REVIEW: “Is That New?” by Rosamund Lannin

Review of Rosamund Lannin, “Is That New?,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 33-46 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

There was something positively magical about how Lannin wove together the excessively mundane with the delightfully unexpected. At the end of a long train at the end of a long week which was the last week of a long academic term, this story broke through my exhaustion and made me smile, right up until it caught me by surprise. Fantasy with a twist of horror — what a fun read!

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REVIEW: “First to Go” by Jenny Perry Carr

Review of Jenny Perry Carr, “First to Go,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 49-54 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was a sparse, spare little story about space-travel on the very personal, individual level. Its tight prose reflects the tension of the situation that the main character is in, giving us an intimate glimpse into her mind, and it meant that all it took was a single, perfect, line for it to send chills down my spine:

Maybe my only chance to be first to go.

If you need a win, a victory, then definitely read this story!

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REVIEW: “Sister Death” by Erin Kissick

Review of Erin Kissick, “Sister Death,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 121-125 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

While reading this story, I had a sense of being held at arm’s length, of never being given quite enough detail. We learn a lot of dragons and those who feed on their corpses, but very, very little about the woman who is traveling so far away from her home city just to visit the corpse. I felt a little bit cheated, by the end, because I think she was someone I’d like to know better.

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REVIEW: “Talisman and Bone” by Karen L. Kobylarz

Review of Karen L. Kobylarz, “Talisman and Bone,” Luna Station Quarterly 60 (2024): 157-183 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Set in ancient Tyre, this story was peppered with all the little historical details that I love to see when an author is recreating the essence of an ancient culture — appropriate names, the use of a few foreign vocabulary words and phrases for important items like precious gems and spells, attention to clothing, the gods. But it’s not a simple historical fiction; the twist towards fantasy is strong and vibrant, yet the blending in of magic isn’t jarring or unrealistic. All the pieces fit together well.

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REVIEW: “We Are Island” by Atalanti Evripidou

Review of Atalanti Evripidou, “We Are Island,” Luna Station Quarterly 60 (2024): 127-145 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I love it when I read a story where one character’s love for another is so palpable, so shining, that you see it from the very first page and you get swooped up in it. This is one of those stories. Elias’s love for Ren is dazzling, and so is Ren’s for Elias.

And yet, as brightly as is shines, it doesn’t eclipse the background world that Evripidou has deftly constructed through the introduction of one simple change: It’s a world very much like ours except that there are chips available which when implanted allow people access to their familial memories. Evripidou works out the consequences of this one idea in ways that enhance her characters. It’s such a deftly-balanced story; I was super impressed. (And I desperately would love to see it turned into an 8- or 12-episode TV series, if one can do that with such a short story!)

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