REVIEW: “Rebirth” by Michelle Kaseler

Review of Michelle Kaseler, “Rebirth,” Radon Journal 3 (January 2023): 5-13 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: References to suicide, murder, and sexual assault; forced labor and enslavement.

The process of rebirth takes criminals and turns them into mining drones, an endless supply of prisoner labor. Rebirth is supposed to erase all memory of previous life; people don’t even know that rebirth has happened to them.

Unsurprisingly, one person does find it, and infiltrates a work crew, and attempts to help people remember.

The detail that struck me the most in this story was how even though all the prisoners had been given labels (“A7”, “B9”, etc.), all these labels eventually gave way to nicknames that became names. You can try to erase the individuality out of a person — but it’s much harder than people think.

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REVIEW: “confessional” by James Redfern

Review of James Redfern, “confessional,” Radon Journal 3 (January 2023): 57 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I was going to scroll back up through the issue to find a story to review today, but then I glanced at the first stanza of this poem, and it sucked me in and I’d read the entire thing before I realised it. It’s both hilarious, and hilariously on-point commentary on labor in the era of capitalism.

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REVIEW: “The Problem Is” by Thomas Mixon

Review of Thomas Mixon, “The Problem Is,” Radon Journal 3 (January 2023): 55 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This poem nicely encapsulates the existential angst that comes from living in a digital world where everyone is reachable all the time and no one is ever in sync with anyone else, and offers a plea to return to simpler times. On the one hand, I’m sympathetic; on the other hand, I think we’re better off going forward, rather than retrograde.

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REVIEW: “Eight Dwarfs on Planet X” by Avra Margariti

Review of Avra Margariti, “Eight Dwarfs on Planet X,” Radon Journal 3 (January 2023): 52-53 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I’m never quite sure if I like SF poetry, but if all SF poetry were like this poem by Margariti, then I definitely would. It struck the perfect balance of poetry and story, and was very definitely SF without needing to rely on spaceships or stars. The fact that it’s a retelling of a classic fairy tale is just an added bonus.

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REVIEW: “If You Love Him, Hide the Grave” by Vera Brook

Review of Vera Brook, “If You Love Him, Hide the Grave,” Radon Journal 3 (January 2023): 1-4 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This story has all the parts of a a classic SF story — consciousnesses uploaded to harddrives, prosthetic replacements of limbs and organs, military motivations lurking in the background — and combines them in a way that asks interesting questions. Short, but satisfying.

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