Review of Samantha Murray, “This Blue World,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 19-20 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Ghost stories aren’t usually my thing; stories told in 2nd person POV aren’t usually my thing. Yet Murray’s 2nd-person-POV-ghost-story was EXACTLY my thing, one of those wonderful surprises that shows you just how the flexibility of language can result in something so enjoyable.
Review of Jen Brown, “The Probability of One,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 6-8 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was quite a complex story for how short it was; I started it, got lost, had to start it again, got distracted, started again before I really go stuck into it. It feels like it skirts the barrier between very clever and unreasonably opaque. I’d rather not decide for myself, but encourage everyone to give it a go. At the very least, it’s short, and if you reach the end still confused, it’s okay — it’s short. And even at the end there’s something that leaves me thinking “I wish I understood more.”
The author bio says that Jen Brown writes “otherworldly tales about Black, queer folks righteously wielding power.” For that reason alone, I’d read this story.
Review of Sharang Biswas, “I Kissed a Dragon,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 29-30 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This poem had some nice turns of phrases, but overall I felt like it was lacking in substance, with just a few too many stereotypes.
Review of Angel Leal, “The Hole is the Beginning,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 27-28 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This lovely poem touched me, particularly some of the lines towards the end:
These children may not feel connected,
but it’s their otherness that connects them.
It’s about motherhood and otherness and how in the best of worlds the children we love, we love whoever they are.
Review of Davida Kilgore, “My Dear, My Love,” Fantasy Magazine 94 (August 2023): 10-20 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This is a frank, intimate story of queer Black love. The fantastical element is simultaneous slight and integral.
Review of A. T. Greenblatt, “Essay: More Than a Journey,” Fantasy Magazine 94 (August 2023): 40-41 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Greenblatt’s fascinating and reflective essay focuses on the question of “Who does this story belong to?” It’s a question she was posed early in her writing career, and on the one hand, it makes sense as a question to ask a budding writer, because if we do not know whose story we are telling, how can we know what story it is that we are telling? But what Greenblatt highlights, from a more experienced perspective, is that stories do not belong to individuals, but to groups. For Greenblatt, the mismatch between the drive to hang a story on an individual and the fact that we all collectively participate in the stories around us results in a particular hunger, “for a type of story I don’t see very often in SFF” (p. 40) — stories that are about collectives, about groups, not about individuals.
Thought short, I found the essay compelling, found myself nodding along at almost every point. One thing I often wonder, reviewing stories for this blog, is “why this story?”, i.e., how did the author decide that this was the story to tell, rather than that. And I think some of my own concerns reflected in this question are the same concerns that Greenblatt has: Who gets to tell a story, and why, and how do we, as authors, make these decisions.
I love read about other author’s crafts and practices, it’s one of the most valuable things I find for my own writing practices. This was an extremely stimulating and useful essay, full of through-provoking points that I hope will help me out of the slough of despond when I’ve got a story that needs to be told, but I’m just not yet sure why or whose.
Review of Hana Lee, “Bari and the Resurrection Flower,” Fantasy Magazine 94 (August 2023): 25-33 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This is exactly the sort of story I want to read — steeped in a culture and mythos that I am not so familiar with (Korean) combined with overt and explicit nonbinary characters. I’d love to see this turned into a movie, or a TV series.
Review of B. Pladek, “The Runners,” Fantasy Magazine 94 (August 2023): 21-24 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Childlessness not by choice.
This is the sort of story I would probably have opted not to read, if it had the sort of content note that I’m providing here: It’s a story about a couple, who start off neither of them sure they want children, but then grow into a couple where one does and the other doesn’t. But having read it, I can say that the way in which it navigates this tough and sometimes treacherous situation is good, it’s a good story…it’s just one that I find hard to read.
Review of Marie Brennan, “Damnatio Memoriae: A History of the Past That Used to Be,” Fantasy Magazine 94 (August 2023): 37 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The power of this beautiful, depressing poem lies in the way in which it purports to be a fantasy, and yet reading it, we all know what it is describing is reality.
Review of Ubong Johnson, “Kumbaya,” Fantasy Magazine 94 (August 2023): 35 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Fantasy poetry is a tricky genre, in part because even ordinary poetry is itself often fantastical in nature. I felt that this poem could be read in two ways, one, merely as using metaphorical language to express grief and loss, the other in a more fantasy light; how I read it was definitely influenced by the nature of the venue it was published in. Without that, I’m not sure I’d call it “fantasy,” but I would still call it beautiful.
SFF Reviews