Review of JL George, “Bluebell Song”, Luna Station Quarterly 47 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Death.
To listen to the song of the bluebells “was to succumb to a slow madness,” but this doesn’t prevent Old Woman Achan from going out every morning to listen to them, trying to escape an even worse fate. In the end, it almost feels like she’s taken the coward’s way out, and for that reason I found the story emotionally unsatisfactory.
Review of J.M. Phillippe, “The Skulk”, Luna Station Quarterly 47 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a lovely, slow-paced “coming of age” story. At times it felt a little bare-bones, but the structure was sound.
Review of A.M. Faller, “After the Storm”, Luna Station Quarterly 47 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
“Lostara Oasis was about to run out of water”, and the Council of Seven have sent Dowsers out into the Barren to find new sources. Aza is one of them, but she’s unlike all the others: She was born outside the capital, to Feral parents who scavenged in the Barren. When she’s sent into the desert without an escort, it’s clear that no one would care too much if she died. But Aza’s too good a pilot and too good a dowser to let a single sandstorm stop her from her quest, and in the end her persistence is rewarded, as she discovers something far more important and valuable than water.
Review of Anna Martino, “Dashing, Through the Spaceship”, Luna Station Quarterly 47 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
I’ve been watching a lot of Star Trek lately — DS9 and Voyager, the first time for both series for me! — and when I saw that this story felt like a Star Trek episode, I mean this in the best possible way: Futuristic space-travel that’s still just close enough to now to feel real; junior officers hashing out their pecking order; amusing antics with an animal. I loved it! A truly stellar story.
Review of Ellen Kushner, “Immortal Coil”, Uncanny Magazine Issue 41 (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Isabel Hinchliff.
At 44 years old, William (Will) Shakespeare begins to see his long-dead friend Christopher (Kit) Marlowe in the streets of London. Kit leads patient, unflappable Will on a merry chase full of word games before finally revealing the mechanism behind his mysterious ‘resurrection’. Of course, Marlowe (author of Doctor Faustus) lives because he made a Faustian bargain, and now Shakespeare must choose whether to make the same sacrifice in order to receive the same reward.
Among a truly dizzying collection of references to both Shakespeare and Marlowe’s works, “Immortal Coil” seeks to ask and answer one fundamental question: what does it mean to live as a writer? In other words, what is the difference between writing about the world and truly experiencing it?
Who better to answer these questions than The Bard himself and his ill-fated rival? If you’ve ever wanted to see Shakespeare and Marlowe discuss art, legacy, travel, and death, this is the story for you.
Review of Tochi Onyebuchi, “Presque Vue”, Uncanny Magazine Issue 41 (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Isabel Hinchliff.
As she grows up, Sam has to wrestle with the revelation that hearing just one voice in her head is not, in fact, normal. She tracks when it guides her and when it falls silent. Is it nudging her thoughts in a certain direction? What does it want? Only time will tell, but why does she feel like time might be running out?
Clocking in at less than two thousand words, this bite-size story is surprisingly refreshing. It takes a much more holistic approach than many stories which feature internal voices; Sam is a well-developed protagonist with family support and access to mental health services. She struggles to understand and make peace with her unique mental landscape, but she isn’t seriously hindered by it or degraded by her peers. As each new detail of her life story was revealed, I found myself effortlessly picking out the layers of motives in Sam’s life: her motives, the motives of her friends and family, and the motives of the mysterious voice. It’s a fascinating read with a delightful reveal at the end.
Review of Britt Foster, “Helix”, Luna Station Quarterly 46 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
“Project Chimera had gone on for fifty years and billions of dollars had poured into its evolution.” It was supposed to be “the pinnacle of human achievement,” and yet instead, Dr. Magdalena Santos is told that the project is being such down, with immediate effect, leaving her in charge of destroying the project’s assets.
It takes a very special scientist to destroy the results of a research project, especially one that had been going so well, and the question the story revolves around is: Is Dr. Santos one of those special ones? Or, if she isn’t, will she get away with it? On the one hand, it’s clear that we’re meant to root for her to not destroy the assets. On the other hand, it’s not at all clear that those who want to shut the project down are in the wrong. The delightful tension between these two threads means that the ending is not entirely comfortable at all.
Review of Jiang Bo, “Face Changing”, Clarkesworld Issue 177, June (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
A quite unique tale about identity in the future. A future where everyone and everything is constantly online. We’re all on the internet and the internet is within us.
A world where Big Brother-esque technological advancement and big data is used to predict behavior in some sort of data based Minority Report, lightly touching on free will vs determinism.
Comprehensive yet flawed algorithms that, while perfect for machines and an idealistic world, can still be fooled by a human being who is intelligent enough and desperate enough.
A fast paced, exciting tale.
Review of Yoon Ha Lee, “The Chameleon’s Gloves”, Uncanny Magazine Issue 41 (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Isabel Hinchliff.
You can never go too wrong with a swashbuckling space adventure. Two thieves (one exile with extraordinary lockpicking abilities and one pilot) are bribed and threatened into stealing a superweapon that could blow up thirty thousand light-years worth of space. It’s a wild ride with a fascinating and ingenious narrator at the helm.
My only complaint is that the ride was, perhaps, too wild. Our narrator, Rhehan, switches allegiances between factions several times, almost at the drop of a hat. The stakes (thirty thousand light-years worth of space!!) seem very high, and yet Rhehan is fairly nonchalant about playing hot potato with such a powerful weapon. I felt that in the kaleidoscopic narrative of shifting loyalties, Rhehan’s haunted past and history with their clan (one of the factions) was lost as a theme, only to return at the end as though we should have been following it the whole time. Overall, the story caught and held me, but I wondered if the complicated plot eclipsed some of the finer nuances of characterization.
Review of C. S. E. Cooney, “From the Archives of the Museum of Eerie Skins: An Account”, Uncanny Magazine Issue 41 (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Isabel Hinchliff.
Formatted as an interview transcript, this captivating tale takes place on a university campus populated by people with magical abilities, including witches, wolfcasters, and warlocks. Our narrator, a wolfcaster, is nigh-invulnerable just as long as she keeps her pelt safe, but with a rich warlock targeting her, this doesn’t last long. Her path to revenge is darkly humorous, playing on the failures of our own present-day justice system.
The voice of our narrator, Firi, is so robust that it seems to burst from the page, unloading fiery commentary. I reveled in her energy, her exuberance, and her dauntlessness. There was something profoundly comforting about the way her harrowing tale was told from the perspective of herself in the future, after the conflict had been resolved and she had clearly moved on to accomplish great things with her life. While the interview transcript formatting did seem a little unnecessary at times, it generally added a lot to the worldbuilding, giving me a sense that we were being told about only one small part of an entire world full of cutthroat politics. On the whole, it’s a tight piece with more than enough detail for a second read: plenty of “aha” moments! A deeply satisfying story.
SFF Reviews