REVIEW: “Five Books from the Alnif Crater Traveling Library” by Stewart C. Baker

Review of Stewart C. Baker, “Five Books from the Alnif Crater Traveling Library,” Flash Fiction Online 123 (December 2023): 16-19 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was a series of vignettes (which nevertheless held together well enough to constitute a proper story) about life on Mars.

As much as I enjoyed the story, it did feel a bit of a strange choice coming, as it did, immediately after Rachael K. Jone’s “Seven Ways to Find Yourself at the Transdimensional Multifandom Convention”. Both are structurally similar and use a conceit which I think works better in isolation, rather than in conjunction.

(First published in Nature Magazine, September 2021.)

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REVIEW: “Seven Ways to Find Yourself at the Transdimensional Multifandom Convention” by Rachael K. Jones

Review of Rachael K. Jones, “Seven Ways to Find Yourself at the Transdimensional Multifandom Convention,” Flash Fiction Online 123 (December 2023): 11-14 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was a fun, funny, and touching story, which I liked quite a bit even if it is in 2nd person (my least favorite way of telling a story).

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REVIEW: “Love, Happiness, and All the Things You May Not Be Destined For” by Lindz McLeod

Review of Lindz McLeod, “Love, Happiness, and All the Things You May Not Be Destined For,” Assemble Artifacts 2 (2022): 62-96 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I know it’s still early 2024, but this story is an exceptionally strong candidate for being my story of 2024. The conceit is novel: Georgia meets up regularly with other versions of herself, at different ages, both learning how her life will turn out from the older versions and in turn teaching the younger ones the same. And the twist(s! plural!) at the end are glorious and unexpected and perfect.

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REVIEW: “The Family Proof” by Arianna Reiche

Review of Arianna Reiche, “The Family Proof,” Assemble Artifacts 2 (2022): 1-44 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Sexual assault/violence.

At 44 pages, this is almost a novelette than a short story. But the length worked: It allowed Reiche to feed the reader small bits and dribs and drabs, the hints that let us know that things are not as they seem. It’s a story that sits in the uncanny valley: It’s almost just an ordinary story about ordinary people, and just enough not that to make for an incredibly rewarding read. (I also think it would make a fascinating short film.)

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REVIEW: “High to Kolob on a Cosmic Clydesdale” by Katrina Carruth

Review of Katrina Carruth, “High to Kolob on a Cosmic Clydesdale,” Luna Station Quarterly 56 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Be wary what you wish for when you go to your friend’s new moon crystal party — the narrator of this story wished for manifest destiny and ended up with a cosmic Clydesdale in her livingroom!

For the most part this was a quick read despite being a long story, light and humorful, but towards the end it turned surprisingly deep, in a way that made it feel like more than fluff. It can be hard to shift tone midway through a story like this, but I feel Carruth pulled it off well. It all made sense, which feels like an odd thing to say about a fantasy story, but it’s true.

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REVIEW: “A Lullaby for Mattie Barker” by B. Zelkovich

Review of B. Zelkovich, “A Lullaby for Mattie Barker,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

The story opens on Mattie Barker arriving in a small and sleepy town to take up her dream job — sexton of the local church. The peace that Mattie feels tending the church garden and graveyard bleeds through to the reader, and nothing can destroy it, not even the ghosts who haunt the graveyard. All in all a very lovely reading experience, full of love and loss and longing.

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REVIEW: “Built For Her” by Camden Rose

Review of Camden Rose, “Built for Her,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Domestic violence.

This story opened uncomfortably for me: An abusive woman stalking the girlfriend who left her, and then sculpting a replacement for her. (Perhaps it’s because my weekly Buffy rewatch group chat recently reached “Dead Things,” an episode that gets worse the older I get and the more experience I have with toxic patriarchy and masculinity.) It put me on edge from the beginning, reading the rest of the story with a sense of trepidation. Unfortunately, it didn’t redeem itself for me.

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