REVIEW: “Float. Sink. Tread. Swim.” by Shelly Jones

Review of Shelly Jones, “Float. Sink. Tread. Swim.” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 20-23 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

There’s so many things in this story that I’d ordinarily put into a content note — the death of a parent, death of a child, the involvement of child protection services, religious persecution where the religious people are the persecutors rather than the persecuted — that it felt like the entire review would be in the content note if I did so. This story is every bit as sad and heavy as you might predict from the title.

(Interestingly, given where it was first published, it has no wizards, and does not take place in space.)

(First published in Wizards in Space, April 2024.)

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REVIEW: “Things Elan Reacquainted Himself With After Being Broken Out of His Single-Day Time Loop” by D. A. Straith

Review of D. A. Straith, “Things Elan Reacquainted Himself With After Being Broken Out of His Single-Day Time Loop,” Flash Fiction Online 141 (June 2025): 13-15 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I do love a good list-story! This was short, but effective, especially in conjunction with another title-which-is-basically-a-story-in-itself.

(First published in Inner Worlds 2024.)

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REVIEW: “The Chaperone” by Kimberly Crow

Review of Kimberly Crow, “The Chaperone,” Flash Fiction Online 138 (March 2025): 22-23 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Infertility.

FFO occasionally serves up a story that has no speculative element, which is what this one is. It is nevertheless a thoughtful, poignant story that gets right at the heart of what it is like to long for a child you may never have.

(First published in WOW! Women On Writing, May 2024.)

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REVIEW: “Talisman and Bone” by Karen L. Kobylarz

Review of Karen L. Kobylarz, “Talisman and Bone,” Luna Station Quarterly 60 (2024): 157-183 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Set in ancient Tyre, this story was peppered with all the little historical details that I love to see when an author is recreating the essence of an ancient culture — appropriate names, the use of a few foreign vocabulary words and phrases for important items like precious gems and spells, attention to clothing, the gods. But it’s not a simple historical fiction; the twist towards fantasy is strong and vibrant, yet the blending in of magic isn’t jarring or unrealistic. All the pieces fit together well.

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REVIEW: “We Are Island” by Atalanti Evripidou

Review of Atalanti Evripidou, “We Are Island,” Luna Station Quarterly 60 (2024): 127-145 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I love it when I read a story where one character’s love for another is so palpable, so shining, that you see it from the very first page and you get swooped up in it. This is one of those stories. Elias’s love for Ren is dazzling, and so is Ren’s for Elias.

And yet, as brightly as is shines, it doesn’t eclipse the background world that Evripidou has deftly constructed through the introduction of one simple change: It’s a world very much like ours except that there are chips available which when implanted allow people access to their familial memories. Evripidou works out the consequences of this one idea in ways that enhance her characters. It’s such a deftly-balanced story; I was super impressed. (And I desperately would love to see it turned into an 8- or 12-episode TV series, if one can do that with such a short story!)

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REVIEW: “Dragon Dance” by Elizabeth Davis

Review of Elizabeth Davis, “Dragon Dance,” Luna Station Quarterly 60 (2024): 203-214 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Lily is the first woman to be a part of the dragon dance, the elaborate traditional celebration that links her (presumably immigrant/diaspora) community with their home culture. There is quite a lot of description going on in the opening pages, which contributed to the slow, drawn-out feel of the story, and also contributes to me not being quite sure what to say about it. I felt like I didn’t have quite the context that I needed to understand the significance of various points: The parts that were significant I only knew were so because as the reader I was told explicitly. All in all, this one didn’t quite work for me, but I’m not entirely sure why.

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REVIEW: “Run Time” by Gemma Church

Review of Gemma Church, “Run Time,” Luna Station Quarterly 60 (2024): 223-269 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Miscarriage; domestic abuse.

The pagination may make this story seem like on the long side for LSQ, but in fact it’s quite a short story, just elaborately formatted, typeset as a back-and-forth text-based conversation — no scene-setting, no description, just dialogue, so that it is in fact quite a quick read. Moreover, the quick pace of it means that there is very little advance warning for when things suddenly turn dark and more than a little bit ugly. There’s a viciousness to one of the characters being discussed that makes the ending so very much more satisfying, when that awful abuser gets his come-uppance.

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REVIEW: “From a Damsel to a Dragon” by Hannah Birss

Review of Hannah Birss, “From a Damsel to a Dragon,” Luna Station Quarterly 60 (2024): 217-220 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was quite a straightforward story: A princess, betrothed to a prince in an arranged marriage that neither of them wants, undergoes transformation from a damsel to the titular dragon. There’s no explanation or understanding of why/how this happens, it is just presented to the reader as a straightforward thing. There’s little left to the reader to grapple with, nothing really to figure out, no deeper moral or allegory. It’s just a story of a girl who doesn’t want to marry a prince, and becomes a dragon instead. Still, it was a fun little piece, even if it’s not very deep.

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