Just the right length, and with a twist at the end that made everything more intense. Hughes has written a gem!

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REVIEW: “In the Orchard, Where Robots Grow” by Erin K. Wagner

Review of Erin K. Wagner, “In the Orchard, Where Robots Grow,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 53-69 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Death of a parent.

It’s hard to call a post-apocalyptic SF story “cozy,” but as I read this story and reached for the right words, that’s the one I kept ending up with. It’s not “cozy” in the sense of happy and comforting but in the sense of small-scale, intimate, personal, much more about the breakdown of familial relationships than the breakdown of the robot in the orchard.

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REVIEW: “The Philosophy of Weeds” by Lesley Hart Gunn

Review of Lesley Hart Gunn, “The Philosophy of Weeds,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 187-189 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

“Be careful what you cultivate,” Lana’s husband warns her, but honestly, of the two of them, I’m on Lana’s side, on the side of letting the weeds grow and flourish. No matter how destructive they are in this tight, short story, they are far less destructive than what it is that her husband is cultivating.

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REVIEW: “Downstairs Neighbor” by H.V. Patterson

Review of H.V. Patterson, “Downstairs Neighbor,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 71-78 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Moving out and on your own is never easy, even when space and independence is what you want. Thankfully, this can be made easier with the presence of a helpful neighbor — which is exactly what the narrator in this story gets, even if it’s not quite the neighbor she might have expected! This was a fun little story.

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REVIEW: “Melilot Dreams” by EC Dorgan

Review of EC Dorgan, “Melilot Dreams,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 81-92 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Most post-apocalyptic stories lean heavily to the SF genre, but this one doesn’t wear that genre on its sleeve; if anything, it tends more towards horror, of a very reflective, personal, and introspective kind. We never learn much about the apocalypse other than that it was AI-driven, but quite a bit about the narrator, their life before and after, and the loneliness of trying to stay alive.

It is a deeply, deeply unhappy story.

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