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A review by afreen7
Uncanny Magazine Issue 38: January/February 2021 by Chimedum Ohaegbu, Elsa Sjunneson, Michael Damian Thomas, Lynne M. Thomas
4.0
My first ever experience of Uncanny Magazine and I really enjoyed it. This is all thanks to P. Djeli Clarke's writing which I couldn't get enough of so I went digging into the internets and found it in Uncanny Mag.
Fiction
Tyrannosaurus Hex by Sam J. Miller: 4/5
both fascinating and horrifying. The kind of horror that glues you to your seat in shock. Themes of VR gone too far, terrible parenting and the tech generation.
A House Full of Voices Is Never Empty by Miyuki Jane Pinckard: 4/5
This story is the distillation of what it feels like to miss not only a place but a time, an era, and holding on for dear life because it is perceivably the only comfort you have. I loved this because anyone who is an immigrant, or whose lives belong to multiple countries will get this.
Pathfinding! by Nicole Kornher-Stace: 3/5
a futuristic dystopian where a crumbling unethical institution that trains modified children as combatants but fails. I would've rated this higher if the ending was better.
In That Place She Grows a Garden by Del Sandeen: 4/5
Just a lovely and simple story of a resilient young black girl painfully forced to conform to white standards of hair at school and its results.
Beyond the Doll Forest by Marissa Lingen: 3.5/5
This was spooky and I thoroughly enjoyed the atmospheric writing and imagery. Dolls are scary enough on their own without the added creepiness of young girls acting weird.
Femme and Sundance by Christopher Caldwell: 3.5/5
A fast paced action story of a Bonnie and Clyde except for its two young boys, one white and one black who acquire magical masks and rob a bank. This was fun, thrilling but just a little too long.
Distribution by Paul Cornell:3/5
This was certainly a little harder to grasp conceptually but interesting to read nevertheless.
Poetry
I really liked the poetry but I'm not gonna rate them individually. 'Medusa Gets a Haircut' by Theodora Goss and 'Kalevala, an untelling' by Lizy Simonen were my faves.
Editorials
Imagining Futures: Where Our Works Go from Here by Elsa Sjunneson:2/5
The premise of this is that a lot of works of art and writing are being recognized for their problematic parts and about the concept of separating the art from the artist. That's all fine and if you enjoy something that has problematic bits that's ok but to claim that all works of art and writing will eventually at some point be deemed problematic and that's why we should stop complaining, is just the dumbest idea to me. And that's what the author of this piece implies and I was eye-rolling throughout reading this.
Essays
Weird Plagues: How Fear of Disease Mutated into a Subgenre by John Wiswell: 4/5
Amazing article with lots of great recs of books of a newly emerging genre and its analysis.
Milk Teeth by Octavia Cade: 3/5
Interesting idea about ecology and environment. But I don't agree fully with it.
Hayao Miyazaki’s Lost Magic of Parenthood by Aidan Moher:4.5/5
This was a beautiful look at childhood, parenting, innocence, coming of age, etc
Trash Fantasias, or Why Mass Effect 3‘s Ending Was Bad Actually by Katherine Cross:4.5/5
Another great essay that even though I haven't played a lot of games I still understood what the point was it definitely applies to these times.
Fiction
Tyrannosaurus Hex by Sam J. Miller: 4/5
both fascinating and horrifying. The kind of horror that glues you to your seat in shock. Themes of VR gone too far, terrible parenting and the tech generation.
A House Full of Voices Is Never Empty by Miyuki Jane Pinckard: 4/5
This story is the distillation of what it feels like to miss not only a place but a time, an era, and holding on for dear life because it is perceivably the only comfort you have. I loved this because anyone who is an immigrant, or whose lives belong to multiple countries will get this.
Pathfinding! by Nicole Kornher-Stace: 3/5
a futuristic dystopian where a crumbling unethical institution that trains modified children as combatants but fails. I would've rated this higher if the ending was better.
In That Place She Grows a Garden by Del Sandeen: 4/5
Just a lovely and simple story of a resilient young black girl painfully forced to conform to white standards of hair at school and its results.
Beyond the Doll Forest by Marissa Lingen: 3.5/5
This was spooky and I thoroughly enjoyed the atmospheric writing and imagery. Dolls are scary enough on their own without the added creepiness of young girls acting weird.
Femme and Sundance by Christopher Caldwell: 3.5/5
A fast paced action story of a Bonnie and Clyde except for its two young boys, one white and one black who acquire magical masks and rob a bank. This was fun, thrilling but just a little too long.
Distribution by Paul Cornell:3/5
This was certainly a little harder to grasp conceptually but interesting to read nevertheless.
Poetry
I really liked the poetry but I'm not gonna rate them individually. 'Medusa Gets a Haircut' by Theodora Goss and 'Kalevala, an untelling' by Lizy Simonen were my faves.
Editorials
Imagining Futures: Where Our Works Go from Here by Elsa Sjunneson:2/5
The premise of this is that a lot of works of art and writing are being recognized for their problematic parts and about the concept of separating the art from the artist. That's all fine and if you enjoy something that has problematic bits that's ok but to claim that all works of art and writing will eventually at some point be deemed problematic and that's why we should stop complaining, is just the dumbest idea to me. And that's what the author of this piece implies and I was eye-rolling throughout reading this.
Essays
Weird Plagues: How Fear of Disease Mutated into a Subgenre by John Wiswell: 4/5
Amazing article with lots of great recs of books of a newly emerging genre and its analysis.
Milk Teeth by Octavia Cade: 3/5
Interesting idea about ecology and environment. But I don't agree fully with it.
Hayao Miyazaki’s Lost Magic of Parenthood by Aidan Moher:4.5/5
This was a beautiful look at childhood, parenting, innocence, coming of age, etc
Trash Fantasias, or Why Mass Effect 3‘s Ending Was Bad Actually by Katherine Cross:4.5/5
Another great essay that even though I haven't played a lot of games I still understood what the point was it definitely applies to these times.