REVIEW: “Operators” by Joel Richards

Review of Joel Richards, “Operators”, Asimov’s Science Fiction November/December (2017): 150-159 — Purchase Here. Reviewed by Kiera Lesley.

I really love people thinking about technology disrupting different industries and what happens when people don’t think through the implementation ahead of time. Autonomous vehicles are a big deal contemporary speculative topic, but it’s mostly been focused on cars. Operators looks instead at trucks and logistics, a big deal economy and enterprise across the world and particularly in America where long-haul trucking of various goods is ingrained.

I loved how the protagonist had to balance competing interests in this – hired by the big trucking companies to spy on his fellows, but somehow trying not to be the bad guy either. The conflict wasn’t overwhelming, but it drove the character and story well. I found the tone really made this piece. It was down-to-earth and personable, which suited the setting and characters being portrayed. You don’t want fancy metaphors in a piece that deal with people down on their luck and out of work in the middle of nowhere. The ending was nifty and smart, staying true to the viewpoint character and managing to be a bit surprising as well.

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REVIEW: “Piece by Piece” by Sean Woznicki

Review of Sean Woznicki, “Piece by Piece”, Syntax and Salt 4, 2017: Read Online. Reviewed by Tiffany Crystal

I’m not even sure what to say about this work. I’m the type that hates questions left unanswered, and this short story leaves way too many for my taste. There’s not even a suggestion of why the events in the story happen. Is it because of the woman? Is that why he loses nothing when he spends the night at his own home? If it’s the woman though, wouldn’t this be something she knew to look out for? Wouldn’t she be less horrified at finding his eyes?

I mean, in the beginning, she was entirely too blasé about the toe and the finger, and even the tongue, so I suspected it was entirely her fault, and that she knew about it. But her reaction to the eyes threw me. Perhaps her reaction is supposed to throw the audience, but it still doesn’t give you any answers.

Overall, for me, the story was frustrating because of the lack of answers, and hard to enjoy. It might’ve been different if we were at least given a reason to care about what was going on, but we aren’t even given that.

Oh well, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Hopefully others will enjoy it more than I did. At least it wasn’t badly written. It just wasn’t to my taste.

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REVIEW: “Belong to Me” by Rachel Harrison

Review of Rachel Harrison, “Belong to Me”, Syntax and Salt 4, 2017: Read Online. Reviewed by Tiffany Crystal

Well, gee, this one isn’t creepy as all get out or anything. It’s sunshine and lollipops, and okay, that’s enough sarcasm for now.

For something that starts out as a love story (kinda), the end is…huh. Rachel Harrison takes you through a tale that is, on the surface, anyway, similar to the premise of “My Best Friend’s Wedding.” If the best friend was a Martian, and the other woman was the main character’s other best friend.

Okay, so the comparison isn’t the best, but it’s better than using “Coneheads,” and the point remains. The story really shouldn’t be as creepy as it is, though to be fair, the creepy part is entirely conjecture. You aren’t given enough information to justify the chills that start creeping in, but you also aren’t given any reason to not get them.

Is the cousin telling the truth? Or was he lying? Where are all the Martian women? Who does Becky care about more? All it says is that she discovers who she loves more. The story leaves you with so many questions that demand answers, but in a way that you can’t really be mad at the author for.

And guys? It has aliens. Aliens. And UFO’s. Am I entirely too happy about that? Possibly. Go read it anyway. (Aliens!)

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REVIEW: “The Edge of Things” by Katharine E.K. Duckett

Review of Katharine E.K. Duckett, “The Edge of Things”, Apex Magazine 103: Read Online. Reviewed by Joanna Z. Weston.

An endless party with representatives from all eras of human history, containing the breadth and depth of human knowledge, sounds like a dream come true for any curious person. But is it really? And what would you have to give up to get there? These are some of the questions posed by “The Edge of Things.”

I’m not sure I’m smart enough to fully understand this story. Halfway through, I recognized a few characters as characters from famous literature. Were others literary allusions as well? Maybe if I were better read (or had a better memory), my experience of this story would be completely different.

What I did understand of the story was fascinating. Duckett set herself the difficult task of describing a nonsense world from the point of view of someone who recognizes that it does not make sense, and is struggling to find the underlying structure and meaning almost as much as the reader. The only difference is that the narrator has been at it for some time already, and her energy for the task has almost run out, whereas the reader is new to the confusion. We also don’t have to struggle with it for as long, because at least some of it is resolved by the end.

I appreciate that Duckett does not leave us hanging, and provides some explanation. She doesn’t give us a pat ending, because that wouldn’t be satisfying. We learn what is going on in this mysterious house, but not what exists outside of it. That is enough.

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REVIEW: “Earth Music” by Jennifer Lee Rossman

Review of Jennifer Lee Rossman, “Earth Music”, Syntax and Salt 4, 2017: Read Online. Reviewed by Tiffany Crystal

I really really like this work. I love the premise, and I loved how Ve is blind, but was still allowed on the trip. Instead of her people thinking that she was defective and leaving her behind, they brought her with them to Earth, and I love that. I love how, even without looking it up, I knew exactly what song was included on that disk, the one that Ve was so obsessed with. I love the way Ms. Rossman lets us imagine the aliens the way we want to, while still giving us hints of how they’re different from us.

