Review of Jessie Roy, “Rice Child, Dragon Child,” Flash Fiction Online 147 (January 2026): 22-25 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This felt a bit like a modern day “Sophie’s Choice,” with the narrator forced to decide between the future of her dreams and a future of security, each choice coming with its own hidden, unknown costs. I loved the setting and the central plot mechanism — the narrator’s gogok that can slice dreams away from one person, preserving them to give to another.
Review of Julie Sondra Decker, “Everyone’s Gay in Space,” After Dinner Conversation 3, no. 12 (December 2022): 109-131 — Subscribe here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
(Note: After Dinner Conversation pairs spec fic stories with philosophical reflection questions. In some reviews, I’ll engage with the questions; in some, I won’t.)
I found this story to be a rather blunt take on the central moral issues involved — childbirth, abortion, disease, eugenics. I also found it to be full of judgement, unhappy relationships, and homophobia. The overall lack of nuance made the whole story feel very heavy-handed, and didactic, and that made it not particularly enjoyable to read. No one likes to feel that they are being moralized at.
There was also not nearly as much space gayness (gaiety?) as I expected, given the title of the story.
Review of Mikhaela Woodward, “Attach,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 209-224 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was one of those marvellous stories where at every single point, I have no idea where it was going to go. It’s so rare to get a story like this, it leaves me almost breathless.
Review of Summer Jewel Keown, “The Weather Girl,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 261-273 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
It’s a bit weird reading a romance when you know from pretty much the first line that it doesn’t have a happy ending, but nevertheless I enjoyed the unfolding of this one, waiting to see just how the unhappy ending would come about. Unfortunately, in the end, it was for boring, mundane, ordinary reasons, which kind of defeated any more fantastic/speculative elements that the story had, for me.
Review of Kate Francia, “Small Prayers for the God of Sow Thistle Hill,” Flash Fiction Online 147 (December 2025): 26-28 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The theme of this story felt eerily similar to that of Matt Dovey’s in the same issue, but instead of feeling repetitious, it felt like the two stories reinforced and supported each other. The lesson in both of them — told here in a sweet, sorrowful, almost wistful way — is one that often needs to be said over and over and over again before people will listen, so I’m pleased that FFO’s editors opted for including both of these.
Review of M. R. Robinson, “Ornithogonia, or Five Featherings,” Flash Fiction Online 147 (December 2025): 11-14 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a story of petty vengeance wrecked on someone just because they dared to fall in love. While I can sort of understand and see what the author was trying to do, the entire premise just sort of rankled with me.
Review of Frances Koziar, “The Visitor,” Luna Station Quarterly 63 (September 2025): 337-361 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Once I got past the rather info-dump-y first few pages, this story really drew me in. I’m a sucker for university scholars off doing research, no matter what arcane subject, and I enjoyed the easy naturalness that lay between Annaz, the scholar, and Kiava, the local who became his guide. For a comparatively long story, the pages slipped away quickly beneath my eyes, especially as I reached the excessively sweet and excessively satisfying resolution.
Review of Isobel Mackenzie, “Conveyance,” Luna Station Quarterly 63 (September 2025): 187-200 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
As a matter of constitution, I’m predisposed to like stories about lesbian ghost hunters. Alas, I’m also predisposed to wanting my stories to be historically accurate (in so far as “ghost stories” and “accuracy” belong in the same sentence), which meant that as soon as we were introduced to a Roman ghost who’s been haunting London since her death “a hundred years before the birth of Christ” (p. 189), I rather lost my faith in the author. Which was a shame, because this ghost turned out to be almost entirely irrelevant to the story, and the rest of the story was distinctive, not your usual sort of ghost story, and I would have liked to have enjoyed it more than I did.
Review of Lyra Bird, “Women of Nowhere,” Luna Station Quarterly 63 (September 2025): 171-184 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
100% absolutely and utterly gripping — that’s what this story was. It has one of the most distinctive narrative voices that I’ve come across in a very long time, drawing me straight in so that by the third sentence I was enthralled, not so much by the story as I was by wondering what slant path Bird would take me down next.
Review of L. Fox, “Top Five Places to Worship Him, Most Terrible,” Luna Station Quarterly 63 (September 2025): 89-102 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
There’s nothing like religious fervour to lay the foundation for something insidiously creepy (and at times really gruesome). If you want to feel vaguely disconcerted and unsettled, this is definitely the story for you.
SFF Reviews