Review of Virginia M. Mohlere, “Small Offerings for a Small God,” Luna Station Quarterly 49 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Small gods always put me in mind of Pratchett, and I have to wonder if the allusion was intentional here, as Danit befriends a small god who becomes a bigger god as she invests her energy in him, confessing sins that she has never admitted to anyone before.
Quite possibly my favorite part of the story was Danit’s autonomous armor.
Review of Virginia M. Mohlere, “A Report of One’s Honorable Death”, Luna Station Quarterly 39 (2019): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This makes 2/2 of Mohlere’s stories that I absolutely adored. She has such skill in picking out setting, character, and action with fine precise sentences, no unnecessary words, and constructed to drive straight into your emotional core. In this one, one emotion that kept being tapped was laughter — so many lines that caused me to burst out with it! For example:
“What a curious thing,” the goblin said. “Why would anyone create such an object and then use it only to be rude?”
But it was laughter tempered with the feeling that only comes with the satisfaction of a deep longing.
I can’t wait till I get to read more of her work.
Review of Virginia M. Mohlere, “The Thing in the Wall Wants Your Small Change”, Luna Station Quarterly 34 (2018): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
I loved the title of this one, because I didn’t know whether to expect horror, humor, or Doctor Who.
What I got was a story of family ties and family love, and the ways in which our lives pull us in two, and which a third of the way through took a sideways turn that left me grinning from ear to ear, and another third later left me gaping speechless at how much power a single act — to take the word of a woman seriously and act on it, no questions asked — can have to make a reader want to cry. A lot of the story made me want to cry.
Read it. It’s sad and good and happy all at once.
SFF Reviews