REVIEW: “Steel Dragons of a Luminous Sky” by Brian Trent

Review of Brian Trent, “Steel Dragons of a Luminous Sky” in Rhonda Parrish, ed., Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline: Dieselpunk and Decopunk Fairy Tales, (World Weaver Press, 2019): 201-219 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Trent sets his story of military intrigue and treachery, filled with floating cities and qilin (I was never sure whether the qilin were fantastic beasts or mechanical contraptions, but the ambiguity contributed to the story rather than frustrating me.), in the Sino-Japanese war. The story focuses on Li Yan, a steel dragon the Luminous Sky, fighting for Chinese nationalism, and his American mercenary compatriot, Eva Eagels.

There were a few aspects about the story that tripped me up — Li Yan was called ‘Li’ throughout, but his brother was Qimei, and I couldn’t figure out how to square this with the Chinese naming practice of putting surname, not given name, first. (Shouldn’t he be Yan? Or both he and his brother be Li?); the fact that this detail was got wrong made me worried about what other details might also be wrong. And while I love reading more SFF set in non-western settings, it sometimes felt like the story hadn’t gotten past its western-centric gaze — when a qilin delivers a young woman to Li, he describes her as “a young Chinese woman”; but while it made sense for him to describe Eva Eagels as American, because that is not the default, shouldn’t the default in China be Chinese? But despite these quibbles, I found Li a sympathetic character told in a distinctive voice, both strong and gentle, dedicated but caring, someone who has managed to keep the promise he ‘d made to his brother before the war — to not let it kill his spirit.

The actual ending seemed a bit out of left-field; but there was a page break a few paragraphs before the end that I almost expect to have been the end. If it had ended “All Under Heaven” (bottom of p. 217), I think it might have been a stronger story, with a strange sense of loss and failure threading through a success greater than what Li and Xin had spoken of achieving.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “A Princess, a Spy, and a Dwarf Walk Into a Bar Full of Nazis” by Patrick Bollivar

Review of Patrick Bollivar, “A Princess, a Spy, and a Dwarf Walked Into a Bar Full of Nazis” in Rhonda Parrish, ed., Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline: Dieselpunk and Decopunk Fairy Tales, (World Weaver Press, 2019): 184-200 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Content note: Casual ableism, homophobia. And more Nazis.

I’m not entirely sure I needed back-to-back Nazis stories. Look, I get that there is a certain power in stories which cast them as the villains which they are and which show different ways that they can be overcome and defeated. But there is also something to be said for letting them slip slowing into darkness, never forgotten but never mentioned. In a world where we have to deal with current Nazis, I’m not entirely sure of the merit of providing more stories for them to feature in — even if it is as unmistakable villains, there will always be someone who reads such stories and thinks “actually, maybe they were on the side of the right”.

All that being said…the Nazis got punched by the third page, and I can hardly complain about that. Also, the ending made me laugh.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Accidents Are Not Possible” by Sarah Van Goethem

Review of Sarah Van Goethem, “Accidents Are Not Possible” in Rhonda Parrish, ed., Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline: Dieselpunk and Decopunk Fairy Tales, (World Weaver Press, 2019): 160-183 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Content warning: Nazis. Like, actual Nazis. And eugenics.

It takes a certain sort of hubris to write a story in which Eva Braun is a central character and Hitler a minor character. It takes another sort to write such a story where Eva, at least, is presented sympathetically. I had a lot of ambivalent feelings reading the story, but also quite a bit of marvel, at the delicacy with which Van Goethem walked the line of credible and incredible. The ambivalence I felt reading the story was reflected in the moral ambivalence of the characters. In the end, I wasn’t entirely comfortable reading this story, but I thought it was one of the better written stories in the anthology.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Easy As Eating Pie” by Amanda C. Davis

Review of Amanda C. Davis, “Easy As Eating Pie” in Rhonda Parrish, ed., Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline: Dieselpunk and Decopunk Fairy Tales, (World Weaver Press, 2019): 150-159 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

I absolutely adored this retelling of Hansel and Gretel — it had all the elements of the classic tale but all jumbled and mixed up so that the story came out fresh and new. It was told quickly, with no excess of prose, and it made me laugh along the way. What fun.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Daughters of Earth and Air” by Robert E. Vardeman

