REVIEW: “Afterlife” by Lucy Zhang

Review of Lucy Zhang, “Afterlife,” Tree and Stone 2 (2022): 25-28 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

One of my favorite parts of reading SFF and speculative fiction is when in the middle of something entirely fictive I get something that is so entirely real. In Zhang’s story, that comes via this killer line: “Anger and self-perceived injustices are a product of overstimulation.” And that’s just one excellent portion of this rich story full of a deeply different imagined world. High quality stuff!

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REVIEW: “Stasis” by Lucy Zhang

Review of Lucy Zhang, “Stasis” Cossmass Infinities 9 (2022): 68-73 — Read or purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

According to Aristotle, time is the measure of change: Without change, there simply is no passage of time. This is what the narrator, her brother Junlan, and the rest of their class find out when they end up in a stasis plane. No time passes because nothing ever permanently changes, or could change, and there’s no way out.

As a premise for a story this could have been incredibly dull, but instead the narrator’s wry commentary and perceptive self-reflection made it incredibly enjoyable.

Sara L. UckelmanLeave a comment