REVIEW: “Alistair Catfish” by Cindy Phan

Review of Cindy Phan, “Alistair Catfish,” Luna Station Quarterly 49 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

“You grant small wishes and complain” is an absolute stunner of a line, said by Colin Abrams, the narrator, to the titular Alistair Catfish, whom he rescued from a hurricane and rehabilitated in his bathtub, and who now owes Colin wishes. Small wishes only, and only granted with complaint.

This was was an ordinary twist on the traditional “fisherman catches a glamorous fish and is well rewarded” tale until it was slowly overcome by a creeping horror. I was not expecting the story to go where it did, from how it started. Kept me on my toes!

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REVIEW: “Sleeping Giants” by Erin Keating

Review of Erin Keating, “Sleeping Giants,” Luna Station Quarterly 49 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Annie Warren only speaks in tongues, and so she learned from an early age not to speak at all — until the day comes when tragedy hits her family and she cries out for revenge, waking the sleeping giants below.

This was a well-crafted story — well paced and engaging, and keeping my interest the entire time.

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REVIEW: “Small Offerings for a Small God” by Virginia M. Mohlere

Review of Virginia M. Mohlere, “Small Offerings for a Small God,” Luna Station Quarterly 49 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Small gods always put me in mind of Pratchett, and I have to wonder if the allusion was intentional here, as Danit befriends a small god who becomes a bigger god as she invests her energy in him, confessing sins that she has never admitted to anyone before.

Quite possibly my favorite part of the story was Danit’s autonomous armor.

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REVIEW: “Dinner With Jupiter” by Clare Diston

Review of Clare Diston, “Dinner with Jupiter,” Luna Station Quarterly 49 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Another food-themed story from this issue of LSQ! This one was a story of the loneliness that many people felt during the Covid lockdowns, especially those who lived alone and felt their worlds contract around a single collection of rooms. In the midst of such isolation, the narrator reaches out and invites the planets to dinner, and finds a grain of hope.

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REVIEW: “The Best Pierogi in Kocierba” by Agniezska Hałas

Review of Agniezska Hałas, “The Best Piergoi in Kocierba,” Luna Station Quarterly 49 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I picked this story as the first to read from the most recent LSQ issue because I was hungry and because getting periogi of any quality where I live is quite an achievement. Hałas’s story had everything I wanted (other than actual pierogi): It’s a wonderful mix of fact and fairy tale, and the sense of groundedness and comfort that comes from a bowlful of pierogi permeates the entire thing. Hałas has a real touch with words evoking brilliant mental images — not easy to do in a reader who is mild aphantasia! So I was all the more impressed.

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REVIEW: “Leaving” by Noeleen Kavanagh

Review of Noeleen Kavanagh, “Leaving,” Luna Station Quarterly 20 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Harj is a conscript working in the mines, pressed into double shifts and extra duties and without any means of rebelling — until one day deep in the caverns he and the rest of his team find something that could be their key to escape off the planet.

This was a rather run-of-the-mill SF story — neither the setting nor the characters were particularly distinctive — slightly elevated out of the ordinary by the framing structure it used. I just wish this framing had been given more emphasis; the story would probably have been more to my taste if it had.

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REVIEW: “Cerridwen’s Daughter” by Alex Grehy

Review of Alex Grehy, “Cerridwen’s Daughter,” Luna Station Quarterly 48 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Of all the stories in this issue I put off reading this one to the last, because I knew it would irritate me — for two simple and probably quite niche and idiosyncratic reasons (that most readers will not only be unbothered but probably wouldn’t even notice). First, I was immediately confronted with the “cutesy” variant spelling of Creirwy. I’m guessing Grehy intended “Craerwy” to be pronounced the same way as the original form; but Welsh orthography doesn’t work like that. Second, in the opening lines Craerwy addresses the reader, saying, “Have you never heard of me? No, of course you haven’t.” — when in fact, I have heard of her, when I was in high school I developed a role-playing character around her!

The story is ostensibly about Cerridwen’s daughter, but in truth Craerwy spends most of the story talking about her mother and her siblings; she herself does not come to life or act or do anything more than passively recite for more than half the story. It is only towards the very end that she actually does something beyond sitting and talking; and while I liked the climate-recovery message of the story, it ended up feeling like too little too late. I love retellings of myths, and I wish the Mabinogion was taken up more often; but I’m not sure that this story really did the original tales and characters justice.

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