REVIEW: “Pension Plan” by Dusty Wallace

Review of Dusty Wallace, “Pension Plan”, Broadswords and Blasters 1 (2017): 30-36 — Purchase Here. Reviewed by Yana Shepard.

I liked the characters and their descriptions. They were fun for the short amount of time you got to spend with them. The story was a blast, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ending.

I will give a brief spoiler warning below.

If you don’t like the mention of genitalia and/or dismemberment of said genitalia, then this story is not for you. It’s only for the last few paragraphs but it’s there, nonetheless. I personally don’t mind such descriptions, but I know many people aren’t okay with it.

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REVIEW: “Waffles” by Ariel Ptak

Review of Ariel Ptak, “Waffles”, in Myths, Monsters, and Mutations, edited by Jessica Augustsson (JayHenge Publications, 2017): 29-34 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

I love ambiguous titles, and this one makes you wonder whether it’s about indecision or tasty tasty breakfast food. (Or perhaps even both!)

The story alternates between narration and snippets of emails. There is a specific shift in the voice in the narrative sections which I think was done particularly well — subtle enough that you don’t notice it at first, clever enough to be very satisfying when you do.

Ultimately, though, I felt like the story was trying to be funny rather than actually being funny, leaving the reader wondering just a bit, “why this story?”

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Raw Material” by Brandon Nolta

Review of Brandon Nolta, “Raw Material”, in Myths, Monsters, and Mutations, edited by Jessica Augustsson (JayHenge Publications, 2017): 22-27 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

I found the opening few paragraphs of the story confusing because it wasn’t clear what the referent of all the pronouns were. A few paragraphs in, though, I diagnosed the cause of the confusion — none of the direct speech uses any quotation marks. So when the story opens:

It was near the end of LC’s fourteenth summer when her Aunt Chrys went to the family about her magic. My power should have manifested by now, Chrys told her assorted aunts and uncles…

both the “her” in the first sentence and the “my” in the second is Chrys herself, not LC.

I’m not sure why quotation marks weren’t use; there didn’t appear to be any narrative need for such a technique.

Despite this, the story is told in a confident, distinctive voice, and despite being relatively short managed to ease its way through quite a long period of time. The ending comes as a twist out of nowhere, though, because we haven’t been given any hints about Chrys that would make her final actions in keeping with her character.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Company for Tea” by Kimber Camacho

Review of Kimber Camacho, “Company for Tea”, in Myths, Monsters, and Mutations, edited by Jessica Augustsson (JayHenge Publications, 2017): 1-11. — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

This, the opening story of the anthology, kicks things off with a classic speculative story, set in Lovecraft’s universe as is made clear by references to Miskatonic University.

I found the speech cadences of the opening section a bit awkward until I read them as if they were intended to be read aloud, and then suddenly everything sounded a lot better. The opening section is clearly intended to provide a framing for the rest of the story, but unfortunately I found it raised more questions than it answered. What woke the monster? What words are it speaking that are identifiable as words, given that they have not been spoken for untold ages? It is also not clear, from the ordering of the sections, whether the monster in section 1 is the same one as the one in section 2, or not.

The rest is a story I found pleasantly enjoyable, but I suspect it is probably better aimed at people who already know Lovecraft’s universe. For them, though, this should be right to their taste!

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “The Executioner’s Daughter” by R.A. Goli

Review of R.A. Goli, “The Executioner’s Daughter”, Broadswords and Blasters 1 (2017): 20-29 — Purchase Here. Reviewed by Yana Shepard.

I liked The Executioner’s Daughter, but I’ll be honest, I felt my anxiety spike during a semi intense scene. I realize for other readers this probably wouldn’t be such a problem, maybe none at all, but for someone like me who struggles with crowds and extreme anxiety, this made me take a break for a few minutes. After that scene, I found I could read it without much trouble.

It wasn’t a bad story. I smiled in knowing what was coming next. If you read it you might think me macabre for that, but that’s okay by me. I tend to have an appreciation for darker things.

If you don’t mind a tad bit of gore, this might be for you.

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REVIEW: “Adapt and Overcome” by Stephen R. Smith

Review of Stephen R. Smith, “Adapt and Overcome”, in Myths, Monsters, and Mutations, edited by Jessica Augustsson (JayHenge Publications, 2017): 13-14. — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

The length of this story makes it more a vignette than a proper story, and it rather shows up the perils of the very short short story/flash genre. Some of the problems are compounded by the fact that things get going very slowly, so that by the time action happens, more than half the story is over. The story also clearly shows some of the other difficulties that accompany such a short length: There is little space for world-building — what we have is a rather generic SF setting with terraforming — and also very little space for resolution. We find out what Abhrams wants to do, but with no ship and no other people around, how on earth is Abhrams going to make good his desire to adapt and overcome?

