REVIEW: “A Moral Majority” by Nikoline Kaiser

Review of Nikoline Kaiser, “A Moral Majority”, Luna Station Quarterly 46 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was a very different sort of love story than the one in “Forestborn” (read the review), but every bit as lovely, and the way it was underpinned by the collective will, of the entire town of Goldville, to do the right thing in support of Angela and Marigold in their time of need was something quite special. If Kaiser weaves this strength of moral virtue into the rest of her writing, then I want to read more of it.

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REVIEW: “Bots of the Lost Ark” by Suzanne Palmer

Review of Suzanne Palmer, “Bots of the Lost Ark”, Clarkesworld Issue 177, June (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.

Featuring 9, the much loved bot from The Secret Life of Bots, a Hugo award winning story. It can be read as a standalone story, which indeed I did, before further research led me to understand that 9 has made an appearance in a previous story. Of course it’s next on my list.

Bots of the Lost Ark, however, was an amazing tale. I’ve read Palmer’s work before, and I’ve loved every single thing I’ve read of hers. This is no exception.

9 is basically the little bot that could, and every other character – human or glom – is so well written. The urgency, the moral dilemma, the instincts and feelings that bots and ships can have, and an overall poignant yet humourous feel make this an absolute masterpiece.

I want to say more words but I can’t find the right ones, which is something that pretty much never happens to me. Just read this. I love. This has been yet another Suzanne Palmer appreciation post.

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REVIEW: “Unit Two Does Her Makeup” by Laura Duerr

Review of Laura Duerr, “Unit Two Does Her Makeup”, Luna Station Quarterly 46 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I didn’t expect a story of make-up, misogyny (okay, that isn’t fun, but the way it was casually ignored was), and a conscious navigation of the uncanny valley to end up being so empowering. It was an accomplished telling from the POV of an AI, who sometimes awkwardly, sometimes smoothly straddles the line between being herself and being more humanlike, and I’m considering reading it to my newly-discovered-make-up daughter. I think it’s got a message that she’d value hearing.

(Weirdly, though, this was the second story of this issue that had proofreading issues: Sometimes it’s Suzanne, sometimes Susana, and I think the one lone instance of “Maya” was meant to be Suzan(ne/a). Frustrating.)

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REVIEW: “Stones and Bones” by Devon Widmer

Review of Devon Widmer, “Stones and Bones”, Luna Station Quarterly 46 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

The other day I saw someone asking for recommendations for SFF with humor; if only I had read this story then, I could’ve recommended it, because it is laced with delightful comedy! And that’s in addition to the queer romance that blossoms into a ghost-exorcism business. All in all, this was a good fun read.

The only drawback — unusual for LSQ — was how the typesetting marred the story; about two-thirds of the way in, all of a sudden most of the capital letters were lost. No fault of the author, but it was still unfortunately distracting.

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REVIEW: “Lemon” by Mara Regan

Review of Mara Regan, “Lemon”, Luna Station Quarterly 46 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

“When someone is dying, the rest of us do weird things.”

This. This is why I read short SFF fiction. Because of lines like this, which hit you in the stomach and ring so full of truth.

It hardly matters what the rest of the story is, once you read a line like this, because the story has fulfilled its purpose. It was an added bonus that the rest of the story was so good — and so sad.

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REVIEW: “The Wandering Fae” by Alex Grehy

Review of Alex Grehy, “The Wandering Fae”, Luna Station Quarterly 46 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

On the one hand, you have Finn, the Fae, who lounges and loafs around and is generally reckless and idlesome; on the other hand, you have Belladonna, the witch, who cooks and cleans and weaves and cares and does all the things that need to be done to keep a shared life going. I think we were supposed to read this story partly as a sweet fairy-tale love story, but I kept tripping up against the structural misogyny encoded in the two main characters, and never quite found myself enjoying it.

I totally did not expect what came when they encountered the Dark Fae, though. So, half a thumb up for unexpected surprises.

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REVIEW: “Them Oranges” by Nicole M. Wolverton

Review of Nicole M. Wolverton, “Them Oranges”, Luna Station Quarterly 46 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Lettie knows that every summer, when the scent of “them oranges” comes wafting through the windows, she will be called on to perform a necessary sacrifice to protect her village — just like her mother before her, and just like her daughter-to-be will after — whatever the sacrifice might cost her, personally.

This was a bit of a surprising story for LSQ — more to the horror than the SFF side of things. Perhaps that’s why it was one I’d file under “not for me”, because it was stronger on the shock and gore than it was on the world-building and scene-setting. I would have liked to know more about what Lettie’s sacrifice was protecting the village from.

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REVIEW: “The Mirror” by Alice Paige

Review of Alice Paige, “The Mirror”, Luna Station Quarterly 46 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

The titular mirror is located inside the Black Box, part of a long-running particle physics experiment run by Dr. Fredric Vasquez. Viv has been working for Dr. Vasquez for a few years, mostly doing data analysis, but now it’s her chance to do something more — to be the thirteenth person to enter the Black Box. Viv is in the box because she believes that there is magic inherent in the study of the universe, and she wants to contribute to that study in the most personal of ways: Her girlfriend Anna is missing, and this might be the only way to find out what happened to her.

This was a good solid story; while the basic tropes involved were familiar, the details of the execution were distinctive.

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