Reactor, August 2026
“Not Like Other Girls” by A.L. Goldfuss
“The Fastest Martian Mile” by Thoraiya Dyer
“Turned All To Silver Screens” by Madeline Ashby
Reviewed by Philip Hutson
“Not Like Other Girls” by A. L. Goldfuss is a first-contact science fiction story with the point of view being that of an alien. It seems to be a contemporary setting, but there is no reference to the internet or other things that would be associated with the deuteragonist, Paul, as he is described. The story opens with the alien already having encountered and taken over the body of a young woman and removed all her clothing. Paul is a typical awkward young man who encounters the alien in the nude female skin suit. The guy doesn’t question what a nude woman is doing on the beach but simply takes her back to his house. The fact that the woman is an alien is revealed to Paul shortly after he gets her back to his house. He makes a meal, and the creature inside the skin suit sends a pseudopod out of its mouth to consume it. Paul’s depravity is shown in his ignoring the decay of the skin suit until he has no choice but to face reality.
During the narrative, the alien becomes more and more self-aware. At one point, the alien states, “I know I existed before finding Paul, but I forgot.”
The story explores a number of different ideas; the one that hit me first is the comparison of an AI-controlled sex-bot and the alien. The second is how much a man is willing to overlook or simply ignore to satiate his lust. Those were the two most obvious, but there were other ideas layered in the narrative. This was one of the more thoughtful stories I’ve read recently.
“The Fastest Martian Mile” by Thoraiya Dyer is a science fiction short story set on Mars in the not-too-distant future. The story opens with an introduction to the protagonist, Miron, and a description of the environment, followed by the inciting incident: a report of an attack on a city on Earth where his only son was set to have his honeymoon. At the time of the story, Earth is behind the sun, so direct communication is impossible.
This is a story of a father doing anything he can to communicate with his son. To get a message to his son, Miron has to traverse five miles of tunnels followed by three miles on the exposed Martian surface. During the trip, Miron recounts the many times he let his job get in the way of being there for family.
This was a simple light science fiction story, reminding the reader that the most important thing always is family and human connection.
“Turned All To Silver Screens” by Madeline Ashby is labeled as a dark fantasy, but what there is of it seems to be more of a historical fiction. It is set in Hollywood in 1950. Most of the story is based around the effort of the protagonist, Hershey, to assemble a cast for a new fantasy film. In the process of coercing the named and hinted-at stars, we learn that most of their connection to the protagonist is deeper than just shared film work; they were connected in some way from WWII. Close to the final couple of hundred words is what makes it a dark fantasy: Hershey is suddenly thrust into a dark future where bodies are hanging from light poles and other horrors are hinted at.
The story had the feel of the opening chapter of a much larger work, leaving one wanting to know where the rest of the story was. The short, posted section on the website was a fun read and did a very good job of setting the scene of Hollywood in the 1950s.
Philip Hutson’s ramblings and poor attempts at storytelling can be seen at https://tr8t.com