REVIEW: “A Hint of Sugar” by Elizabeth Rankin

Review of Elizabeth Rankin, “A Hint Sugar,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 57-75 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Dieting, calorie counting, fatphobia.

Norah is a baker whose sweet treats are under threat from the newest development in DNA modification: A new diet induced by a shot that changes how sweet things taste.

I confess, I didn’t quite get how this was supposed to work: Is the idea that after such a shot, people would stop eating sugary things because they no longer taste sweet? Why would that be the behavioral change rather than people eating way way more sugar because they could no longer taste it was sweet? (After all, I’m pretty sure sugar’s addictive qualities are not due to its taste, but do to the impact it has on the body.) My constant thoughts about this conundrum unfortunately prevented me from engaging with the story itself as I might otherwise have.

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REVIEW: “Those Uncaring Waves” by Yukimi Ogawa

Review of Yukimi Ogawa, “Those Uncaring Waves”, Clarkesworld Issue 222, March (2025): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.

A hauntingly beautiful novella. So well written, richly layered, and very detailed. This was an absolute treat to read.

A story with an intricately created world usually has that as the highlight of the story. Here, it was the background for another beautiful story. I cannot overstate how lovely this story is – the plot, the emotion, the scale, the world building, the structure – everything so so good.

This novella is a must-read. I can’t even try to put it in a genre or explain “key points”. Read for yourself and see; thank me later!

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REVIEW: “Solve for X” by Kristen Koopman

Review of Kristen Koopman, “Solve for X,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 203-231 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Lots of misogyny and low level sexual harassment.

This is a story for any academic who has ever walked into the room and been the only one of their kind in the room — for the women, for the minorities, for the people in the “wrong” field for their gender, for all the people in the intersections.

It’s a — quite long for LSQ — complex and complicated story of the difficulties of being a woman, and a minority woman at that, in academia, and in a science field at that. It’s at times hard reading, but rightfully so, because that’s not an easy position to navigate, a fact both Julia, newly-appointed member of faculty, and her PhD student, Mercedes, must face; but it’s also at times rather cathartic. And while the way they face the issues is what makes this story speculative, an intriguing example of SF, it’s not the main focus of the story, just an elegant allegory.

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REVIEW: “Peace” by Phoenix Mendoza

Review of Phoenix Mendoza, “Peace,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 197-201 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content warning: War.

The narrator (who’s name we never learn) and her partner, Lorna, are trapped in a war that seems unwinnable, fighting ever since the aliens arrived, three years ago. Despite this, Lorna still believes in peace, and tells the narrator that one day, she will too.

Reading such a story in the present climate, where there is so much war but the participants involved are ourselves and not aliens, was a strange experience. There’s something that feels almost safe about imagining battling against aliens: They are alien, after all, it’s okay for us to read about fighting them, killing them, murdering them. But the very fact that this feels okay, just because they are aliens, is a deeply uncomfortable feeling, because that’s exactly the same excuse people use for making war against other people.

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REVIEW: “A Moon Goddess to Watch Over Me” by Susan Kaye Quinn

Review of Susan Kaye Quinn, “A Moon Goddess to Watch Over Me,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 385-389 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Quinn’s story was an enjoyable mix of near-earth space exploration and ancient Chinese, Greek, and African mythologies, an unusual combination to say the least. It had a little bit too much reporting of back story, and not quite enough character or development of story, for my taste, because it was quite short, but it was still enjoyable nonetheless.

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REVIEW: “First to Go” by Jenny Perry Carr

Review of Jenny Perry Carr, “First to Go,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 49-54 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was a sparse, spare little story about space-travel on the very personal, individual level. Its tight prose reflects the tension of the situation that the main character is in, giving us an intimate glimpse into her mind, and it meant that all it took was a single, perfect, line for it to send chills down my spine:

Maybe my only chance to be first to go.

If you need a win, a victory, then definitely read this story!

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REVIEW: “Progress, Incorporated,” by S. Thomas Drake

Review of S. Thomas Drake, “Progress, Incorporated,” Radon Journal 9 (2025): 48-54. — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was an eerie, creepy story. It starts off with a premise that is well-suited for futuristic SF: Progress, Inc., provides sleeping pods for marginalized people who wish to take some time out until the world has progressed enough to accept them for who they are.

Spoilers below:

Then we find out that the story is set in 2030.

Then we find out that Progress, Inc., asks for people to sign away their voting rights for while they are in the pods. And at this point, I had just about as many misgivings about the whole endeavor as Simon, the MC, had.

This is only the start of things, and let’s just say: They don’t end any better!

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