REVIEW: “The Mischievous Kind” by Spoorthi Ag

Review of Spoorthi Ag, “The Mischievous Kind,” Luna Station Quarterly 67 (September 2026): 53-65 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Amala is a young journalist in Delhi who still needs to prove herself. When she’s told to write a story on the “beings worshipped at the edges” (p. 53), for her, it’s just another story. For us, we of course know that these fringe mythologies are about to become very central in Amala’s life!

Ag’s story is engaging, sprinkled equally with bits of humor and thought-provoking reflections. And while it didn’t perhaps have the ending we might all wish it had, it definitely had the right ending.

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REVIEW: “Baba Yaga in Chernobyl” by Ava Neumaier

Review of Ava Neumaier, “Baba Yaga in Chernobyl,” Luna Station Quarterly 67 (September 2026): 121-132 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I loved the idea of this story — take a technological disaster like Chernobyl and reframe it in fantasy terms — but I was less swayed by the execution. There was a bit too much science still in it, and at times the attempts to reach the prosody and vocabulary of a fairy tale came up short.

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REVIEW: “Marigold and the Toad With Cerulean Eyes” by Morgan Lockhart

Review of Morgan Lockhart, “Marigold and the Toad With Cerulean Eyes,” Luna Station Quarterly 67 (September 2026): 67-75 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

If you ever wondered where those enchanted toads came about, or why they need to be kissed in order to turn back into men, this is a story for you! It’s a fun, light-hearted, romantic story, one that leaves you happier for reading it.

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REVIEW: “Rules for Inter-Dimensional Refugees” by Esther Lim

Review of Esther Lim, “Rules for Inter-Dimensional Refugees,” Luna Station Quarterly 67 (September 2026): 135-139 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This story is written in a breezy comedic tone that I thought I would like, but increasingly did not: it resulted in both refugee status and stalking being treated flippantly — possibly in ways the author did not expect or intend, but that was enough to put me off the rest of the story.

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REVIEW: “The Queen of Tish” by Lindsey Duncan

Review of Lindsey Duncan, “The Queen of Tish,” Luna Station Quarterly 66 (June 2026): 143-170 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I always end up leaving the longer stories for last, when trying to do reviews in the crush of a busy world and life. But this one — by far the longest in this issue — was well worth the wait and totally repaid the time and effort I had to invest in getting through it all (including delaying dinner).

This was an excellent and beautiful time-travel story: It intrigued me from the get-go, and the pacing kept me going.

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REVIEW: “Zig and Zag’s Guide to Crash Landing” by Harklin Ashe

Review of Harklin Ashe, “Zig and Zag’s Guide to Crash Landing,” Luna Station Quarterly 66 (June 2026): 107-122 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Such a sad story this was, woven through with death and grief and loss, so many events conspiring to leave Miral alone with only echoes to help guide her through landing Turulla on a deserted island. It’s also very tense: 15 pages is a lot of pages to land a flying machine! I spent the entire story on the edge of my seat, wondering how it would all resolve. The ending did not disappoint.

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REVIEW: “Hazard Pay; Competence; Wyrms” by Catherine George

Review of Catherine George, “Hazard Pay; Competence; Wyrms,” Luna Station Quarterly 66 (June 2026): 89-104 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

As a union caseworker myself, I had a lot of fun reading this series of grievances between unions and employers — it reminded me that no matter how bad employer/employee relations get, at least I’m dealing with university vice chancellors and not basilisks! However, I will note that the most fantastical element of this story, in my opinion, was not the basilisks, wyrms, hamadryads, etc., but the fact that so many of the resolutions to the grievances were, in my opinion, fair and reasonable and appropriate! If only reality were like that…

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REVIEW: “The Grass is Pinker on the Other Side” by Kelley Tai

Review of Kelley Tai, “The Grass is Pinker on the Other Side,” Luna Station Quarterly 66 (June 2026): 206-210 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Predation, exploitation, ruthless slaughter…all characteristics of this story which is not at all pleasant, not at all uplifting, without any happiness at all. It’s short, but that doesn’t make it any easier to read.

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REVIEW: “Spaghettification” by Lauren Ferebee

Review of Lauren Ferebee, “Spaghettification,” Luna Station Quarterly 66 (June 2026): 195-205 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Death of a parent.

As a story of negotiating grief and memory of a dead parent, I found this eerie and a bit creepy and full of sucker punch lines like: “This is about omission and lies and what is rightfully ours from our ancestors” (p. 200). It’s a story that demonstrates the power of fantasy fiction: It provides us with a way to navigate the unfathomable.

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REVIEW: “Time Surfing” by Isabel McKeough

Review of Isabel McKeough, “Time Surfing,” Luna Station Quarterly 66 (June 2026): 135-140 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

While overall I enjoyed this meditative little story, I felt like it was a bit of a bait and switch: the opening paragraphs set up a promise of tapping into the temporal magic of books and libraries, but in the remainder, while there was definitely temporal magic, it was rooted in dreams, uncoupled from anything bookish. Still, I can’t criticize a story too much for not being the one I would’ve written from the same premise.

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