Review of Mac Bowers, “Brave Stupid Creatures,” Luna Station Quarterly 58 (2024): 97-104 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Animal killing.
I enjoyed the thread of queer discovery and joy that wound through this story, even if the rest of it wasn’t exactly my thing.
Review of R. J. Howell, “37 Seconds to Say Goodbye,” Luna Station Quarterly 58 (2024): 15-22 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This is a quick, staccato story, told in short scenes, with short paragraphs, and (mostly) short sentences. All of this serves to underscore the sense of urgency already imparted by the title. While reading the story certainly takes more than 37 seconds, it certainly doesn’t feel like it. All aspects of this story are interlocked with each other just perfectly, to make it both effective and novel. Much fun to read!
Review of Eliza Sullivan, “Everything Is Idaho,” Luna Station Quarterly 58 (2024): 213-234 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
It’s an apocalyptic story, but one that feels very “samey”. We don’t know any details about the apocalypse, such as what caused it; we just know the aftermath, and it feels as if it could be any apocalypse. Maybe this makes the story universal, allowing the reader to fill in the gaps and adapt it how they wish; or maybe it just makes it underdeveloped and vaguely defined.
So if this is a vague and ill-defined post-apocalyptic story, why read this one, as opposed to any other one? I’d say, read it for the brothers’ relationship that is central to the story — that part was good. And also unbearably sad.
Review of Ana Wesley, “Who We Are,” Luna Station Quarterly 57 (2024): 70-100 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a beautifully rich story (almost novelette/novella length, though I’m not sure of exact wordcount) — full of intriguing characters set against a well-constructed backdrop, the sort of story that feels like the prelude to a full-blown trilogy. And honestly, if Wesley is planning one, I’d read it.
Review of JM Cyrus, “You and Me, Here and There, Now and Then and When,” Luna Station Quarterly 57 (2024): 140-154 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
What a fun little story this was, with undercurrents of time travel and split personal identity, but ultimately, just a comforting little love story.
Review of Wen Wen Yang, “The Illusionist’s Daughter,” Luna Station Quarterly 57 (2024): 196-210 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a story of a haunting ghost, generational trauma, sexual assault, and women standing up for each other. It ended on a hopeful not, but given its contents it’s probably not a story for everyone.
Review of Alicia Adams, “Cedar Glen,” Luna Station Quarterly 57 (2024): 222-239 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story had an eerie, slightly surreal quality to it — you can tell from the start that something is wrong even if you can’t tell what. It sort of feels like the two characters are the only people in the world who missed the memo about Covid lockdown.
We never get any answers, just a growing sense of doom. It was gripping, and really sad.
Review of Emily Yu, “The Angelus Machine,” Luna Station Quarterly 57 (2024): 212-221 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
If you’re looking for a slightly uncomfortable story about love between a human and an AI, this is a story for you.
Review of K R Samp, “A Pound of Flesh,” Luna Station Quarterly 57 (2024): 246-257 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Oooh, this was a good story. First, the basic premise: Sometimes the witch is the one who is cursed rather than the one who curses — amusing and clever, right? It starts off with all the basic haunted-house tropes, but not too many that the reader gets bored or irritated. And then there are a hint or two dropped so that there’s a point where I suddenly sucked in my breath and went “OH, I know what kind of story this is!”, and then gulped in the rest avidly to see if I was right or not.
AND I WAS. If you want a joyful, glorious, witchy, trans-positive story, read this.
Review of Rae Maybee, “Lost Souls,” Luna Station Quarterly 57 (2024): 240-245 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
There was something about this story that really took me, sucked me in and made me love it, even though a lot of its external trappings are things I don’t ordinarily like. Maybe it was the combination of 2nd person with the subjunctive — instead of the narrator telling me how I do feel, they told me how I might feel — if only I did the right things, went the right places, asked the right questions. So this story allowed me to inhabit a “what if,” which is, honestly, what we want our stories to do.
It was short, it offered me a few minutes escapism, and it delivered on that — equal parts fairy tale and a tale of how we’d want people to respond in the actual world. All in all, it was really good stuff.
SFF Reviews