I absolutely adore Ve, just all around. Something about her…she just seems sweet. Like one of those people you see and you instantly want to smile and hug them. Those are some of my favorite people, and that’s the vibe I get from her. I love how she comes across as intelligent, or intuitive, at least. She knows she has a weakness, but she thinks of how she can use it as a strength for her people. She isn’t afraid to put herself on the line, to try and ensure the best for her people. I love so much about the story, and most of it centers around Ve…which makes sense, considering she’s the focus of the story, but anyway.

The ending, ah, the ending. It’s so bittersweet. I can’t decide if I like it the way it is, or if I’m mad cause there’s not more to read. Either way, this is a gem, and I recommend it.

TiffanyCrystal2 Comments

REVIEW: “Red Queen’s Lullaby” by Ariel Ptak

Review of Ariel Ptak, “Red Queen’s Lullaby”, in Myths, Monsters, and Mutations, edited by Jessica Augustsson (JayHenge Publications, 2017): 321-322. — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Ptak’s story includes an impressive amount of scene-setting for being as short as it is, painting a clear and vivid picture of place and history. There is not much to the story itself, but there is a clear resolution at the end. I do wonder, though, if the final three paragraphs are necessary or if, perhaps paradoxically, the story would’ve been stronger with a more ambiguous ending.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Wasteland” Stephen R. Smith

Review of Stephen R. Smith, “Wasteland”, in Myths, Monsters, and Mutations, edited by Jessica Augustsson (JayHenge Publications, 2017): 267-268. — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

The guiding question throughout this story is “Who is Eliot?” Despite being introduced to us in the very first sentence — and indeed being the only character that we meet — this question is not clearly answered until the very end of the story, at which point one lingering question remains — why is he named ‘Eliot’? But that question is never answered because this story is quite short, almost more a vignette than a story, and resolution does not need to be the order of the day here.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “In This Life and the Next” by Katherine Inskip

Review of Katherine Inskip, “In This Life and the Next”, Luna Station Quarterly 32 (2017): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I struggle with second-person POV so much. I can totally understand why an author would choose it — I’ve had my own fair share of writing something that simply need to be written in that voice — but as a reader I find it so often off-putting, because if the “you” is “me”, then the narrator has gotten something totally wrong, this isn’t me, this isn’t my story.

So I always start a second-person POV story with a healthy dose of trepidation. Maybe this one will be the one where the “you” is in fact me.

It wasn’t, oh, it wasn’t. But when I realize who the narrator is, and who she is talking to…I’ll forgive the author pretty much anything, because there is no way this story could’ve been written in anything but second-person POV, and it’s brilliant.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: Flash Fiction Online, ed. Suzanne W. Vincent, November 2017

Review of Flash Fiction Online, ed. Suzanne W. Vincent, November 2017 [Read Online/Purchase Here]. Reviewed by Meryl Stenhouse.

Stories in this issue:
Crater Meet by Brian Trent
Last Long Night by Lina Rather
The Stars and the Rain by Emily McCosh
Baker by Sheila Massie

Crater Meet by Brian Trent

This story is both heart-lifting and heartbreaking. Two sides of a war meet in the middle of no-man’s land for a convivial, makeshift dinner. There’s no personal enmity between these men. They are the same people on different sides of a war. This story beautifully captures the ridiculousness of war and the feeling of being caught up in something that doesn’t touch them, even as it kills them.

Last Long Night by Lina Rather

The crew of a spaceship, believing themselves to be the last humans, struggle to reach a half-terraformed planet where they might survive. Along the way they meet a Russian cosmonaut who saves them and gives them hope. I felt on edge every moment of reading this story. Rather paints a picture of people on the edge; of sanity, of survival, of hope, and the most unlikely meeting that surely must be a sign.

The Stars and the Rain by Emily McCosh

This story deals in fear, but it’s the small, daily, family fears. The narrator runs away from home, but she can’t admit to herself that she’s running away for many years. But it’s the sort of unacknowledged running away where you still talk to your family, but you just don’t have the strength to do it face to face. What I really loved about this story was the way the author used snapshots as both communication and story structure. It reads like a succession of freeze frames and is compelling because of the little we actually see.

Baker by Sheila Massie

There’s a grim hopelessness to this story that wasn’t present in the previous tales, and a feeling that things will never change. Rafael, a baker with a touch of magic, bakes bread that helps people, but he never has enough magic for all the people who need help, and you can feel his desperation. Who does he choose? Who can he help? His final choice is intellectual, but you can already feel that it will do no good in the end. However that doesn’t stop him trying.

Overall, I found this edition to be uplifting and heartful. I enjoyed the science fiction stories especially.

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REVIEW: “While it’s Still Beating” by Emma Grygotis

Review of Emma Grygotis, “While it’s Still Beating”, Luna Station Quarterly 32 (2017): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

It’s hard to know whether to describe this story as SF or dystopian, though the unhappy future presented in it makes me lean towards the latter. Sometimes, future-oriented SF can just be so damn depressing.

Reading this, it feels like the tenses and temporal points are not mapped out correctly. There is a lot of past perfect, and a lot of present, and the “once, years ago, Alice could read Lenore’s moods by her eyes” – shouldn’t that really be “once, years ago, Alice had been able to…”? Because surely we are not talking about a single moment in time but rather an extended period. These shifts in tenses and the oblique way with which Grygotis approaches her story combine to make many aspects of the story unclear and uncertain. Both Lenore and Alice know why their insurance premiums are too high, but unfortunately, by the end of the story, I don’t, and the power that the ending might have had is lost on me.

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