REVIEW: “Gentle Ways to Kill a Dragon” by Kit Harding

Review of Kit Harding, “Gentle Ways to Kill a Dragon”, Luna Station Quarterly 47 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

One of the reasons why I like reading modern SFF is the way it interrogates the sexist and patriarchal structures that are embedded in so much of the fiction I grew up on. You read enough of it, and you tend to think the way they depict their worlds are is the only way the world can be. But what’s brilliant about stories like Harding’s is the way they don’t just subvert problematic tropes, but also point out that the tropes are problematic. It’s empowering to read Ella explicitly go through the thought process from “I should be complimented that the dragon hunter thinks I’m pretty enough to be his ‘reward'” all the way to “fuck that, Imma kill that dragon myself”. Want a great story that teaches the importance of consent? This is it.

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REVIEW: “Jinli Yu” by Ai Jiang

Review of Ai Jiang, “Jinli Yu”, Luna Station Quarterly 47 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

The narrator’s father never had a chance to teach her jinli magic before he was captured, wanted for his own jinli magic. Now she is faced with attempting to rescue him without the first clue of how to go about doing it.

This was a very philosophical story, about struggles and goals, of freedom and constraint, and how to make sense of death, told in a distinctive and powerful voice. Definitely worth a few read-throughs to get all the nuances.

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REVIEW: “A Recipe for Trouble” by Aimee Ogden

Review of Aimee Ogden, “A Recipe for Trouble”, Luna Station Quarterly 47 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content warning: masturbation.

Leah loves to look at every book in the booksale, wanting them all but knowing only some will her mother allow her to purchase. But what could be more harmless than a cook book?

“A Recipe for Trouble” is more a series of vignettes than a proper story, and yet Ogden still manages to provide a solid setting with sympathetic characters. The undertones of oppression and repression of women in the story give it a weight that the premise alone would not have managed.

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REVIEW: “The Good Girl” by Jennifer Lee Rossman

Review of Jennifer Lee Rossman, “The Good Girl”, Luna Station Quarterly 47 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

In this story, the main character undergoes two important transitions: one from AFAB to trans man, the other from human to vampire. It’s a pretty blunt metaphor, and while the story of how “the good girl” got turned feels raw and real, I’m also a little bit uncomfortable with the equation of transitioning and becoming a monster.

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REVIEW: “Bluebell Song” by JL George

Review of JL George, “Bluebell Song”, Luna Station Quarterly 47 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Death.

To listen to the song of the bluebells “was to succumb to a slow madness,” but this doesn’t prevent Old Woman Achan from going out every morning to listen to them, trying to escape an even worse fate. In the end, it almost feels like she’s taken the coward’s way out, and for that reason I found the story emotionally unsatisfactory.

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REVIEW: “From the Archives of the Museum of Eerie Skins: An Account” by C. S. E. Cooney

Review of C. S. E. Cooney,  “From the Archives of the Museum of Eerie Skins: An Account”, Uncanny Magazine Issue 41 (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Isabel Hinchliff.

Formatted as an interview transcript, this captivating tale takes place on a university campus populated by people with magical abilities, including witches, wolfcasters, and warlocks. Our narrator, a wolfcaster, is nigh-invulnerable just as long as she keeps her pelt safe, but with a rich warlock targeting her, this doesn’t last long. Her path to revenge is darkly humorous, playing on the failures of our own present-day justice system. 

The voice of our narrator, Firi, is so robust that it seems to burst from the page, unloading fiery commentary. I reveled in her energy, her exuberance, and her dauntlessness. There was something profoundly comforting about the way her harrowing tale was told from the perspective of herself in the future, after the conflict had been resolved and she had clearly moved on to accomplish great things with her life. While the interview transcript formatting did seem a little unnecessary at times, it generally added a lot to the worldbuilding, giving me a sense that we were being told about only one small part of an entire world full of cutthroat politics. On the whole, it’s a tight piece with more than enough detail for a second read: plenty of “aha” moments! A deeply satisfying story.

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REVIEW: “Bridal Choice” by Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Review of Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Eve Mason, trans., “The Enchanted Prince”, in A String of Pearls: A Collection of Five German Fairy Tales by Women (2020): 53-56 — Order here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

In fairy land there is a handsome young accomplished and most definitely eligible fairy prince, his only flaw that he allows his wit to tend towards cruelty. His mother the fairy queen instructs him to travel to planet earth to find a bride suitable to match him, and of course all the women he meets are impressed by his many virtues and they all seek to flatter his own vice, until the latter almost overcomes the former. Of course, the cure is to be found in a gentle human girl who cares naught for his boasts, because of course no profligate fairy prince could ever be fixed except through the reproof of an innocent woman. The structure of the story was stereotypical and trope-y, but the details that fleshed out the structure were strange and sometimes unexpected.
This was an odd little story!

(Originally published in German in 1892.)

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