Review of Julian Riccobon, “Café Negro,” Flash Fiction Online (July 2023): 21-22 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Enslavement.
There’s a lot packed into this story, which forces the reader into an encounter with history, slavery, torture.
(First published in The Acentos Review, October 2022.)
Review of Meredith Gordon, “Patrice,” Flash Fiction Online (July 2023): 17-19 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Childbirth, adoption.
This was a peculiar little story, noteworthy for its depiction of physical disability, and the way in which only a few sentences at the end can turn something otherwise ordinary into something speculative and intriguing.
Review of E. M. Linden, “When the Forest Comes to You,” Flash Fiction Online (July 2023): 12-15 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This is more a series of vignettes than a story, snapshots of Keith’s life from when he was 5 to when his son was 5, all tied together by an underlying layer of sadness, culminating in an ending that feels like an ultimate betrayal.
Review of Brent Baldwin, “Dave the Terrible,” Flash Fiction Online (July 2023): 7-10 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story of the merging of real life and fantasy life was simultaneously deeply hilarious and deeply saddening. I really enjoyed it. The excerpt of the author interview included in the issue is worth the read, as it adds another layer to the story.
Review of Tania Fordwalker, “Lapis Lazuli,” Flash Fiction Online (June 2023): 18-20 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Enslavement.
I love it when an author can successfully take all the typical elements of a fairy tale, and turn them into some new, which is exactly what Fordwalker does in this story.
(First published in Andromeda Spaceways 58, 2013.)
Review of Daniel Galef, “The He-Bear,” Flash Fiction Online (June 2023): 14-17 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
There was a lot of adjectives and dependent clauses in this story. Not necessarily a bad thing: But certainly something that requires a lot of effort and attention.
Review of Dafydd McKimm, “A Tiger in Eden,” Flash Fiction Online (June 2023): 6-9 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story was beautifully enigmatic in the way it integrated fantasy and reality.
Review of Rich Larson, “To Rise, to Set,” Flash Fiction Online (June 2023): 10-13 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Rich Larson is one of those authors where whenever I see him in a journal line up, I get excited. His stories never fail to deliver — though what they deliver is different every time! This one gave me a strong character willing to speak up for her beliefs and for the protection of others. I will never not want to read stories that give me this.
Review of Sarah Grey, “The Social Phobic’s Guide to Interior Design,” Flash Fiction Online 103 (April 2022): 26-28 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Grey captures exceedingly well the experience of being out in public, terrified of anyone noticing you or asking you a question. And it took me all the way until the end of the story to realise there is not a speculative drop in it.
(First published in Flash Fiction Online 2013).
Review of Jennie Evenson, “A Midsummer Night’s Abduction,” Flash Fiction Online 103 (April 2022): 22-25 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The aliens have arrived, and they’ve captured Shakespeare — they need him to write a new play to convince their homeworlds to cease their war. So who do they turn to when Shakespeare is recalcitrant? An adjunct university lecturer, who researches Shakespeare, of course.
This was a rollicking fun story, full of humor, which I enjoyed a lot.
(First published in Every Day Fiction 2018).
SFF Reviews