REVIEW: “Keep Your Eyes on the Horizon” by Alyssa Villaire

Review of Alyssa Villaire, “Keep Your Eyes on the Horizon,” Luna Station Quarterly 48 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Nell is the keeper of the lighthouse, charged with watching vigilantly for the day the enemy will come to destroy her home of Greyisle. Her mother trained her and helped her prepare for her destiny, before she died. Now the day — and the enemy — has come, and he is nothing like what Nell has trained to defeat.

I really loved this story and the way the characters force the reader to question who is the hero and who is the villain, and how the stories we are told and tell ourselves about our destinies are not always true.

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REVIEW: “The Hawk and the Wren” by Kristina T. Saccone

Review of Kristina T. Saccone, “The Hawk and the Wren,” Luna Station Quarterly 48 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Two little girls, growing up playing pretend, one the hawk, the other the wren. One grows up to fly planes in WW2, the other grows up to be a witch. This was a lovely fantasy adaptation of the Night Witches, playing neatly on the name and bringing to life the magic of flying.

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REVIEW: “Jane and the Crows” by Jen Mierisch

Review of Jen Mierisch, “Jane and the Crows,” Luna Station Quarterly 48 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

For twelve months after the death of her sailor husband John, crows plagued Jane, until she is driven into the woods to seek the answer to the mystery of his final voyage.

This story was quite short, and felt very sparse. I’m not sure that was necessarily to the story’s benefit.

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REVIEW: “Omen” by Katrina Carruth

Review of Katrina Carruth, “Omen,” Luna Station Quarterly 48 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Cissa is the daughter of an Augur, forced into hiding when the evil king came to power, enslaving all the Augurs to his purposes or driving them away. Cissa herself isn’t an Augur because only men can be Augurs, but she’s still guilty by association. There is no hope of escape, no hope of any future for Cissa, only endless hiding, so one day she decides to take matters into her own hands, go to the river and collect the moss beans whose noxious gasses can incapacitate or kill. But before she can safeguard the beans, she is captured, and brought before the king.

Of course, we know — the narrative demands it — that the evil king will not triumph, and that Cissa will find the power she needs to defeat him. What wasn’t obvious until it happened was how she would do it, and that resolution, when it came, was appropriate and satisfying. A solid story.

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REVIEW: “The Nix Trial” by Emma Schmid

Review of Emma Schmid, “The Nix Trial,” Luna Station Quarterly 48 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

As a member of the Oreada clan, Ida participates in the Nix Trial, a series of gruelling climbs in search of Lady Helike’s blessing. When she succeeds in scaling to the very top of Mount Hellene, numb from the cold and nursing an old injury, she can only hope to be found worthy, that she will be reborn underneath the new risen sun.

Overall this was a strong story, only slightly marred at times by a bit too much info-dumped back-story.

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REVIEW: “Birds of a Feather” by Jenna Hanan Moore

Review of Jenna Hanan Moore, “Birds of a Feather,” Luna Station Quarterly 48 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I had to lolsob at the opening line of this story — “Today is the day. After months of lockdown, the Avalon Café is finally open for indoor dining” — because I read it the evening the UK voted to implement more stringent measures. There are days where I wish reality resembled fiction a little more…

But since I can’t do any of the things I want to be doing right now, I’m living vicariously through those who can, and that includes, Janice, who is back at the Café for the first time in far too long. That would’ve been good enough, but then it gets better: There’s an emu.

This was exactly the story I needed to read on a night like tonight.

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REVIEW: “Seven Beacons Burning” by Leanne Howard

Review of Leanne Howard, “Seven Beacons Burning,” Luna Station Quarterly 48 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Ah, I love me some aro/ace representation! Howard manages it both overtly and unobtrusively in this story. The tale itself is that of an old man and his daughter, who have escaped a life of drudgery in the laundries to serve a fifteen year spell as keepers of one of the seven beacons, always watching another beacon to see if it is lit, signalling that war has come to their people. They are three months away from the end of their term when the drums of war are heard, and the Jubilee Beacon is lit, forcing them to discharge the duties that have been laid upon them.

These duties turned out to be far more gruesome than I would have imagined, and I confess I don’t quite understand why the final sacrifice was necessary; surely there could have been another way. It’s always a bit dissatisfying when drama appears to happen only for the purposes of plot; I would have liked a bit more world-building to make the ending feel necessary or inevitable, rather than merely shocking.

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REVIEW: “The Ruin” by Sara Norja

Review of Sara Norja, “The Ruin,” Luna Station Quarterly 21 (2015): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Andanu and his teacher Taril are walking from their west-short town to the east-shore village where a great festival awaits them; but on their way through the forest, they discover a ruin that had never been there before — and a history that neither of them dreamt could have been true.

I was all set to really enjoy the story when it ended, suddenly and abruptly, with all the beautiful build-up for nothing. Alas, I’m left a bit dissatisfied.

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REVIEW: “A Guide for Lost Sailors” by Allison Har-Zvi

Review of Allison Har-Zvi, “A Guide for Lost Sailors,” Luna Station Quarterly 21 (2015): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I’ve discovered that I love stories told by the figureheads of ships — this is not the first such one in LSQ that I’ve reviewed! So once I realised that that’s what the narrator of this story was, I settled in for a good time.

And I mostly got it; I say mostly because there is a small part of me that feels sad and let down when in stories even wooden women are subjected to misogyny. The “it’s only in fun” excuse doesn’t — pardon the pun — hold any water.

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