REVIEW: “Kaitlin’s Unicorns” by L. L. Asher

Review of L. L. Asher, “Kaitlin’s Unicorns”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 211-220 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Content note: death of a child, death of a disabled person, cruelty to animals, contemplation of suicide, ableism.

I kept adding new items to the content note while reading the story — never a very good sign. In a nutshell, Margret is mourning the recent-ish death of her daughter, Kaitlin, by escaping into the nearby forest that Kaitlin always imagined one day she’d meet a unicorn in. Well, Margret meets the unicorn, and what happens afterwards is not pleasant. I get that Margret is hurting, but despite the obvious pain she’s in, she is not a sympathetic character: Pain and sorrow is never an excuse for violence. Add to this the “twist” that after Kaitlin’s death the “unicorn fixed everything” (p. 220) — i.e., Kaitlin is alive and no longer wheelchair bound — and, well, there was just so much about this story I didn’t like, unfortunately. This is not the disability rep I want to be seeing.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “The Mermaid Astronaut” by Yoon Ha Lee

Review of Yoon Ha Lee, “The Mermaid Astronaut”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue 298 (February 27, 2020): Read online. Reviewed by Richard Lohmeyer.  

This story’s wonderfully imagined central character, is a mermaid who has named herself Essarala, or “seeks the stars.” She is one of many mermaids who dwell “in the deep and dreaming oceans of her world.” But unlike the other mermaids, including her younger sister Kiovasa, Essarala really does long to visit the stars, not just sit on a rock gazing up at them. She gets her chance when traders from off-world arrive. In exchange for a promise to the witch beneath the waves, Essarala gives up her mermaid’s tail for legs and joins the traders on their voyages. After many wondrous years of travel, she finally returns home for a reason much more important than the need to fulfill her promise to the witch. This is a charming story about the competing desire to explore the wider world (or universe) and the joys and duties of home and family. It’s an excellent way to open this special, double-sized issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies.   

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REVIEW: “Haven” by Victoria Kochan

Review of Victoria Kochan, “Haven”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 177-189 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Apothecary Issabelle and her apprentice Prudence live in a post-apocalyptic world where their role as the sole purveyors of medicine and treatment place them near the top of the food chain — but not quite at the top, as that’s reserved for the Lords and Ladies who rule the rest of humanity with a rather nauseating sense of class privilege. (It is not clear how the Lords and Ladies get to be the Lords and Ladies, or whether they have any special powers or skills that make them better placed to run the world beyond just the fact that they are Lords and Ladies.) So when one of the Ladies becomes ill and Issabelle is sent for, she runs when called.

There’s a strange thread running through the story connected with death — or fear of death — or an inability to die — something I never quite got. Unfortunately, because it was never quite explicit enough, I think I missed out on the significance of the ending. All in all, not a story that worked for me.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “A Different Kind of Death” by A. K. Alliss

Review of A. K. Alliss, “A Different Kind of Death”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 129-144 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Mischa Sullen-Eye has stolen a magic, glowing orb, and is now on the run, from soldiers of the Perditionist Republic and from rogue magi.

It felt like we went a long time being told of this theft and escape, without being given much context to situation it. There was a lot of name-dropping — the Empire of Sighs, the City of Ghosts, Kottu, the Field of Skulls, Mischa’s erstwhile teacher Coi who was the one who convinced her to go to De’Zhun rather than to Triffid. But none of these names are given any meaning or context, which makes it hard to get invested what is, in the end, just a young girl running, and still being trapped.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: "John Simnel’s First Goshawk" by Tegan Moore

Review of Tegan Moore, “John Simnel’s First Goshawk”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 297, February 13, 2020, Read online. Reviewed by Richard Lohmeyer.

It’s rare that I read a story in Beneath Ceaseless Skies and find it wanting. Nevertheless, while I’ve liked other stories of Moore’s–particularly “The Work of Wolves” in last year’s July/August issue of Asimov’s–this one doesn’t quite work for me. It reads more like a character sketch than a fully realized story. It does, however, offer a striking comparison between the breaking of a young boy’s spirit and that of a hawk’s. As Moore puts it, both involve “the shaping of a free mind into a tamed one.” 

