REVIEW: “Collector of the Dead” by Chelsea Catherine

Review of Chelsea Catherine, “Collector of the Dead,” Luna Station Quarterly 53 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Minnie is haunted by ghosts only she can see. Most are there one moment, gone the next, but Sheila is different — she comes, she speaks to Minnie, and when she goes, she comes back again another day. Soon, the two have become friends, or perhaps more.

This is both a hopefully, happy story and a sad one, with an ending that is both exactly what it needs to be and exactly the one I didn’t want. Strongly written and enjoyable!

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REVIEW: “The Little Husky” by Rebecca Harrison

Review of Rebecca Harrison, “The Little Husky,” Luna Station Quarterly 53 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Eliza’s father is on trial. His crime? He has stolen the Artic Circle, to ensure that he, and not his rival Mennor, would be the first man to reach the North Pole.

This was an interesting story, with some very beautifully-used language, but I felt like I had to wait too long to find out what was actually happening.

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REVIEW: “Obstruction” by Pamela Rentz

Review of Pamela Rentz, “Obstruction,” Fantasy Magazine 72 (October 2021): 18-26 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was an #ownvoices story of a woman of the Karuk tribe and the impact of colonisation on her people, their land, and their religion. The thread of fantasy running through it was slim and fine and almost forgettable, and it did not end as I thought it would.

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REVIEW: “Emily and the What-If Imp” by Gwynne Garfinkle

Review of Gwynne Garfinkle, “Emily and the What-If Imp,” Fantasy Magazine 72 (October 2021): 16-17 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I think lots of people, especially people who take solace in reading and writing speculative fiction, have What-If imps of their own, hanging around and making unwarranted trouble, or if not a What-If imp, one of its cousins. But I think there is some solace in reading this story, whatever kind of imp you’ve got.

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REVIEW: “The Oak Tree” by Liz Baxmeyer

Review of Liz Baxmeyer, “The Oak Tree,” Luna Station Quarterly 52 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Dara is out haunting the oak tree when she surprises a stranger, Muriel, who is desperately seeking something. The folk songs that Dara sings, scattered throughout the story, emphasised the folk-tale nature of the story; but there was rather too much explaining rather than story-telling for it to quite work for me.

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REVIEW: “Live Oak” by Carly Racklin

Review of Carly Racklin, “Live Oak,” Luna Station Quarterly 52 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Rory and Finn have just moved to a new house, and it’s not the happily ever after they hoped for. The big tree looming over Rory’s bedroom is clearly haunted — but whoever heard of a haunted tree? Maybe truth of the matter is even deeper and darker than they can imagine.

A lovely creepy little forest horror story.

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REVIEW: “Lost and Found; Retreat and Return” by Emma Schmid

Review of Emma Schmid, “Lost and Found; Retreat and Return,” Luna Station Quarterly 52 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This story made me explicitly realise something I’d noticed implicitly over the last year or two: There seems to be an increasing number of fantasy stories which revolve around a single character, alone, and reflective of her (almost always her!) circumstances. I wonder whether the isolation of the pandemic has contributed to the rise in both the writing and the publishing of this sort story, if we’ve sort of collectively forgotten what it is like to live in a bustling world with many people overlapping.

Told well, these stories can be incredibly enjoyable and rewarding — but they do tend to blur together, and feel all of a same piece. The beginning of Schmid’s story was just that: Well crafted, but very similar to some of the others in this same issue of LSQ. However, when the second character finally showed up, then things started getting interesting and by the end I was well sucked in.

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REVIEW: “Of Wood and Flame” by Anna Madden

Review of Anna Madden, “Of Wood and Flame,” Luna Station Quarterly 52 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

There’s plenty of stories out there about foundling children raised by animals, but much fewer about foundling children raised by trees. I would have liked to know a bit more about how Holly ended up abandoned in the forest, and how Fossil knew about her past; but these are minor quibbles about an otherwise enjoyable story. Plus: a bonus dragon!

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