Review of Chikodili Emelumadu, “Bossy Boots,” Luna Station Quarterly 19 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was not the sort of story that I expect from LSQ — full-on male gaze from a sexed-up narrator. I was torn reading the opening paragraphs; on the one hand, Emelumadu did a great job at portraying this certain type of character. On the other hand, one reason I enjoy reading LSQ is to get away from people like that.
Review of Shannon Norland, “The Stone Children,” Luna Station Quarterly 19 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Bad break-up; miscarriage.
This was delightfully creepy, a story that makes you squirm in your seat while reading it. The titular stone children are cold, and needy, and perplexing, and sate a need in ways which seem all wrong. But none of what went on in the early and middle parts of the story prepared me for the twist at the end.
Review of Krystal Claxton, “The Filigreed Cage,” Luna Station Quarterly 19 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Underage marriage, forced marriage
The overwhelming misogyny and patriarchal structures in this story, imposed upon humans by the Overseers that are (of course!) only doing their best to keep the humans safe and unharmed, made for quite an unpleasant read. While I’m glad that some of the characters managed to escape in the end, I wasn’t so keen on the fact that Valerie only did so in pursuit of her man; there was nothing reflective in the story which indicated a realisation of how wrong the situation set up by the Overseers was.
(First published in Fireside Magazine 2013).
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Review of Che Gilson, “Rose Meets a Gentleman,” Luna Station Quarterly 19 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
10 year old Rose buys herself a pair of thousand league snowshoes with three pence and a wish, and sets off north to find the Snow Queen.
This was a lovely fairy tale about the importance of cherishing your dreams, and how sometimes it’s worth trading in a small dream for the opportunity to obtain a big dream.
Review of J. A. Gross, “Handiwork,” Luna Station Quarterly 19 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Just when this story, set against the backdrop of a complex society — highborns and mid families, nomads and moderns — just when it was really piquing my interest, it ended. It was more a vignette than a story, and as a result was rather unfortunately unsatisfying.
Review of Gabrielle Lissauer, “Ceilidh McCallum Versus the Super Evil Fairy Lady,” Luna Station Quarterly 19 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
If you, like me, read the title and wondered if it telegraphed something about the central characters of the story: The answer is yes, this is told from the point of view of a young girl, probably 5 or 6. Or rather, it’s told (partially) in what an adult thinks the point of view of a child of around that age would be; and I confess that I do not think it was done very successfully or accurately. This might be the story for some of you; it was not the story for me.
(There also appears to be a continuity error: When Ceilidh sets off on her quest, the kitten Trouble is left behind in the ruins of her battlefield; but half-way through her quest, Ceilidh is clutching Trouble close. Since Trouble plays a crucial role in Ceilidh’s defeat of the Super Evil Fairy Lady, this is a problematic oversight.)
Review of RJ Astruc, “Gretel in Her Ever After,” Luna Station Quarterly 19 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Premise: Gretel’s all grown up, living in the city, and selling white goods — any kind of white goods, but mostly ovens, as that’s what she knows best — and trying to come to terms with a past she can’t quite admit is real. As a premise, this is a pretty good one, and one apt to get me hooked. But Astruc combined it with another premise — Hansel all grow up, no longer slim but fat, greedy, slovenly — which too often felt too fatphobic for me to really be able to enjoy this story.
Review of Jamie M. Boyd, “The End of Sleep,” Luna Station Quarterly 50 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Infertility, IVF.
Dr. Ocan Kato deals with sleep issues in PTSD sufferers, which makes him exactly the person Major Claire Weissman wants to see, when experiments involving unilateral sleep in humans (sleeping with only one half of the brain) throw up some surprising results.
But while that’s the main thread of the story, it’s not the only one; it’s also the story of Ocan’s struggle to come to terms with his wife’s infertility. You don’t often get infertility/IVF stories from the point of view of the father, and Dr. Ocan Kato’s grief is raw, palpable, and real.
Overall, a complex and interesting story.
Review of Elou Carroll, “Tatterdemalion, or Of Apple Bough and Straw,” Luna Station Quarterly 50 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Death of a partner.
A very classic sort of fairy tale: A bereaved woman makes a bargain, only to find the price more than she can bear to pay. She gets her happily ever after in the end, but not without a heavy dose of heartache in between.
Review of Jenna Grieve, “Osteomancy,” Luna Station Quarterly 50 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
My god, this was a good story. The language in this story is exceedingly beautiful, putting images into my head in a way that most stories don’t (those who don’t have any degree of aphantasia may not appreciate this quite as much). I can vividly picture Stranger, arriving at the door of Locksmith begging the creation of a key that only Locksmith can make, everything sharp but cloaked in shades of grey. What a sublime experience, reading this!
SFF Reviews