REVIEW: “An Inconvenient Quest” by Rebecca Gomez Farrell

Review of Rebecca Gomez Farrell, “An Inconvenient Quest”, in Liane Tsui and Grace Seybold, eds., A Quiet Afternoon (Grace & Victory Publictions, 2020): 12-16 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Levolin has been shunned by his fellow sprites since maturation, but has an opportunity to go on an unexpected quest in search of a cure for the queen, who has fallen ill. I wouldn’t necessarily say this counts as a low-stakes story, as saving the queen is pretty important! But there was never any sense that he would fail in his quest, so on that count it was a comforting piece to read.

I was somewhat confused as to whether the sprites were a type of jellyfish or not, and had to reread the first page or two twice until I realised that, no, they aren’t, and furthermore they are not even aquatic creatures. But this is a minor point.

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REVIEW: A Quiet Afternoon edited by Liane Tsui and Grace Seybold

Review of Liane Tsui and Grace Seybold, eds., A Quiet Afternoon (Grace & Victory Publictions, 2020) — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

When I was offered a review copy of this anthology, it was described to me as a collection of “gentle SFF stories with satisfying endings, for readers who wanted something cozy and non-stressful” — that is, perfect for reading in the midst of a global pandemic, when sometimes all you want to do is escape from everything and read something happy and satisfying and low-stakes and so completely separated from the current dystopia we live in.

Does that describe you? Then this is totally the anthology for you! I read the stories while Covid-19 deaths were rising at an alarming rate in my adopted homeland, while facing down the reality of a new lockdown, in the aftermath of an attempted coup in the country of my birth. Every single one was a moment of peace and calm: The anthology delivered exactly what it said it would. I can’t wait to read volume 2, though I hope that 2021 will — eventually — be a year that doesn’t need it as much as 2020 needed volume 1.

As is usual, we review each story individually, linking back here when the reviews are published:

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REVIEW: “Flightcraft” by Iona Sharma

Review of Iona Sharma, “Flightcraft”, Luna Station Quarterly 25 (2016): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

There was a lot I liked about this story — the central idea of lexical engineering, wherein words once written down must become true, meaning a trained lexical engineer can make a plane fly simply by using the right words — but a lot that also didn’t quite work for me. There were abrupt shifts in focus from one character to another, and also inexplicable shifts in tense. In the end, I was left with a feeling that it was a great idea that could have been better.

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REVIEW: “The Lottery Winner” by Margrét Helgadóttir

Review of Margrét Helgadóttir, “The Lottery Winner”, Luna Station Quarterly 25 (2016): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This is a quick read which is very satisfying. There is a point in this story — near the beginning — where I broke into a sudden grin. Most people living on earth believe that humans are the only sentient life in the universe; but one lucky man knows that aliens exist — he’s won the lottery!

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REVIEW: “The Crisis” by M. John Harrison

Review of M. John Harrison, “The Crisis”, in Settling the World: Selected Stories 1970-2020, with a foreword by Jennifer Hodgson (Comma Press, 2020): 257-271. — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

And here we come to the final story in the anthology. Despite being one of the more recent ones, it has the feel of his earlier work, from the 70s and 80s, more gritty SF less vague speculative fic. But even Harrison with all his skill can’t make me like 2nd person POV narration.

(Originally published in You Should Come With Me Now, 2017.)

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REVIEW: “Cicisbeo” by M. John Harrison

Review of M. John Harrison, “Cicisbeo”, in Settling the World: Selected Stories 1970-2020, with a foreword by Jennifer Hodgson (Comma Press, 2020): 243-256. — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Harrison is so good at giving us intimate pictures of complete strangers. While some of his stories feel like the narrator is intrusively observing someone else’s life, in this story, it feels like we the reader are the ones intruding. The experience of the reading is somewhat uncomfortably voyeuristic, but I at least couldn’t stop “watching” the unfolding relationship car crash, because there kept being hints of something more, something deeper, something fantastic — and when the reveal finally came in the very last paragraphs, it was worth it.

(It was also worth it just to learn the meaning of the title word, a word I hadn’t come across before. Hurrah for vocabulary expansion!)

(First published in Independent on Sunday, 2003).

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REVIEW: “‘Doe Lea'” by M. John Harrison

Review of M. John Harrison, “‘Doe Lea'”, in Settling the World: Selected Stories 1970-2020, with a foreword by Jennifer Hodgson (Comma Press, 2020): 231-242. — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

What a strange little story. Alan’s father has died in hospital in London, and he is taking the train back to Dover when there is a train fault of some sort and everyone must disembark at the little town of Doe Lea. Alan explores the town while waiting for the relief train to come, and the way Harrison constructs the scene is full of skill: Everything seems just a little bit off, a little bit strange, and you never find out why.

(Originally published by Nightjar Press, 2019.)

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REVIEW: “The East” by M. John Harrison

Review of M. John Harrison, “The East”, in Settling the World: Selected Stories 1970-2020, with a foreword by Jennifer Hodgson (Comma Press, 2020): 217-229. — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

This story, like “The Incalling” earlier in this anthology, focuses on a young man, the narrator, who takes an intense interest in a stranger, striking up a conversation with the man from the East, becoming his friend, and eventually stalking him all over London. I’m really not sure what to make of these stories. There is absolutely no sense on the part of the narrator that what they are doing is intrusive or wrong (only once does he feel “faintly guilty” (p. 224) about pawing through the man from the East’s belongings); it makes you wonder how much this is the narrator’s view and how much the author’s.

(Originally published in Interzone, 1996).

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