REVIEW: “Retriever” by MK Sauer

Review of MK Sauer, “Retriever,” Luna Station Quarterly 24 (2015): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Cannibalism, mention of rape.

Borr is a Bio-Organic Retrieval Robot, part-flesh, part-metal, but wholly able to withstand the ravages of the Oxidation — well, at least better than humans can, by a long shot. She’s been sent out from base camp to retrieve any fuel, water, books, or survivors that she can find. But not all survivors want to be retrieved.

The most remarkable thing about this story was the slang that Sauer developed. It was familiar enough to be (mostly) intelligible, but foreign enough to feel realistically future. The use (or non use) of this slang give the characters each distinctive voices, and made this story something just a little out of the ordinary.

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REVIEW: “Cold Flame” by Sheryl Normandeau

Review of Sheryl Normandeau, “Cold Flame”, Luna Station Quarterly 24 (2015): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Cecelia works in the Arctic seed-bank vault, a quiet, easy job until the day that a seed is stolen from the vault. It’s no ordinary seed — it’s the vault’s most precious one — and it’s no ordinary thief either, on two counts: 1. both Cecelia and the thief have had bio-enhancements done; 2. he’s her ex-boyfriend.

This isn’t the sort of story that’ll necessarily thrill you or wow you or awe you, but it is good for a bit of light entertainment.

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REVIEW: “The Silent Decades” by Olga Kolesnikova

Review of Olga Kolesnikova, “The Silent Decades,” Luna Station Quarterly 47 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

One of my favorite genres of speculative fiction is what we might call speculative nonfiction, that is, a fictional nonfiction/research paper or book. Kolesnikova’s story is set around a century and a half in the future, and is series of tootnotes to a historical/analytical report of the “the silent decades” in the middle of the 21st century, complete with numerous references to secondary reading. It’s really hard to make up plausible non-fiction — especially when you need to make up the sources you’re citing! — and I thought Kolesnikova did a marvelous job.

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REVIEW: “The Shroud for the Mourners” by Yukimi Ogawa

Review of Yukimi Ogawa, “The Shroud for the Mourners”, Clarkesworld Issue 177, June (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.

Beautifully written, and set in a hauntingly different world. I enjoyed the glimpses into the different kinds of people there, both human and Android.

Two craftspeople work at a pattern atelier – helping patterned people deal with anomalies in their intricate skin patterns. They get involved in a sort of medical mystery. The source turns out to be unexpected and sentimental.

Another tale that follows this issue’s theme (based on my personal inference) of identity and the different ways it can manifest.

The whole situation occurs due to differences in how your identity decides how exactly things pan out. A thoughtful tale that will stay with you.

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REVIEW: “No Place Like Home” by Rebecca Burton

Review of Rebecca Burton, “No Place Like Home”, Luna Station Quarterly 47 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Saffi and her wife moved North so her wife could escape the city and a job that was slowly killing her. Now, Di wants nothing more than to leave the countryside behind and return home.

There’s a good layer of tension in the story, as it is wholly unclear until right at the end whether Saffi will go with Di or not, but that alone wasn’t quite enough to elevate the story from ordinary to extraordinary.

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REVIEW: “Our Fate, Told in Photons” by K.W. Colyard

Review of K.W. Colyard, “Our Fate, Told in Photons”, Clarkesworld Issue 177, June (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.

A slow start and a very satisfying end. A short story that encompasses space travel, prophecy, stars, family, love, and memory.

Sisters, Callisto and Pallas, bound together for life. Would they still be, if not for a prophecy? Would their actions be the same, if not for the prophecy? Are prophecies self-fulfilling as a rule?

Speculative in a different sort of way, and tying in with the theme of identity that (I feel) features in all the stories in this issue of Clarkesworld.

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REVIEW: “Skipping Back” by Jeannine Clarke

Review of Jeannine Clarke, “Skipping Back”, Luna Station Quarterly 47 (2021): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content warning: Mention of eating disorders; marijuana use; casual racism.

This was very much a story of two parts. In the first, not even the addition of time travel can make a story of a man’s serial philandering any less sordid. In the second, the philandering is left behind and the time travel comes to the fore. This second half was a bit trite, but overall this was a pleasant story.

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