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.
Review of Grace Chan, “Post Hacking for the Uninitiated”, Clarkesworld Issue 205, October (2023): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
Straight into the action with this one! A sharp yet soft tale of things lost or taken away, and what it takes to take the power back. With hints of a much larger space opera world-building going on in the background, I’d love to see more stories set in this universe. The story stands very well on its own, of course. The parts that focus on Orin’s thoughts and memories are particularly poignant.
A bittersweet story that left me wanting more!
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 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 of Bella Han, “De Profundis, a Space Love Letter”, Clarkesworld Issue 205, October (2023): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
“Dear Yuwen,
This is the last night of your existence.”
When a story starts like this, you can’t help but continue. Can I call it a space opera about stories? I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this one. As long as feelings exist, there will always remain a very real need for good storytelling. The flood of AI-generated stories aren’t cutting it, as it turns out. A human tries to change that.
An enchantingly grand novelette.
Review of Lyle Stiles, “Mephisto & Me,” Assemble Artifacts 2 (2022): 156-176 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
When Jerod’s demon-possessed robot finally succeeds in harnessing Jerod’s angerinto bringing about Armageddon, he won’t have anyone to blame but himself. After all, it was Jerod who was willing to do anything to bring his father back after he was murdered — including a pack with the devil.
The premise has a lot of potential, but I found the implementation of it sometimes a bit clunky and stodgy; I never really quite got into the story. I did appreciate Jerod’s attempts to speak up against the horribly whitewashed version of BML his teacher tried to give him in school.
Review of Lisa Papademetriou, “Down To The Root”, Clarkesworld Issue 205, October (2023): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
Across time, space, and civilization, feelings remain the same – often simultaneously all consuming and incomprehensible. Sometimes what drives you is simply a determined feeling, and sometimes that simple feeling is the most important thing of all.
A story about space battles and planets with cyclical time. Also a story about relationships, friendship, and a sense of faith and hope.
I also feel like Luriel is the kind of friend everyone should aspire to be. True to her duty and her friend, while traversing the confusing journey of life.
Two things to remember from this story – there are a million ways to die, and taking risks gives you strength.
Review of Nick Shafir, “Prism,” Assemble Artifacts 2 (2022): 97-118 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The narrator is off to test their potential as a Querier, a person in charge of gathering information that will contribute to determining what, exactly, are the Prism Events. We see their interview with an astronomer, we hear about their own experience with the first Prism Event, and the twist at the end is both fitting and not so telegraphed in advance to not be a surprise. But the entire thing was let down for me by a simple inconsistency in how the main character was presented. First, they say “It’s fortunate that in a job like this, being emotionally attuned wouldn’t do me any favors. That’s part of the reason it was a good fit for me” (p. 98). But then just a few pages later — “I’d been warned about keeping my sympathy in check when I took the assignment” (p. 101) and on the next page there’s a reference to “my unintentionally callous nature” (p. 102). So: sympathetic/empathetic or not? Which are we to believe? I’m not sure I can buy this being simply an unreliable narrator when the explanation of inconsistent author strikes me as more likely. And as soon as I am worried that I’ve got an inconsistent author, it makes me uncertain about everything else I’m given in the story.
A real shame, because the idea had potential, I think.
Review of Eric Lewis, “The Family Proof,” Assemble Artifacts 2 (2022): 45-61 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Corralyn Fan-Anders has spent the last 16 years in stasis, on the first manned mission to another star system. When she awakens from stasis, everything goes smoothly — until another ship, impossibly, appears.
For someone as clever as Corralyn must have been, she seems remarkably obtuse about the possibility of technology improving in the time that she’s been asleep. That, combined with some bad judgment and poor decision making, made her a relatively unrelatable, unsympathetic character. The story was billed as a comedy, but I didn’t quite see that side of things; maybe other readers will have a different experience.
Review of Arianna Reiche, “The Family Proof,” Assemble Artifacts 2 (2022): 1-44 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Sexual assault/violence.
At 44 pages, this is almost a novelette than a short story. But the length worked: It allowed Reiche to feed the reader small bits and dribs and drabs, the hints that let us know that things are not as they seem. It’s a story that sits in the uncanny valley: It’s almost just an ordinary story about ordinary people, and just enough not that to make for an incredibly rewarding read. (I also think it would make a fascinating short film.)
SFF Reviews