Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Uncanny and The Deadlands: Short Fiction Reviews by Paula Guran

March 27, 2025March 26, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments Paula Guran, short fiction

Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 12/24
Uncanny 1-2/25
The Deadlands Winter ’25

Before launching into new fiction for the (at this writing) still-new year of 2025, let’s mention Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #49. It is a 2024 publication but came out late in the year. The issue contains two works of fiction: novella “Pomegranate Hearts” by Dora Holland and short story “Hannah and Grackle, Lost in the Woods” by Susan DeFreitas.

If one catches the fruit reference in the title, it is not a far leap to realizing Holland’s tale plays on the myth of Persephone and Hades. In this version, an old necromancer brings a young woman back from death supposedly to clean his house. He names her Ephemera. Once she proves “capable,” he provides her with a dagger and sends her to the underworld to cut out the heart of Death who, he says, betrayed him long before. If she succeeds, he promises he will free her. Once in the kingdom of Death – and knowing the power of names – she calls herself Mera. After acquiring a ballgown and a mask, Mera makes her way to a ball at the queen of Death’s palace where she meets Death herself. The queen eventually declares she will marry Mera. But the necromancer – whose true, and not unsurprising, identity is then revealed – still holds power over the maiden. A charming and somewhat romantic tale.

DeFreitas sets her story of Sarah Lawrence dropouts Hannah and Grackle in the 1990s. In need of $500 to repair their car, the pair take a two-week job felling trees for “green building” at a supposed environmental center in the Smoky Mountains. Deserted in an isolated farmhouse by Jim, the man who hired them, they venture out into the woods and encounter a woman who Jim has told them is a witch. The girls learn the truth from the woman and something about themselves as well. Another lovely story.

Uncanny #62 starts the year with five originals and leads off with a humorous – okay, darkly humorous – novelette by Scott Lynch. “Kaiju Agonistes” not only takes on a giant sea monster but offers some Dr. Strangelove-style political satire. Lots of fun and not to be missed. Liza wants to go through a medical procedure to “revise” themself in “Six People to Revise You” by J.R. Dawson. The preparation process involved – which includes soliciting input from a variety of people who know them – is revealing. I’m just not sure about needing a scientific breakthrough to achieve whatever this revision is. Folks revise themselves – radically – all the time. “For Whom the Hair Grows” by Tia Tashiro is an interesting variation on “Rapunzel” that, overall, works, but I feel it is a mite too lengthy for the premise.

In Tade Thompson’s “The Flaming Embusen” Ephraim Jero is investigating the collision of two “gateships.” One ship belongs to the planet Oya and the other to Shango – two planets in a tense political situation. Some provocative concepts are included – a life as data; pragmatic psychosis; the relationships, enslavement, and manumission of artificial entities – but it is all a bit much for a short story to successfully convey.

“With Her Serpent Locks” by Mary Robinette Kowal is a brief take on part of ancient Greek mythology. She takes it into space as one of the Gorgon sisters neatly deals with her cousin Zeus. A personal favorite, but – to be fair – I must admit I tend to like myth-based stories.

Simi’s poet mother “confesses” to killing her first husband in “Men with Tails” by Rati Mehrotra. Has Mum finally gone around the bend? Evidently not, but Simi isn’t exactly fully functional herself. She lives with Dean, a husband who she never sees. Or maybe he’s not there, or perhaps he’s turned into the alien-monster-creature Simi encounters one night in the kitchen. She kills the monster that may or may not be Dean. Or she doesn’t. Luckily, Mum sorts it all out for us in the end. Quirky, but I rather liked it. AnaMaria Curtis’s “Your Personalized Guide to the Museum of the Lost and Found” is well described by its title. Imaginative.

The Deadlands #37 offers five originals. The group assembled in “Extreme Sports Club for Octogenarians” by Kate Lechler is, now that self-directed death has been legalized, a way – as its tagline states – to “die awesome.” Sure enough, as they goes on various outings, what starts as a group of seven dwindles as members meet their welcomed ends. Morbid? Of course! This is a magazine devoted to death. But it is also satisfying.

Monte Lin’s “his love’s ashes on his tongue” introduces the rogue ice giant Hades. It imports the dead and “only exports memories and grief.” Necropolis, one of Hades’s moons, is where most people bury their dead. Grief-stricken Gabriel goes there to inurn his husband, Danny, and reconcile his thoughts but is beset with other beings’ memories. Some profoundly intriguing ideas are presented.

“The Path She Sings” by Vanesa Fogg grabs the reader from the start as the narrator explains the only way to survive is to pretend to be dead. His wife, Elsie, knew this, but “slipped up” and died. Now as he lies in bed “pretending to be dead… my dead wife moves restlessly in the kitchen downstairs….” He knows it is not Elsie but still cannot do what must be done. Lyrically written and haunting. “Saint Gremmy” by Robert Nazar Arjoyan is a darkly sentimental tale of how a grandmother’s love can overcome death itself. T.E.Z. Moore’s “The Scythe and Other Simple Mechanisms” is a simple and engaging look at the titular tool in both its agriculturally useful role and as a remover of human souls.

The first of two originals in The Dark #116 might fit well in The Deadlands. “Four Questions with Something Like God” by Carlie St. George is a listicle story dealing with a dead person who wishes to persist. At first, it seems the issue’s second tale, “Lost You Again” by Ian Rogers, could fit as well. But this one is a true horror story in which a deceased husband/father is unknowingly haunting his family and learns he must leave. His presence has attracted a dangerous negative entity, so he is warned he must depart carefully to keep it away from his family. That, however, is far from the end of the story, and the path it takes is what turns it truly scary. I’m seldom surprised, but Rogers got me.

Recommended Stories
“Pomegranate Hearts”, Dora Holland (Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet Winter ’25)
“With Her Serpent Locks”, Mary Robinette Kowal (Uncanny 1-2/25)
“Kaiju Agonistes”, Scott Lynch (Uncanny 1-2/25)

Paula Guran has edited more than 40 science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies and more than 50 novels and collections featuring the same. She’s reviewed and written articles for dozens of publications. She lives in Akron OH, near enough to her grandchildren to frequently be indulgent.

This review and more like it in the March 2025 issue of Locus.

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