Review of Risa Wolf, “The Long Way Home” Cossmass Infinities 9 (2022): 115-122 — Read or purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Oh, this was a heartbreaker! I could feel it from the very opening scene, when we meet Kari and Sonora (and their new puppy!) and find out just how much they love each other — and also that something is not right. The dramatic tension as we find out what that something is, over the course of the story, is perfectly pitched and left me shattered at the ending.
Review of Mere Rain, “Seraph in Ruins” Cossmass Infinities 9 (2022): 98-109 — Read or purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Seraph is a monster, and a loaner; whatever the vampires are hunting isn’t her problem. It’s only boredom, boredom that sees her rescue the woman and ensure she makes her way safely out of the zone that has “more monsters than spare parts” (p. 100). Of course, that’s what Seraph tells herself: we, the reader, know it is far more than that.
There’s nothing more enjoyable than smugly watching two characters convince themselves they are not falling for each other until they give up. This story provides all that enjoyment and more, that I read with a smile that just kept getting bigger and bigger.
Review of Eric Fomley and Rich Larson, “Through”, Clarkesworld Issue 181, October (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
Fast paced and full of twists, this was a one-sitting read. I don’t always read short stories in one sitting, despite their size and the possibility of doing so. But this one made me ignore everything else because I just had to find out what exactly was going on.
From the very beginning, there is intrigue and a build up of expectation. The authors very cleverly reveal a little at a time, sometimes raising more questions while simultaneously giving us readers tidbits of information. It felt like a much larger story skillfully condensed into short fiction. Extremely engaging read.
Review of B. Morris Allen, “Adjectives of Annihilation” Cossmass Infinities 9 (2022): 81-89 — Read or purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
A ship of Romanian immigrants escape earth’s destruction due to climate change, and end up on the semi-habitable planet of Doilea, and a poet and a particle physicist end up farmers in their new lives. But they brought an infant child with them, as many others brought their children, and now the kids are all grown up. I loved watching the way the narrator interacted with her parents, and the contrast with how she interacted with her peers. I’m a big fan of multi-generational stories, because they don’t get told often enough. The tensions between families that get along and those that don’t, between those who want to forge a new live on Doilea and those who think there may still be something to go back to, someday, all of these were woven together into this interesting and satisfying story.
Review of Michael James, “Bleed a Little While” Cossmass Infinities 9 (2022): 62-67 — Read or purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
How many times do we remember things that we could not possibly remember? How many of our memories are constructed or reconstructed, built up out of what other people tell us, the photos we have, our shared social media histories? I’m sure everyone knows of memories they have that could not possibly be real memories, but James takes this truth and extends it to the extreme, impossible, traumatic end: What if all our memories are constructed, and all shared with everyone else? How do we know what is ours, and who we are?
What a great, compelling, terrifying, heartbreaking story.
Review of Melanie Bell, “Home Bound” Cossmass Infinities 9 (2022): 54-61 — Read or purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Death.
As someone who gave up a life in the US for a life in Europe — and, ultimately, England — I found a lot to sympathise with Beth, the heroine, in this story, who inherits her great-grandmother’s house and makes the leap across the ocean. I additionally sympathised with the basic premise of the story, that one’s soul can and up becoming bound up with the house that they live in, although in Beth’s case, this is literal: Her great-grandmother cannot die until she passes the house on to someone who shares her blood.
It did feel, a bit, though, like it was a story written by someone who has read about England, but hasn’t lived here. The NHS is slowly being dismantled and destroyed (although: <sarcams>Maybe a thriving NHS is the fantasy element of the story</sarcasm>), she’s more likely to be drinking squash than juice, McDonald’s is unlikely to be the main source of cheap coffees…) On the flip side, it’s been long enough since the start of Covid-19 that it feels wrong when stories don’t acknowledge it, and right when they do, as this one does.
Review of M. L. Clark, “Love Unflinching, at Low- to Zero-G”, Clarkesworld Issue 181, October (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
A veterinarian in space wrangles with ethics, morality and duty, with inter-species collaborative space stations thrown in for good measure.
The Doc is getting on in years, but they are still very committed to ensuring a healthy, balanced existence on the station, amongst all species and their companions. But humans are only human, after all, and Doc takes it upon themselves to try and diffuse the situation before it becomes a potentially disastrous actual situation.
The descriptions were lovely, the characters were well-defined, and the ending was particularly poignant. Long yet engaging.
Review of Daphne Fama, “What Has Waited Between the Stars,” Luna Station Quarterly 50 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Woman breaks up with her girlfriend, takes to the stars, crashes on a lonely planet: A simple, and not especially original, premise. The only thing that kept me going through the opening paragraphs was the hint of the title, the promise that I might be dazzled with something unexpected.
The abrupt shift the story took about three quarters of the way through was certainly unexpected, but I think I ended up more perplexed than dazzled. And odd little SF tale!
Review of M.J. Garland, “Chokeleaf,” Luna Station Quarterly 50 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Depression and suicidal ideation.
Chokeleaf — or Ficus effusio, to give it its Latin name — is an invasive species, and the Trailblazers are there to do their part in eradicating it. The Trailblazers themselves are a motley group of do-gooders, college drop outs, and know-it-alls, the only thing united them is a desire to help rid the park of this plant, which is threatening not only the local wildlife, but the human visitors as well. Through the eight weeks they spend at the park, we learn about Steph, and her past, the people she’s left behind and the life she would like to get back do. Despite the fantasy elements, there is something that feels very real about this story.
Review of Gregory Feeley, “In a Net I Seek to Hold the Wind”, Clarkesworld Issue 180, September (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
An unsettling story that was equal parts hopeful and strange. One of those stories you need to read slowly. It’s full of subtleties and the knowledge that humans don’t necessarily know everything.
But Minds are likely to know a lot more, and their relationship isn’t so much symbiotic as coexisting on the planet. Figments transport people to different places and experiences, all in their imagination.
Throw in some speculative fiction and a folk tale narrative sort of Figment experiences, and you get this unsettling, slow paced, Neptune-based tale.
SFF Reviews