[On May 10, 2021 Strange Horizons officially expressed its political support for Palestinian solidarity. The views of Tangent Online reviewers are not necessarily those of Strange Horizons. Fiction critiqued at Tangent Online is, as much as is humanly possible, without prejudice and based solely on artistic merit.]

Strange Horizons, October 16, 2023

“Grey Hands, Green Sky” by Charlie Valenti

Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf

The narrator of “Grey Hands, Green Sky” by Charlie Valenti is visited by a friend not seen in a long time. The friend has been to another world, and is changing into an avian creature. The narrator knows the friend must return to the other world and will not be back, and chooses not to reveal a feeling that is more than friendship.

Despite the friend’s strange transformation, this is a very calm, quiet story, in which unexpressed love is more important than fantastic alterations and beings from other realities. It can be read as an allegory for the loss of a close relationship and for keeping one’s painful emotions hidden. As such, it is effective, although it is possible to imagine a very similar story without fantasy content.

Victoria Silverwolf usually spells the word “grey” as “gray.”