Review of Tiffany Tang, “The Sleeper in the Crypt,” Luna Station Quarterly 65 (January 2026): 213-238 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
There was something wretchedly beautiful about this story.
REVIEW: “The Disparity of Confidence” by Emmie Christie
Review of Emmie Christie, “The Disparity of Confidence,” Luna Station Quarterly 65 (January 2026): 155-159 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Sometimes experiences give people confidence; sometimes it stifles them. Robin has the ability to see the disparity between the two for each person — and also knows what to do to fix it. This was a short, sweet, beautifully empowering story!
REVIEW: “Dance It Trippingly” by Sadie Leewood
Review of Sadie Leewood, “Dance It Trippingly,” Luna Station Quarterly 65 (January 2026): 271-280 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Drug use.
For the right audience, this could be a fun story. For me, though, it was a drug-dealing/drug-use story — whether it’s fae drugs or human drugs, I’m not seeing much of a difference.
REVIEW: “Brighton” by J. Nathan
Review of J. Nathan, “Brighton,” Luna Station Quarterly 65 (January 2026): 241-245 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Who doesn’t love a story about enchanted books? Nathan’s tiny little gem delivers a beautiful dollop of happiness.
REVIEW: “Laisha” by Amantia Menalla
Review of Amantia Menalla, “Laisha,” Luna Station Quarterly 65 (January 2026): 79-100 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a fascinating, haunting, beautiful story — full of rich, complex characters and threads that I wasn’t entirely sure how they all woven together until the denouement came. The story was on the longer side, yet I never got bored and it never dragged, if anything, it became increasingly more interesting the longer I read. I’d love to read a novella or even a novel by Menalla, if she can replicate this kind of taut story-telling!
REVIEW: “Warp and Weft Rising” by Pauline Barmby
Review of Pauline Barmby, “Warp and Weft Rising,” Luna Station Quarterly 65 (January 2026): 265-268 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Barmby manages quite a lot in a very short amount of space. Imprisonment, magic, vengeance, escape, all neatly encapsulated in a well-craft story with not a word too many or missing.
REVIEW: “Are We There Yet?” by Allison Mulder
Review of Allison Mulder, “Are We There Yet?” Luna Station Quarterly 65 (January 2026): 205-210 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
In our fast-paced, modern society, there is always too much work and not enough people to do it, meaning corners get cut, in every occupation and industry — including the grim reaping industry, where it’s easy to not notice a left-behind soul.
At first I thought this ghost story was going to be sweet and sad, but in the end I actually found it funny, in a sort of ironic way — but definitely very sweet!
REVIEW: “Ghost Story” by Feby Idrus
Review of Feby Idrus, “Ghost Story,” Luna Station Quarterly 65 (January 2026): 25-32 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story was a first for me — my first Muslim ghost story!
There are two ways it can be read, sequentially and chronologically, and while I started off reading it the former half-way through I was confused enough to switch to reading it the latter, which certainly helped.
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.)
REVIEW: “The Piano Made of Fingers” by Abigail Koury
Review of Abigail Koury, “The Piano Made of Fingers,” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 16-19 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a curious and engaging read, but I spent the entire story thinking “Why fingers?” — there seemed little about the piano that was specific to the fact it was made of fingers. They could have been carrots, or snakes, or stones, or sticks.
SFF Reviews 