Review of Robert E. Vardeman, “Daughters of Earth and Air” in Rhonda Parrish, ed., Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline: Dieselpunk and Decopunk Fairy Tales, (World Weaver Press, 2019): 132-149 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

This story fell rather flat for me. It was premised upon interesting characters — the titular daughters, and in particular one of them, Dorianya — but it frustrated me how Dorianya’s motivation seemed to be purely “love [or lust?] at first sight”. I didn’t know her well enough to know whether her actions were typical or unusual — either for her or for the daughters of earth and air in general — so I found that when she predicated all her actions on the hopes of winning a handsome man, I simply didn’t care about whether she succeeded or failed. On the other hand, after about half-way through the story, I realised which fairy tale was being retold, and I enjoyed the different twist that Vardeman put on it.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “The Rescue of Tresses Malone” by Alena Van Arendonk

Review of Alena Van Arendonk, “The Rescue of Tresses Malone” in Rhonda Parrish, ed., Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline: Dieselpunk and Decopunk Fairy Tales, (World Weaver Press, 2019): 109-131 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

This was a slightly hideous Rapunzel retelling, with all the dark grit of an original Grimm tale.

Rather surprisingly, I struggled a bit when it came time to pick a genre tag for the story — normally fairy tales fall squarely under “fantasy”, but this one lacked any element that I could identify as fantasy. In fact, when I dug a bit more to find any speculative elements, I realised that there were very few, but that what there were were on the SF side of things. An unusual take on the traditional fairy tale style!

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “늑대 – The Neugdae” by Juliet Harper

Review of Juliet Harper, “늑대 – The Neugdae” in Rhonda Parrish, ed., Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline: Dieselpunk and Decopunk Fairy Tales, (World Weaver Press, 2019): 101-108 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Content note: Strong violence, rape, death, war, weapons.

This retelling of Little Rid Ridinghood set in the context of the Korean War was an ugly little story. The original fairy tale is Grimm by name and grim by nature, but this sordid version brought that horror into sharp relief. This story was not for me.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Bonne Chance Confidential” by Jack Bates

Review of Jack Bates, “Bonne Chance Confidential” in Rhonda Parrish, ed., Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline: Dieselpunk and Decopunk Fairy Tales, (World Weaver Press, 2019): 77-100 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

This was quite the mishmash of references to fairy tales and folk tales, with a sheriff from Nottingham, a Rumple-without-a-stiltskin, fairies named Fee, and a plot that was unsure whether it was Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. My feelings about the story were also a bit of a mishmash — on the one hand, there were a lot of info dumps, I’m pretty sure women weren’t snidely called “plus-sized” in the 1920s, the use of spells felt a bit clumsy, and I was really put off by the pompous author’s note. But on the other hand, I loved how the main character, a private detective in the 1920s, was female without any sort of narrative apology and another character was non-binary, and both of these things went a long way to mitigating the other issues, in terms of enjoyment.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “To Go West” by Laura VanArendonk Baugh

Review of Laura VanArendonk Baugh, “To Go West” in Rhonda Parrish, ed., Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline: Dieselpunk and Decopunk Fairy Tales, (World Weaver Press, 2019): 52-76 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Content note: Oblique reference to suicide.

This was a story of delicious creepiness. It was filled with deep mythology and entirely unlike any other story in the anthology. I spent much of the story trying to pick out what the underlying tale was — were the four men the horsemen of the apocalypse? who were the two women in the abandoned farm? No, no… — and coming up utterly flummoxed. It turns out, per VanArendonk Baugh’s authorial note, to be based on one I was not only not familiar with, but had never even heard of before. I love a story that teaches me something and gives me reason to go off and read more. Thumbs up!

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Evening Chorus” by Lizz Donnelly

Review of Lizz Donnelly, “Evening Chorus” in Rhonda Parrish, ed., Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline: Dieselpunk and Decopunk Fairy Tales, (World Weaver Press, 2019): 42-51 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Following quick on the heels of the previous story we have another story wherein women are predominantly in the story to be treated as things to be owned and manipulated — and in the case of Jenny, this gets taken quite literally. As with Alejandra’s story (read the review), I sort of felt like I wanted more out of this one — not just a retelling of the original tale, but a questioning and a subverting of it. What would it have been like, if women were not merely objects?

On the other hand, before this story I was not familiar with the tale it was based on, Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Nightingale”, and the story made me curious to read it, so that’s definitely a point in its favor.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment