REVIEW: “Our Last Celebration” by Susan Webster

Review of Susan Webster, “Our Last Celebration,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 215-225 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Euthanasia.

There was something about this story that didn’t sit right with me, that felt a bit “off”. I couldn’t help but read about the celebration and wonder: How rich did one have to be, in this post-apocalyptic setting, to get to have a last celebration? (Rachel drives a BMW, so: rich enough, at least!) What about all the others — the young cadet who guards the gate, the two women whose responsibility it is to ensure the celebration is a success? What will happen to them? Do they ever have the chance to escape for a celebration, or are they fated to only serve the ones who are rich enough?

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REVIEW: “Asra’s Magnificent Emporium of Clockworks and Curses” by Madalena Daleziou

Review of Madalena Daleziou, “Asra’s Magnificent Emporium,” Luna Station Quarterly 62 (June 2025): 291-301 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I always enjoy fantasy stories (which this definitely is: cursed objects! divination! witches!) that are nevertheless set in SF settings (Europa!) — there’s something about the cross-genre blending that tickles me. This was an enjoyable tale, no deep thoughts, no big moral, just some slices of Asra’s life and a peak into her very magnificent indeed emporium.

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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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