Review of Stephanie A. Craig, “The Girl Who Can’t Say No,” Luna Station Quarterly 20 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
If you, like me, read the title and thought “horror story”, you would not be wrong. What you might not have counted on (as I did not) was that this story would be straight of genie-in-the-bottle fairy tale, except set in space. A fun clash of genres and tropes!
Review of Torah Cottrill, “The Face Thief,” Luna Station Quarterly 20 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Fasel Inohiye lives on the tourist planet of Cornucopia and provides “personal services” to those who visit. It’s a pretty good job, bringing in decent money — and when he’s accosted in an alley after a well-paying night, his first thought is that he’s going to be mugged for his money. Instead, it was his face that the thief was seeking.
The rest of the story was about Fasel’s attempt to find someone to help him get his face back, and with good economy of words Cottrill managed to draw a couple of really sympathetic and engaging characters. A well put together story, that I enjoyed a lot.
Review of Mary E. Lowd, “The Little Red Avian Alien,” Luna Station Quarterly 20 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Oh, my goodness, this is “The Little Red Hen” but set in alien space — what fun! And with a twist at the end so that it wasn’t just the same old, same old.
Review of Jocelyn Koehler, “A Sky Without Smoke,” Luna Station Quarterly 20 (2014): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Steven and his brother Kevin live in Williamsburg, not far from the spaceport that sends regular rockets to Mars with all the luxuries that could only be obtained on earth. This story traces two days in their lives, and it is a beautiful mixture of the mundane — daily life, brotherhood, rivalries — and the momentous — when their life shifts and nothing is as it was before.
Really enjoyable!
Review of Thomas K. Carpenter, “On the Anniversary of Your Passing,” Flash Fiction Online 103 (April 2022): 17-20 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
I won’t give away too much of the story if I quibble with its title: Instead of “anniversary”, it should be “anniversaries“. This not-quite-a-time-travel story hinted at complexities that are never quite explained, but the ending is satisfying enough that I didn’t really care about the unanswered questions I had.
Review of Sam F. Weiss, “The Perfect Brick of Feta,” Flash Fiction Online 103 (April 2022): 13-16 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
In this story, Weiss combines the power of marketing with the elusive lure of virtual reality to create a glimpse of a possible future which both vaguely unsettles me and makes me really, really hungry for cheese.
Review of K. Hartless, “Eclectibles,” Luna Station Quarterly 49 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
When the story started, I thought this was going to be something I’d really enjoy; but it ended up being a bit too moralising, about the virtues of reading vs. the vices of screens, which I found both irritating and a bit ironic considering that I was reading this story in an electronically published journal, on my screen! And then Hartless chose J.K. Rowling as an example of an author that should always be kept on hand — “So many everyday ailments can be solved with a dose of Potter.” In 2022, it’s no longer a neutral choice to pick a noteworthy transphobe. In the end, I was pretty profoundly disappointed to see such a story printed in LSQ, which normally is extremely reliable in the quality and satisfaction of its stories.
Review of Rine Karr, “Rhyme and Reason,” Luna Station Quarterly 49 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a lovely little story of the friendship between a pilot, Rhyme, and her spaceship, the Raison d’Être — heartwarming, delightful, bittersweet, and sad. A really beautiful and engaging read.
Review of Erin Macnair, “Thin Crust,” Luna Station Quarterly 49 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was an extremely fun, extremely perceptive story, full of humor and an interesting narrative structure, moving from one viewpoint character to another in a way that is both random and connected, and an excellent twist at the end.
(First published in The Walrus Magazine 2017).
Review of Fei Dao, “Legend of the Giant”, Clarkesworld Issue 181, October (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
A strange story that veers into philosophical discourse while referencing the meaning of work, beauty and indeed, life.
A tad more abstract than I’ve come to expect from Clarkesworld, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The story follows a mechanical giant who has been tasked with destroying old buildings and creating vitreous bricks out of the debris. These bricks, he has been told, will be useful for future projects. Humans are missing, however, and he doesn’t wonder what shape those projects may take without humanity around.
Except he encounters a killer mecha, a philosopher, and sentient soap bubbles along the way. This shapes and builds his perspective throughout the story.
A good story worth spending time with.
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