Review of Amy Johnson, “The Mummy Gets Adopted,” Small Wonders no. 7 (January 2024): 10-12 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This lovely little poem features a cat, and is therefore an entirely excellent poem which everyone should read.
REVIEW: “Hikari” by Morgan Welch
Review of Morgan Welch, “Hikari,” Small Wonders no. 7 (January 2024): 7-9 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Death of a parent.
It’s not often that I read a story where so little happens and yet by the end of it, I feel satisfied. “Hikari” is one of those stories, so quiet and still and calm that you feel better for having read it.
REVIEW: “Wood, Amber, Smoke,” by Lyndsie Manusos
Review of Lyndsie Manusos, “Wood, Amber, Smoke,” Flash Fiction Online 124 (January 2024): 21-24 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story started off strong, but in the end I felt it promised more than it delivered. The most intriguing character, the one I wanted to know more about, to know his story, was the one who wasn’t there at all.
REVIEW: “Salt” by Emily Anderson Ula
Review of Emily Anderson Ula, “Salt,” Flash Fiction Online 124 (January 2024): 16-19 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
One of my perennial complaints about a lot of SFF stories is that they seem to occupy a world in which religion doesn’t exist (nor does anything that would fill the same role). So when I get a story that is all about googling solutions to demon possession, it scratches an itch that’s always lingering. Consequently, I really enjoyed this story! Even if it was terribly sad.
(First publishing in The Blood Pudding April 2021).
REVIEW: “The Pieces of Her” by Lora Gray
Review of Lora Gray, “The Pieces of Her,” Flash Fiction Online 124 (January 2024): 12-15 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Death of a partner.
Gray shows excellently well how to combine quite a lot into quite a little. We got a full dose of SF via the building of human-robot hybrid pilots, and a full dose of personal relationships gone wrong via Denise, Miranda, and Lilith. The story operates well at both levels, which is a difficult thing to pull off!
REVIEW: “Imago Dei” by Josh Pearce
Review of Josh Pearce, “Imago Dei,” Flash Fiction Online 124 (January 2024): 8-10 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Cults, forced insemination.
Creepy and disturbing, this story took mundane things that are already horrible, and combined them with the horrible fantastical, to make something even worse. Not the sort of story I normally seek out, but I thought it was pretty brilliantly done.
REVIEW: “How to Safely Store Your Dragons” by Marisca Pichette
Review of Marisca Pichette, “How to Safely Store Your Dragons,” Flash Fiction Online 123 (December 2023): 21-23 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The “tl;dr” of this story is: Dragons are flammable buggers, don’t forget it; but the story itself is so much more than this, it’s cute, fluffy fun, something that you can read and feel happier about life afterwards.
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.)
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).
REVIEW: “Little Pound Shop” by Rebecca Harrison
Review of Rebecca Harrison, “Little Pound Shop,” Flash Fiction Online 123 (December 2023): 7-10 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story was a little bite of candy-floss: Super yummy and desirable, completely insubstantial, and just a little bit too sweet.
(I am a huge fan of cotton candy, so this is not as negative a review as some might read it!)
SFF Reviews 