Again, not the best story of Moore’s that I’ve read, but your mileage may vary. 

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REVIEW: "The Moneylender's Angel" By Robert Minto

Review of Robert Minto, “The Moneylender’s Angel”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 296, January 30, 2020, Read online, Reviewed by Richard Lohmeyer.

Gareth and the story’s unnamed narrator are dockworkers sharing their lives in a bleak, violent town named Siltspar. Each has had a difficult past filled with violence neither feels able to atone for. To pay off a large debt owed by his father, Gareth was coerced into using his healing touch to torture people. The narrator, given by his parents at an early age to a cruel priesthood, was made to slit a hundred throats in ritual sacrifice.  Both quit these gruesome practices as soon as they were able, but the guilt each feels is unrelenting. When, completely by chance, a magically powerful necklace used in the priesthood’s ritual slaughter falls into their possession, a very different kind of sacrifice is called for. Done out of love, this sacrifice, too, brings guilt, but also the hope of a brighter future for at least one of the two main characters.  

Beneath Ceaseless Skies is one of my favorite magazines. Evocative stories like this are one of the reasons why.

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REVIEW: “Kankydip & the Kcheevitz” by Taylor Cook

Review of Taylor Cook, “Kankydip & the Kcheevitz”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 149-161 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

The prose of this story has a very biblical — or perhaps children’s-story is a better way to describe it — rhythm to it, which unfortunately jars constantly with the names of the main characters, Kankydip and her sidekick Dooble. The story was peppered throughout with characters that sound like they’d be at home in Dr. Seuss — in addition to the titular Kcheevitz, we encounter spantz, blottlebugs, Vorgos, and a Doolyworm.

It was a very strange story.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Particular Poisons” by Fiona West

Review of Fiona West, “Particular Poisons”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 111-123 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Summary in a sentence: The Warlord-in-Chief of Gartha’s apprentice Frieda is in need of an illusion potion to entrap her erstwhile coworker Jax into thinking she is Violet, whom he is about to marry.

There was a moment when I thought this story was intended to be a love story, but if it was, then it was a very problematic one. When the Warlord-in-Chief reflects,

It is said, really…the lengths she is willing to go to for love (p. 114),

it is really hard to see how this is love, and not obsession. But despite the Warlord-in-Chief’s thoughts here, he clearly does not approve of Frieda’s desires, and he’s going to teach her a lesson. But Frieda has a lesson to teach him in return…

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Boxes” by Lauren Barker

Review of Lauren Barker, “Boxes”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 107-110 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

I found this minimalistic story utterly entrancing. It is a deft example of how a rich and deep world can be built through only a few brief remarks and casual references. I was torn between wanting to know more about the titular boxes and feeling that any more would have ruined the delicate balance Barker managed. Gold star to this story.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Hell With Friends” by Emily Deibler

Review of Emily Deibler, “Hell With Friends”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 33-48 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Content note: Suicide and contemplation of suicide.

Scout has sold her soul to Satan and is now dead in the ninth circle of hell. There’s certain plusses about being in hell — no more grad school, the chance to hang out with Satan’s three spouses, Naamah, Lilith, and Judas — but hell is also a place that magnifies everything that was wrong with you in life, Scout finds. She’s just as angry, just as sardonic, just as scared in hell as she was on earth, and “she needed every friend she could get” (p. 39). But “Hell with friends was still Hell” (p. 39). Perhaps the worst, though, is that Scout still doesn’t know what she is meant to be, to do, with her “life”, even now that she is dead.

This story, like the preceding one, is much more fantasy than science fiction. I found myself wanting more from it than I got. With a fantasy story, one expects either grand worldbuilding or characters full of depth. Here, I learned almost nothing about the nature of hell, or how Scout was able to make her bargain with Satan. Little details were given, but I never got a sense of the overall place. But the characters felt rather flat, though, with stilted, unnatural dialogue. I wonder what the author could have made of the story with the help of a ruthless editor, because there was definitely a kernal of something interesting in there.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment