REVIEW: “Opening Doors” by Juliet Kemp

Review of Juliet Kemp, “Opening Doors,” Cossmass Infinities 7 (2022): 41-48 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Cancer, death.

Dysfunctional relationships are still dysfunctional, even if they are set on Mars! Despite the setting, the story Kemp gives us is in some respects quite mundane, ordinary. The juxtaposition of the ordinary, every-day against the Martian backdrop made for an intriguing contrast. Don’t get me wrong, “ordinary” and “mundane” are good descriptions here.

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REVIEW: “Halfway Up and Halfway Down and Nowhere At All” by Juliet Kemp

Review of Juliet Kemp, “Halfway Up and Halfway Down and Nowhere At All”, Luna Station Quarterly 25 (2016): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: death.

This story explored a darker side of magic and magic use, drawing analogies with drugs and drug use. Mali doesn’t approve of Nick’s getting mixed up with that sort of stuff — but when he turns up dead on her doorstep, she’s not going to let her friend’s death go unavenged. Of course, nothing is ever as easy as that, and the more Mali protests against the use of magic, the more inevitable her own use of it is. This was a pretty dark story, all in all.

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