REVIEW: “Maiden, Mother, Crone” by Ann Leckie and Rachel Swirsky

Review of Ann Leckie and Rachel Swirsky, Maiden, Mother, Crone, Podcastle: 500 — Listen Online. Reviewed by Heather Rose Jones

The basic story structure is one of religious intolerance: the conflict between a magical woman-centered tradition and a murderous patriarchal monotheistic tradition, mediated by fear, lack of communication, and a really bad winter storm, the sort you don’t want to get caught in when you’re about to give birth. While the story hung together competently in narrative terms, I confess that stereotypes involved in the religious world-building felt unimaginative. I did like the hopeful (if far-fetched) plans the protagonist had at the end, though I don’t think it could be called a happy ending overall. I think I was hoping to be blown away by the special 500th episode story–Podcastle is really good about blowing me away on a regular basis–and it fell short of doing that for me.

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REVIEW: “A Good Egg” by Shawn Proctor

Review of Shawn Proctor, A Good Egg, Podcastle: 499c — Listen Online. Reviewed by Heather Rose Jones

A brief heartbreaking fairy tale exploration, riffing off of the Humpty Dumpty rhyme, with a brief allusion to Cinderella in passing. What if Humpty Dumpty’s great fall was falling in love with the king? I liked how the author played with the clash of the structural absurdity of the Humpty Dumpty nickname and the bodily egg imagery (both shape and fragility) in combination with the understated pathos of the rhyme’s outcome, mapped onto a rejected lover. Not a happy story but an exquisite one.

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REVIEW: “National Geographic on Assignment: The Unicorn Enclosure” by Sarah Monette

Review of Sarah Monette, National Geographic on Assignment: The Unicorn Enclosure, Podcastle: Miniature 101 — Listen Online. Reviewed by Heather Rose Jones

Flash fiction is really hard to write reviews for! This is a bit of a world-building sketch, developing one possible version of the natural history of unicorns–a slightly more sinister version than is typical. A nice exploration of how to expand a mythic concept into a complex natural phenomenon.

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REVIEW: “Have This Wish I Wish Tonight” by Katherine Kendig

Review of Katherine Kendig, Have This WIsh I Wish Tonight, Podcastle: 499b — Listen Online. Reviewed by Heather Rose Jones

A flash story in the romantic mode about falling in love with a constellation, though the primary themes are more about communication with the perils of things left unsaid, and the experience of feeling outshone by one’s beloved and inadequate.

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REVIEW: “Demon of the Song” by Ville Meriläinen

Review of Ville Meriläinen, “Demon of the Song”, in Myths, Monsters, and Mutations, edited by Jessica Augustsson (JayHenge Publications, 2017): 337-355. — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

This is a nice, satisfyingly long story full of rich description and characters with complex histories.

Natalie and Siren are linked together in uneasy partnership that Natalie longs to escape. Vanderoy — perhaps — is the one to help her. But can Natalie accept Vanderoy’s help when she knows that Siren is waiting beside her for the moment that she can get Vanderoy in her clutches? Will Natalie save herself at Vanderoy’s expense, or sacrifice herself to save Vanderoy?

The story was finely crafted, with details fed to the reader at just the right pace, until the last of the pieces snapped into the puzzle.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Three Cats at the End of the World” by Aimee Ogden

Review of Aimee Ogden, Three Cats at the End of the World, Podcastle: 499a — Listen Online. Reviewed by Heather Rose Jones

A flash piece using cat personalities and behaviors as metaphors/representations of the experience of past, present, and future. Evocative and somewhat creepy, with an intriguingly open-ended closing scene. I really enjoy stories that lead me to speculate on how to interpret endings–not talking about vague ones, but ones where it feels like the author had a clear interpretation in mind, but it’s ok if you see a different one.

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REVIEW: “Chasing Flowers” by L. Chan

Review of L. Chan, Chasing Flowers, Podcastle: 498 — Listen Online. Reviewed by Heather Rose Jones

A ghost story and a love story–that is, a story of love between ghosts, trying to find a path to reunion in the face of the rules of the Chinese afterlife. In the initial exposition we are given a sketch of those rules, how they tore the two women apart after death, and the doomed circumstances of their love in life that locked them into a cycle of seeking. But one is truly a ghost while the other has been doomed(?) to cycles of rebirth, never entirely knowing why her life is full of emptiness and pain. This psychic connection is tied symbolically in the story to depression and self-harm, with a repeating motif of cutting echoing the harvesting of sap from rubber trees, as well as themes of the harm that women do themselves or allow to be done to them in the name of conformity and tradition. There’s a lot of darkness in this story but a hopeful ending–or as hopeful as a love story can be when one of the two is a ghost.

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REVIEW: “Demon in a Copper Case” by Damon L. Wakes

Review of Damon L. Wakes, “Demon in a Copper Case”, in Myths, Monsters, and Mutations, edited by Jessica Augustsson (JayHenge Publications, 2017): 135-137. — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

When times are hard, heresy no longer seems like such a bad idea. The people of Singstoat are suffering from a decline in industry, and many people are debt-ridden and struggling. In such a context, the temptation to call upon the demon in the copper case is too strong to resist…

This was a fun little story, quickly told but with plenty of detail and characters. It’s a classic plot line but there is something satisfying in reading a good retelling of an old tale.

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REVIEW: “Aliens and Old Gods” by Kimber Camacho

Review of Kimber Camacho, “Aliens and Old Gods”, in Myths, Monsters, and Mutations, edited by Jessica Augustsson (JayHenge Publications, 2017): 360-374. — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

I find I enjoy the longer stories in this anthology more than the shorter ones, in part because the length means there’s more meat to the story — and there’s plenty of meat in this one.

The story is constructed out of four different vignettes, of seemingly disparate events, happening in different places and different times to different people, with — at first — no clear connecting thread running through them. But by the time we finish the second one, it is clear that the titular aliens and old gods are the red thread that connects all the different events together.

A second thread that ties each of the scenes together is the narrative voice that tells them all, a voice that is clinical and almost journalistic. These scenes are told by someone who appears to be watching the events at arm’s length, almost always uninvolved and dispassionate (only sometimes turning passionate and interpretative), and who is someone who clearly knows a lot more than anyone experiencing the events. One of the aliens? One of the old gods? We won’t ever know…

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REVIEW: “Island of Skulls” by Matt Spencer

Review of Matt Spencer, “Island of Skulls”, Broadswords and Blasters 1 (2017): 52-67 — Purchase Here. Reviewed by Yana Shepard.

Where do I start? Well, first off, I should mention the language. Personally, it doesn’t bother me, but I know plenty of people that don’t enjoy heavy use of harsh words. This heads up is for those people who would do better skipping “Island of Skulls” for that reason.

On to the main characters.

The twins are young and it shows. Ketz is easily distracted by curves and Tia is disrespectful in both her speech and behavior towards others. Granted, Ketz was being pulled into the plot by what seemed like lust filled magic, but that isn’t answered as this is a two part story. (The second half being continued in issue 2 of Broadswords and Blasters.) I think if I had gotten the chance to learn more about the twins I could have grown to like them. As a short story, however, I couldn’t get behind their attitudes. Ketz seemed more level headed than his sister, not so eager to kill, unlike Tia.

The world building was interesting. I would like to see more of that, but the twins made the story a slower read than it needed to be.

As far as story goes, I’m unsure why Tia brought Ketz along with her to check on the Island of Skulls. If he was being manipulated with sex appeal (which may or may not have been solely through magic) wouldn’t he be a threat to their mission?

Unfortunately, my question won’t get an answer until issue 2.

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