Short Reviews of Short SFF
Review of Rich Larson, “To Rise, to Set,” Flash Fiction Online (June 2023): 10-13 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Rich Larson is one of those authors where whenever I see him in a journal line up, I get excited. His stories never fail to deliver — though what they deliver is different every time! This one gave me a strong character willing to speak up for her beliefs and for the protection of others. I will never not want to read stories that give me this.
Review of Marc A. Criley, “The Paleoneirologist’s Dreams,” Tree and Stone 1 (2022): 29-31 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
If you don’t know what a paleoneirologist is (and are frustrated that no dictionary seems to know either), that’s okay, because Criley deftly tells you everything you need to know in this weird, waspish, biting little story. I really enjoyed it!
Review of Ai Jiang, “Behind the Tree,” Tree and Stone 1 (2022): 35-37 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a very simple story — mostly dialogue, a little bit of characterization. It left me feeling like there was something I was missing, that I didn’t quite catch its purpose or point.
Review of Marissa Lingen, “The Plasticity of Youth”, Clarkesworld Issue 185, February (2022): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
Jess is pregnant, and going to her scheduled doctor visit. She is stopped because of a raven that decided to eat her tires. Her daughter, when born, seems to be a bit different, but healthy. Over time, we learn that it’s not just tires; it’s just not ravens. A lot has started to charge.
I really like this type of story, where the world sort of changes without it having been done by humans. The humans are simply trying to navigate this world, just like everyone and everything else does.
It was strongly emotional, and I say this in the best possible meaning of the phrase.
Review of Léon Othenin-Girard, “Dark Night by the Sea” Tree and Stone 1 (2022): 33 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: contemplation of suicide.
This story illustrates the best of what flash fic can be — incredibly compact and yet bursting with character and history.
Review of Isabel J. Kim, “The Massage Lady at Munjeong Road Bathhouse”, Clarkesworld Issue 185, February (2022): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
A well-structured story about Jinah, who works at the bathhouse. She has the ability to see and scrape off the scales on her clients’ bodies – scales that show the effect of choices.
These translucent scales turn opaque over time, at which point they cannot be scraped off, signifying the calcification of the choices they make.
At one point in the story, Jinah needs to make a choice. Does she think scraping off her own scales would be worth it?
An insightful, well written story. The characters have a lot of depth, too.
Review of Sarah Little, “welcome, caller” Tree and Stone 1 (2022): 25-28 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story opens with two things I dislike: 2nd person POV, and phone calls where you’re put on hold with hold music. Despite these two things, the story was weirdly compelling, and definitely strange.
Review of Avra Margariti, “Visiting” Tree and Stone 1 (2022): 19-23 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Calla and her mother, Lily, (both named by Lily’s mother), are on their way to visit their grandmother, in a story full of the complications of multi-generational relationships. Viewed from one angle, everything about this story is surreal, from the Chinese dragon airplane to the half-demon cat in the seat in from of Calla, but from another angle, it is as real and as ordinary as every day life. Margariti handled the juxtaposition deftly, making for a very satisfying read.
Review of Devon Borkowski, “Home for the Rising Sun,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a strange, intensely beautiful at times, haunting story that I found incredibly hard to characterise or categorise.
Review of K. R. Segriff, “The Broken Princess,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story combined a fairy-tale-like voice with a fairly-mundane setting (hard to imagine Polk County, Iowa, as a magical land, whatever the narrator says!). Unfortunately, the result was, for me, too jarring to be enjoyable, and instead felt almost condescending. But maybe if you’re a horse person — or an Iowa person — this will be a story for you.
SFF Reviews