REVIEW: “All Under Heaven” by Marie Brennan

Review of Marie Brennan, “All Under Heaven,” Adventitious no. 2 (Apr 2026): 9-26 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I loved the way this piece of historical fiction went back and forth between omniscient viewpoint, telling the truth that everyone knows, and an unreliable narrator, questioning the truth that everyone knows. It was a very effective technique that made me wonder just what was fact, and what was fiction — a question any historian knows we can never really know the answer to.

Sara L. UckelmanLeave a comment

REVIEW: “Of Sight, Of Mind, Of Heart” by Samantha Murray

Review of Samantha Murray, “Of Sight, Of Mind, Of Heart,” Adventitious no. 2 (Apr 2026): 88-100 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I knew before I started reading that this was going to be a gut-wrenching story — because in flipping ahead to confirm the page number of the last page, I read the final line. Oof. It was enough of a sucker punch for me to tamp down my usual antipathy to second-person POV stories.

And I was right. What can I say about this story? Only what every parents knows: We love our children fiercely knowing that one day we’ll have to say good-bye, never knowing whether that day will come sooner or later. And also that maybe this was not the story to read the day I waved my own kid off at the airport not to see her again for three weeks!

(First published in Clarkesworld no. 122, 2016)

Sara L. UckelmanLeave a comment

REVIEW: “Spirit Alembic Keeper” by Emma Burnett

Review of Emma Burnett, “Spirit Alembic Keeper,” Adventitious no. 2 (Apr 2026): 137-144 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: military conscription

Before the conscripts go off to war, first they go to August — leaving their souls behind, to be preserved untainted, until their bodies are done battling. But of course, bodies don’t go to war to come back. August’s profession is both vitally important and endlessly futile. There’s a feeling of inevitability about this story: You don’t know quite how it’s going to end, but that it will end in the only way it possibly could. When that ending comes, it is very satisfying.

(First published in Uncharted, year unknown)

Sara L. UckelmanLeave a comment

REVIEW: “Penance” by Jennifer Hudak

Review of Jennifer Hudak, “Penance,” Adventitious no. 2 (Apr 2026): 101-108 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I love a genre-bending story like this: It has all the trappings of a moderately generic SF setting, but the story itself is a story of gods and mortals and the one being who hears the voice of their god when they should not. I’m a sucker for this kind of story, so I enjoyed “Penance” very much — especially it’s absolute killer ending.

Sara L. UckelmanLeave a comment

REVIEW: “Passing Through” by Laurie Doyle

Review of Laurie Doyle, “Passing Through,” Adventitious no. 2 (Apr 2026): 45-49 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Sometimes a good story is one that can hint at a much broader world behind the brief snippet the story lets you see. Sometimes, a good story is one that gives no context, no background, no explanations, nothing to help you understand what is going on. Doyle’s story is one of the latter, and I loved it precisely for that reason.

(First published in Manawaker Studio’s Flash Fiction Podcast 2024.)

Sara L. UckelmanLeave a comment

REVIEW: “Madam Strzyga’s Pagan Pest Control” by Katharine Tyndall

Review of Katharine Tyndall, “Madam Strzyga’s Pagan Pest Control,” Adventitious no. 2 (Apr 2026): 27-31 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

“Catholic solutions won’t work for pagan problems,” Madam Strzyga tells an anxious client (p. 29), in this funny little story that’s almost noteworthy for how mundane it is considering how fantastical it is. Pests are pests, whether they are natural or supernatural, I guess!

Sara L. UckelmanLeave a comment