REVIEW: “Promises We Made Under A Brick-Dark Sky” by Karen Osborne

Review of Karen Osborne, “Promises We Made Under A Brick-Dark Sky”, Clarkesworld Issue 178, July (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.

Just beautiful. This issue starts off strong and how! Our narrator is a strong, courageous woman and contributes greatly to the beauty of this story.

I’ve said beauty twice already, and I realize that this story really is deserving of that adjective, though the description of the world and the lives lived within it are often anything but.

Osborne’s vivid imagery and fresh descriptions add a different texture to the story, and her clever use of language reveals all in due time. A stark world, a type of God, fear and mistrust, love, code and prayer, and above all, hope.

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REVIEW: “Eleusinian Mysteries” by Charlotte Ashley

Review of Charlotte Ashley, “Eleusinian Mysteries,” Luna Station Quarterly 23 (2015): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This story is a shining example of the very best of historical science fiction. In 17th-century Amsterdam, engraver Maghfira van Delsen discovers the secret of the mysterious city Eleusia, and her discovery threatens not only the colonising aspirations of the VOC (the Dutch Eastindia Company) but, as a result, her own livelihood and life. The story is a perfect blending of historical verisimilitude and extra-worldly adventure; not only is it good SF, it feels like it is exactly the sort of SF you would expect to get in the 17th century. I really loved this story.

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REVIEW: “Embracing the Movement” by Cristina Jurado

Review of Cristina Jurado, “Embracing the Movement”, Clarkesworld Issue 177, June (2021): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.

A fantastical tale of a strange sort of first contact. Things don’t go the way you may anticipate. There’s delicious buildup about existence in outer space and the different kinds of lives people live. It also features a very creepy payoff.

Different sorts of living spaces, structures and communication types exist in our universe. We have barely begun to understand this universe, and stories like this throw that fact into sharp relief.

A subtle queasiness exists throughout the story. If you enjoy feeling creeped out, this one will be right up your alley.

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REVIEW: “Into the Lightning Suit” by Kyle Richardson

Review of Kyle Richardson, “Into the Lightning Suit,” Flash Fiction Online 87 (2021): Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Cora and Ben’s mother is dead, and the two siblings disagree about what to do next: Cora wants to let her mother rest in peace; she’s already said goodbye. Ben, on the other hand, wants to rebuild her.

What I liked: Crisp prose with good pacing.

What I disliked: The constant description of Ben and his activities as “mad” or “insane.”

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REVIEW: “The Corn Grows Back Every Year” by Riley Vainionpaa

Review of Riley Vainionpaa, “The Corn Grows Back Every Year,” Luna Station Quarterly 24 (2015): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was sci-fi with a good dollop of horror (content note: body horror/mutilation). At first neither Peggy nor Mellie understand what’s going on with Mellie’s body, or why she appears to have developed special powers. But then they agree to systematically experiment, driven by the need to know, to understand.

This was an odd little story!

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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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