Paula Guran Reviews The Sunday Morning Transport, Uncanny, and The Dark

The Sunday Morning Transport 12/17/23, 12/3/23, 11/19/23, 11/12/23, 11/5/23
Uncanny 11-12/23
The Dark 11/23

By the time you read this, the new year of 2024 will no longer be so new, but there’s still some short fiction from the end of 2023 to catch up on.

A laundry that washes stars? Nikki Brazie takes the unique premise of cleaning luminous celestial bodies and weaves it into a touching tale about grief, family secrets, and finding one’s identity in “The Starwash” in The Sunday Morning Transport (12/7). “Deconstruction in the Form of a Cat God” by LaShawn M. Wanak (12/3) is a weird and wondrous tale of the descent of the Cat God to Earth and, for some humans, the meaning of faith. Tobias S. Buckell’s “By Throat and Void” (11/19) is a darkly adventurous story of a catamaran overloaded with desperate people attempting to flee one world for another. Amidst the terror and danger, there is heroism. “Mid-Earth Removals Limited” by R.S.A. Garcia (11/5) is a delightful story told with a Caribbean lilt. A practical woman copes with a world changed by invaders from Middle Earth and, especially, a soldier of the Immortal Lord of Undying Evil. Superb characterization and a distinct voice. Like Garcia’s story, “The Cor­ruption of Malik the Unsmiling” by Naseem Jamnia (11/12) is amusing and adeptly crafted. A jinn running an un-gas station in Hell makes a really good cup of coffee. It leads to an unusual friendship.

Naomi Kritzer’s “The Year Without Sunshine” in Uncanny #55 is a hopeful piece about how a diverse Minneapolis neighborhood pulls to­gether and successfully survives after life as we know it is disrupted. On one hand, cooperation and community spirit might well work in such a scenario. And, admittedly, Kritzer provides a less supportive community in contrast. Still, one can­not wonder if such a kind and caring urban island would inevitably be confronted by less amiable folks who have an awful lot of arms and ammo. Personal pessimism aside, it is a well-considered, well-researched, and well-written story. Olive, the narrator of “We’re Looking for the Best” by Cecil Castellucci, is “always unseen” even though she’s always there. Through an unusual job opportunity, Olive not only exorcises herself from past demons; she helps others see the light as well. Impossible to detail much more without giving too much away, but it can be seen as op­timistic as well.

Also in Uncanny 55, “The Quiet of Drown­ing” by Kel Coleman is the disturbing story of a teenaged girl who attempts suicide and is sent for a short stay in a psychiatric facility. For any­one who cannot imagine self-harm – especially from a young person – this one should go a long way toward providing some understanding. Absolutely compelling. “The Pandemonium Waltz” by Jeffrey Ford starts off innocuously. A traveling attraction, The Pandemonium Waltz, is “old fashioned, and yet mystical, and eschews computers and cell phones. It’s an intimate expe­rience, the touching, the unified movement, the beating of your partner’s heart.” How scary can waltzing be? In Ford’s hands, a nice dance turns weirdly surreal. In “A Piece of the Continent” by Marissa Lingen, narrator Lucy and friend Ollie take a road trip from Boston to Alaska so they can scatter the ashes of their grandfathers there. Some supernaturality threatens them along the way but, ultimately, they discover just how solid their friendship is.

I found both new stories in The Dark’s Novem­ber issue (#102) to be of interest. In “A is for Alphabet” by Steve Rasnic Tem, four boys travel back and forth through time thanks to a device discovered by narrator Arnie and deciphered by genius friend Carl. As is not uncommon with transtemporal journeys, there are consequences. A well-written story that pulls the reader in. J.S. Breukelaar’s “Auscultation” is told in a series of emails sent from Maxine Bailey to Rebecca Lytton over the course of two weeks. Maxine – fired from her job and at odds with her part­ner, Rebecca – is taking a vacation in a cottage located on the estate of a manor house. Despite never receiving replies, Maxine continues her messages, and they slowly reveal the chilling truth. Breukelaar builds the tension nicely using the epistolary format and winds up with a fine modern tale with gothic overtones.

Recommended Stories
“The Starwash”, Nikki Brazie (The Sunday Morning Transport 12/17/23)
“Auscultation”, J.S. Breukelaar (The Dark 11/23)
“The Quiet of Drowning”, Kel Coleman (Uncanny 11-12/3)
“Mid-Earth Removals Limited”, R.S.A. Garcia (The Sunday Morning Transport 11/5/23)

This review and more like it in the March 2024 issue of Locus.

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