REVIEW: “How to Join a Colony of Sea-Folk, or Other Ways of Knowing” by K. S. Walker

Review of K. S. Walker, “How to Join a Colony of Sea-Folk, or Other Ways of Knowing,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 21-25 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Sometimes I read a story and it just isn’t for me. That’s what Walker’s story — of waiting for lost love to return from the sea, of seeking a route to the sea to find them — was, unfortunately. This was, I think, primarily because the structural and narrative choices made prevented me, rather than helped me, connect to the characters. So it felt more like a chore to read than a story.

Others who don’t share my structural and narrative preferences may enjoy this more.

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REVIEW: “This Blue World” by Samantha Murray

Review of Samantha Murray, “This Blue World,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 19-20 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Ghost stories aren’t usually my thing; stories told in 2nd person POV aren’t usually my thing. Yet Murray’s 2nd-person-POV-ghost-story was EXACTLY my thing, one of those wonderful surprises that shows you just how the flexibility of language can result in something so enjoyable.

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REVIEW: “The Probability of One” by Jen Brown

Review of Jen Brown, “The Probability of One,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 6-8 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was quite a complex story for how short it was; I started it, got lost, had to start it again, got distracted, started again before I really go stuck into it. It feels like it skirts the barrier between very clever and unreasonably opaque. I’d rather not decide for myself, but encourage everyone to give it a go. At the very least, it’s short, and if you reach the end still confused, it’s okay — it’s short. And even at the end there’s something that leaves me thinking “I wish I understood more.”

The author bio says that Jen Brown writes “otherworldly tales about Black, queer folks righteously wielding power.” For that reason alone, I’d read this story.

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REVIEW: “The Hole is the Beginning” by Angel Leal

Review of Angel Leal, “The Hole is the Beginning,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 27-28 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This lovely poem touched me, particularly some of the lines towards the end:

These children may not feel connected,
but it’s their otherness that connects them.

It’s about motherhood and otherness and how in the best of worlds the children we love, we love whoever they are.

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REVIEW: “All the Dead Girls, Singing,” by Avra Margariti

Review of Avra Margariti, “All the Dead Girls, Singing,” Small Wonders no. 7 (January 2024): 31-33 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Violence against women.

The story of Fairview, whose dead girls congregate by the edge of the lake, is raw and harsh and rough. On the one hand, it’s superficially a ghost story. On the other hand, it’s definitely not that, it’s a story of violence against women, and about the men who perpetrate it.

Read with care/caution.

(First published in Coppice and Brake 2020.)

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REVIEW: “Constellations of Flesh, Bone, and Memory” by Timothy Hickson

Review of Timothy Hickson, “Constellations of Flesh, Bone, and Memory,” Small Wonders no. 7 (January 2024): 25-27 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was an interesting, if slightly uncomfortable, read, full of memory and heredity and genetics. SF regularly reminds us that the future isn’t necessarily better than the present, and that’s certainly the moral I took from this story.

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