Review of Maya Dworsky-Rocha, “Godiva of the Broken Shell,” Flash Fiction Online 131 (August 2024): 16-18 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Inspired by the real-life Godiva and the events for which she is best known for, Dworsky-Rocha has created a weird SF story that trades shame for intimacy in a really effective and unexpected way.
Review of Faith Allington, “This Rapturous Blooming,” Flash Fiction Online 131 (August 2024): 12-15 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
ATTN: WorldCon readers who attended the “Fungi and SFF” panel — this is a story for you!
It’s a “mad scientist” story unlike the usual “mad scientist” story; the protagonist isn’t clinically insane because she’s actually right — it’s just that no one is willing to believe her. But isn’t what just what madness is, adhering to a reality that no one else sees?
Review of Carol Scheina, “Give a Smile at Ye Olde Photographie Shoppe,” Flash Fiction Online 131 (August 2024): 8-11 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Mal runs a photography shop, offering services no other shop does — a chance to get your photograph taken with a dragon! A real dragon — who happens to be Mal himself. He longs for a chance to be a real photographer and not just a gimmick, and this story offers him the chance to be so.
I loved the ending, which was sweet and happy, but something about the story also made me terribly sad, as it made me think of this story from a few months ago.
Humanity can be really awful sometimes. That’s why we need happy, sweet stories.
Review of Dorianne Emmerton, “Thistle and Spice,” Luna Station Quarterly 58 (2024): 249-268 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Fatphobia, misogyny, domestic abuse.
In an attempt to escape an increasingly loveless marriage, Darlene ends up going to Wednesday night witchcraft classes, and I, as the reader, end up really, really hating her husband. Bring on the spells so that he gets his comeuppance!
Review of Wendy Nikel, “The Cierin-Croin,” Luna Station Quarterly 58 (2024): 237-246 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Prefatory note: The title of the story in the journal is given as I’ve spelled it here; however, in the story itself, the term is spelled “Cirein-cr&oagrave;in”; I’m not sure which is correct.
I’m not sure what to make of the story itself: It’s pretty simple and straightforward: Ailsa and Hendry’s grandfather warns them against seeking the Cirein-cròin; Hendry doesn’t listen; bad things ensue. When a story has everything laid out bare in the way this one does, no layers, no moral, no twist, it leaves me quite perplexed.
Review of Neva Bryan, “Homoncula,” Luna Station Quarterly 58 (2024): 271-278 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: drug use/overdose.
This was a rather terrifying and conceptually gross story about one woman’s revenge on her sister’s destroyer.
Review of Anna Madden, “Grown From an Alder Wolf’s Skull,” Luna Station Quarterly 58 (2024): 175-187 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This rather fairy-tale like story comes with a rather fairy-tale like moral: Magic spells never do what you intend them to do, and some things must be accepted, not fought off.
Nothing earth-shattering: But not every story must change the world.
Review of Shikhandin, “Sue Dhingra’s Cat,” Luna Station Quarterly 58 (2024): 159-173 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The line between “literature-influenced-by-folk-tales-and-myth” and “straight-up-fantasy” is quite blurred in this story, set in India and steeped with, to me, unfamiliar cultural references. The characters were sharply drawn and given that there was a cat involved, I was hooked from the start. The ending turned out a bit unexpectedly, for me; this was partly because I think I miscategorized the relationship between Sue and Radha during the early part of the story, due to my lack of knowledge of the various forms of address and titles being used. But it was still a fun story with a happy ending.
Review of Marie Croke, “Secrets Locked in Metal Scrap,” Luna Station Quarterly 58 (2024): 137-157 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story was not at all what I expected (even granted that I go into most stories with very few expectations). It started off with dinosaurs, and I was rather leery: I’m usually pretty good at suspending disbelief, but human/dinosaur stories are a type I struggle with. But Croke managed to build a story intriguing enough for me to want to keep reading, and then fed me a twist that I could never have predicted, and in the end made it easy for me to suspend that disbelief.
Review of Hesper Leveret, “Victory and Vanilla,” Luna Station Quarterly 58 (2024): 107-125 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Ever wanted a combination of Great British Bake-Off and speculative fiction? If so, this is the story for you! It was clearly written by someone intimately familiar with British cooking competition shows (there was even a mention of a buttery biscuit base…), i.e., an author after my own heart.
Sometimes, all you want a story that’s just good fun. That’s exactly what this was.
SFF Reviews