Review of Samantha Rich, “Sun Flowers,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 273-281 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Rich provides us here with a quietly hopefully story of ecological restoration, a welcome diversion from the doom and gloom climate fiction often provides.
Review of K. L. Marsh, “Into the Shell,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 77-85 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
I enjoyed the way that this story’s main character robot felt both accessible and understandable and yet at the same time just enough foreign to really feel that it was a robot, and not just a person’s interpretation of what being a robot would be like.
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!
Review of Alison Mulder, “What the Witch Needs,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 321-325 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a lovely example of a cosy story: Something that makes you feel better after having read it.
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.
Review of Emily Smith, “Not At This Address,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 87-89 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This ended up being a cute little amusing story, not quite what I expected from how it started. I even almost forgave it for being in my personal-unfavorite, 2nd-person voice.
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.
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!)
Review of Marlaina Cockcroft, “The Dream of Home,” Luna Station Quarterly 60 (2024): 275-282 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Abuse and harassment (but only obliquely).
What a lovely, unusual, haunting little story this was! The choice of narrator is unexpected and charming and turns this story into a unique little gem.
Review of Elizabeth Davis, “Dragon Dance,” Luna Station Quarterly 60 (2024): 203-214 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Lily is the first woman to be a part of the dragon dance, the elaborate traditional celebration that links her (presumably immigrant/diaspora) community with their home culture. There is quite a lot of description going on in the opening pages, which contributed to the slow, drawn-out feel of the story, and also contributes to me not being quite sure what to say about it. I felt like I didn’t have quite the context that I needed to understand the significance of various points: The parts that were significant I only knew were so because as the reader I was told explicitly. All in all, this one didn’t quite work for me, but I’m not entirely sure why.
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