#ReadShortStories (56 to 60)

In this batch, I finished reading the fiction in Uncanny Issue 20. But then, after thinking I only had articles left, I realised there was still poetry hiding towards the end so I'm not actually quite finished. But almost. (And as a reminder I'm lumping poems in with short stories in these mini-reviews, which is why there's one here and will be next batch as well.)

Your Slaughterhouse, Your Killing Floor by Sunny Moraine — A violent, angry story about being alone, about love, about destroying the world. About a girl walking into a bar and meeting another girl like her. About the end of the world. I’m not sure that I exactly *enjoyed* this story, but I certainly *felt* it. A powerful read. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/slaughterhouse-killing-floor/

The Utmost Bound by Vivian Shaw — This story is about a couple of astronauts piloting a rover on Venus and finding something strange. I think it was intended to be SF horror, but I personally didn’t find it as horrific as the main character did, which lessened the impact somewhat. It wasn’t a bad story, but seeing as there was supposed to be (or so it seemed to me) more emotional impact than I felt, it fell a little flat. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/the-utmost-bound/

The Date by RK Kalaw — Short and about non-humans on a date. It had some similarities with “Your Slaughterhouse, Your Killing Floor” but didn’t pack as powerful a punch and hence suffered for the comparison. (And it was not only shorter but also less angry.) Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/the-date/

Conservation Laws by Vandana Singh — An interesting longer story about anomalies on Mars, set in a future with people living there and on the moon. I liked the way in which the protagonist was introduced before telling his story, and also the fact that the framing narrator was someone else and saw him from a different perspective. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/conservation-laws/

The Early Ones by Sofia Samatar and Del Samatar — To be honest, the way the formatting came out in the ebook on my phone, I didn’t immediately realise this was a poem rather than flash. But either way, I enjoyed it. About beings that were there before “civilisation” came along. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/the-early-ones/