REVIEW: “A Moon Goddess to Watch Over Me” by Susan Kaye Quinn

Review of Susan Kaye Quinn, “A Moon Goddess to Watch Over Me,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 385-389 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Quinn’s story was an enjoyable mix of near-earth space exploration and ancient Chinese, Greek, and African mythologies, an unusual combination to say the least. It had a little bit too much reporting of back story, and not quite enough character or development of story, for my taste, because it was quite short, but it was still enjoyable nonetheless.

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REVIEW: “Is That New?” by Rosamund Lannin

Review of Rosamund Lannin, “Is That New?,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 33-46 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

There was something positively magical about how Lannin wove together the excessively mundane with the delightfully unexpected. At the end of a long train at the end of a long week which was the last week of a long academic term, this story broke through my exhaustion and made me smile, right up until it caught me by surprise. Fantasy with a twist of horror — what a fun read!

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REVIEW: “Sister Death” by Erin Kissick

Review of Erin Kissick, “Sister Death,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 121-125 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

While reading this story, I had a sense of being held at arm’s length, of never being given quite enough detail. We learn a lot of dragons and those who feed on their corpses, but very, very little about the woman who is traveling so far away from her home city just to visit the corpse. I felt a little bit cheated, by the end, because I think she was someone I’d like to know better.

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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: “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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