Review of Tess Lloyd, “Salisbury Confederate Prison, North Carolina, 1864,” Flash Fiction Online 130 (July 2024): 12-13 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this story. It was more a vignette than a story: An artful depiction of a specific time and place, but without enough for me to sink my teeth into to really get in to it.
Review of Rich Larson, “Ascension’s Eve,” Flash Fiction Online 130 (July 2024): 7-10 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
On Ascension’s Eve, 88 takes 99 on pilgrimage. What kind of pilgrimage would a digital identity need to make? Not only do I as the reader have this question, but it’s also clear as the story goes on that 99 doesn’t really understand this either. But 88 does, and through the story shows both me the reader and 99. It’s a weirdly mundane story, and also very sweet.
Review of Anna Dallara, “The Sibyl,” Flash Fiction Online 131 (August 2024): 22-24 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This, opened with a quote from the Aeneid to put the reader into an appropriate state of mind, was a lovely story of the limits of foretelling. There was a breath of love and a whisper of hope and an eternity of sadness, all packed into a neat, efficient little package.
Review of Sarah Jackson, “In the Path of the Giantess,” Flash Fiction Online 131 (August 2024): 19-21 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
So little happened in this story that it felt like the encounter between the narrator and the giantess was a metaphor for something — but what, I’m not really sure.
Review of Maya Dworsky-Rocha, “Godiva of the Broken Shell,” Flash Fiction Online 131 (August 2024): 16-18 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Inspired by the real-life Godiva and the events for which she is best known for, Dworsky-Rocha has created a weird SF story that trades shame for intimacy in a really effective and unexpected way.
Review of Faith Allington, “This Rapturous Blooming,” Flash Fiction Online 131 (August 2024): 12-15 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
ATTN: WorldCon readers who attended the “Fungi and SFF” panel — this is a story for you!
It’s a “mad scientist” story unlike the usual “mad scientist” story; the protagonist isn’t clinically insane because she’s actually right — it’s just that no one is willing to believe her. But isn’t what just what madness is, adhering to a reality that no one else sees?
Review of Carol Scheina, “Give a Smile at Ye Olde Photographie Shoppe,” Flash Fiction Online 131 (August 2024): 8-11 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Mal runs a photography shop, offering services no other shop does — a chance to get your photograph taken with a dragon! A real dragon — who happens to be Mal himself. He longs for a chance to be a real photographer and not just a gimmick, and this story offers him the chance to be so.
I loved the ending, which was sweet and happy, but something about the story also made me terribly sad, as it made me think of this story from a few months ago.
Humanity can be really awful sometimes. That’s why we need happy, sweet stories.
Review of Kurt Pankau, “A Pin Drops,” Flash Fiction Online 129 (June 2024): 24-27 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Pankau nails the set-up of this story: An opening paragraph that has an easy, obvious interpretation, followed quickly on by a statement that makes you go “wait, WHAT?” and reread the first paragraph again in a totally new light. From then, I was hooked. The premise is one that superficially seems amusing, but in truth wrung a good deal of sympathy and emotional connection from me.
Review of Yelena Crane, “A Face Full of Nations,” Flash Fiction Online 129 (June 2024): 20-23 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
For such a strange premise — the new fashion fad is to sculpt a nationscape upon your face — this story felt like a weird mix of things I’d already read, sort of a cross between Horton Hears a Who and another story I recently reviewed here, Holly Schofield’s “What You Sow”. This one, though, is much more dark and tragic than the other two, no happy ending here.
Review of Lindz McLeod, “The Brides, The Hunted,” Flash Fiction Online 129 (June 2024): 16-18 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Domestic violence.
This story involved a flipped gender dynamic, which was interesting because of how weird it felt. Stories like this are good, because they remind us how unnatural and weird our current social structures are, no matter how used to them we may be.
SFF Reviews