REVIEW: “A Game of Go” by P.A. Cornell

Review of P.A. Cornell, “A Game of Go,” Adventitious no. 4 (Aug 2026): 12-43 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

The main character in this story is Ava, the SmartHome who has been raising Christopher since his mothers both disappeared. As a sentient AI character, Ava has been programmed to abide by certain rules; while with the rapid growth of gen-AI, LLM-driven models we tend to think that rules are important for keeping AIs from doing the wrong thing, the crux of this story is how Ava’s constraints prevent her from doing the right thing, and how she fights back against this. It was a curiously optimistic view of AI agents.

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REVIEW: “The Soundtrack of My Afterlife” by P. A. Cornell

Review of P. A. Cornell, “The Soundtrack of My Afterlife,” Adventitious no. 1 (Feb/Mar 2026): 26-47 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: attempted rape.

“Then I died and became a car” (p. 26).

Sometimes, all it takes is one sentence in the opening page to make me know I’m going to love a story. That was this sentence for this story!

And I did love it. I’m of an age where the soundtrack of the narrator’s afterlife was also the soundtrack of my childhood, and of the songs I’m sharing with my own kid. Nothing like a good dose of nostalgia! But I also loved Cornell’s delicate touch in this coming-of-age story, and how realistic it felt. Honestly, this should be a movie!

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REVIEW: “A Fall Backward Through the Hourglass” by P.A. Cornell

Review of P.A. Cornell, “A Fall Backward Through the Hourglass,” Cossmass Infinities 8 (2022): 22-23 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

They always say that pregnancy changes you — but usually it’s not in the way that it changed the narrator of this story! The premise of the story wavers on the edge between fun/light-hearted and deeply, deeply sad. I thought it balanced on that line beautifully, and it was short and effective.

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REVIEW: “In the Grip of Yesterday” by P.A. Cornell

Review of P. A. Cornell, “In the Grip of Yesterday” Cossmass Infinities 9 (2022): 90-92 — Read or purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Knife and other physical violence, drugs, stalking.

This is SF tinged with horror: Science has advanced enough to synthesize many emotions, and the drug of choice for the narrator is Nostalgia, and it doesn’t take more than one or two kicks of it for it to become addictive.

It’s quite a remarkable story: There’s basically nothing in it that is redeeming, nothing in the narrator to make him sympathetic, not even the ending!

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