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Operators” by Joel Richards

Review of Joel Richards, “Operators”, Asimov’s Science Fiction November/December (2017): 150-159 — Purchase Here. Reviewed by Kiera Lesley.

I really love people thinking about technology disrupting different industries and what happens when people don’t think through the implementation ahead of time. Autonomous vehicles are a big deal contemporary speculative topic, but it’s mostly been focused on cars. Operators looks instead at trucks and logistics, a big deal economy and enterprise across the world and particularly in America where long-haul trucking of various goods is ingrained.

I loved how the protagonist had to balance competing interests in this – hired by the big trucking companies to spy on his fellows, but somehow trying not to be the bad guy either. The conflict wasn’t overwhelming, but it drove the character and story well. I found the tone really made this piece. It was down-to-earth and personable, which suited the setting and characters being portrayed. You don’t want fancy metaphors in a piece that deal with people down on their luck and out of work in the middle of nowhere. The ending was nifty and smart, staying true to the viewpoint character and managing to be a bit surprising as well.

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REVIEW: “Too Generous” by N. R. M. Roshak

Review of N. R. M. Roshak, “Too Generous”, in Myths, Monsters, and Mutations, edited by Jessica Augustsson (JayHenge Publications, 2017): 16-20. — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Note to anyone who wants to avoid such matters: This story deals with stillbirth.

The story starts off with an “I” narrator having a conversation with an unnamed, mute “you”. The reader? Someone else? If it is a reader, then right away the reader is being told how to feel: “You’re upset.” But maybe I wasn’t upset until you told me I was, dictating how I am supposed to feel and react. The frustrating thing is that this opening, this interaction with the reader, wasn’t at all necessary. The story could’ve started “I was a cleaner at St Joseph’s Hospital then” and the entire narrative structure would’ve been less antagonistic.

Otherwise, this is a classic horror story complete with very creepy monsters, all the more creepy for not being clearly specified. Are they vampires? Zombies? Something other unnamed horror? I’m not a big fan of the horror genre myself, but this story definitely creeped me out so I can conclude that it works.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Cemetery Man” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Review of Silvia Moreno-Garcia, “Cemetery Man”, Apex Magazine 103: Read Online. Reviewed by Joanna Z. Weston.

“Cemetery Man” is my favorite kind of story; it’s exciting and fun, but has ample depth in both the plot and the characters. The historical setting (Mexican Revolution, circa 1910, I think?) and presence of female fighters are icing on the cake.

Catalina lies bleeding on the battlefield. When she wakes up she is in the lair of the Cemetery Man, a known resurrectionist for the opposing side. She’s fought many of his creations, but for now, she figures she is just lucky to be alive. The story proceeds with brief, disjointed scenes – moments of lucidity and pain, each ending with morphine. As Catalina’s strength increases, so does the length and coherence of the scenes, and what flows from there is a nicely paced story, rich in both internal and external development.

“Cemetery Man” pairs genuine creepiness with serious questions. Are the resurrected really alive? Conscious? Human? Catalina never asks this question directly, but the narrative asks it obliquely through situation and action. There are no easy answers, yet I found the ending satisfying.

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REVIEW: “Piece by Piece” by Sean Woznicki

Review of Sean Woznicki, “Piece by Piece”, Syntax and Salt 4, 2017: Read Online. Reviewed by Tiffany Crystal

I’m not even sure what to say about this work. I’m the type that hates questions left unanswered, and this short story leaves way too many for my taste. There’s not even a suggestion of why the events in the story happen. Is it because of the woman? Is that why he loses nothing when he spends the night at his own home? If it’s the woman though, wouldn’t this be something she knew to look out for? Wouldn’t she be less horrified at finding his eyes?

I mean, in the beginning, she was entirely too blasé about the toe and the finger, and even the tongue, so I suspected it was entirely her fault, and that she knew about it. But her reaction to the eyes threw me. Perhaps her reaction is supposed to throw the audience, but it still doesn’t give you any answers.

Overall, for me, the story was frustrating because of the lack of answers, and hard to enjoy. It might’ve been different if we were at least given a reason to care about what was going on, but we aren’t even given that.

Oh well, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Hopefully others will enjoy it more than I did. At least it wasn’t badly written. It just wasn’t to my taste.

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