Adventitious #1, February/March 2026
“Teapot” by Ben Williams
“Recording of Professor Elizabeth Boucher’s Opening Lecture on Death Ages Novels, University of Presque Isle, March 32, 2667″ by Stacie Turner (reprint, not reviewed)
“This is Why Magical Realism and Family Tree School Projects Shouldn’t Mix” by Abigail Guerrero
“The Soundtrack of My Afterlife” by P. A. Cornell
“The Furthest Point” by Alethea Paul
“A Húlíjīng Always Keeps One Tail Hidden” Melissa Ren (reprint, not reviewed)
“What A Name Does Is Let You Leave” by Meagan Kane
“What Any Dead Thing Wants” by Aimee Ogden (reprint, not reviewed)
“To Devour Your Own Name” by Katlina Sommerberg
“Hunter Mother Sailor Wife” by Catherine Taveres
“A Place to Grow” by Sarah Grace Tuttle
Reviewed by Chuck Rothman
Adventitious is a brand-new SF magazine and I was interested in what they had to offer in their first issue.
It starts with “Teapot” by Ben Williams, a bit of flash fiction where a teapot is found in space. It spends a lot of time revealing this, but ends with an anticlimax that goes nowhere. Perhaps it’s a reference I didn’t get, but I don’t really see any point to it.
Abigail Guerrero’s “This is Why Magical Realism and Family Tree School Projects Shouldn’t Mix” has Clara Villaba Prado telling the story of her family and its home, the Hacienda Villalba and the need for each woman in the family over centuries to spend her life taking care of the founder of the family, Dona Gertrudis, who seems to be immortal, even as her body falls apart. As the title suggests, the story is very influenced by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in the portrayal of the family over the years. It was an interesting read, though it runs a bit long for the idea.
“The Soundtrack of my Afterlife” by P. A. Cornell is about a man who has been reincarnated as a car, calling himself “Red.” He is owned by Shirley, the rather feckless mother of Allie. Allie loves the car and, when she is old enough, learns to drive it while Red controls the radio and songs. The theme of the story—”It’s all about the journey,” a sentence Shirley uses often—pretty much describes how it goes. Still, the journey is interesting overall due to the relationship between Allie and Red.
“The Furthest Point” by Alethea Paul is about the spaceship the Apogee and the speculation by a crewmember as to where it got its name. It leads to a revelation, though I found it very slight.
Meagan Kane’s “What A Name Does Is Let You Leave” is set on a prison moon around Jupiter where one of the sentient robots helps a prisoner escape. It concentrates on the feelings of the robot as they plot how to manage it. Nice emotional ending but I think the story runs too long for what it’s trying to say.
“To Devour Your Own Name” by Katlina Sommerberg is a strange story about a Hyena on a carousel, which seems to be a metaphor for something and makes a decision. I’m not sure what the story is trying to get at and found it very confusing.
“Hunter Mother Sailor Wife” focuses on Cara, a woman who had worked at defending sailing ships from the Krakens that threaten them. She has retired to raise a family, but while they are traveling by ship to see her mother-in-law, they run into a Kraken attack. Cara thought she is too old to continue that, but keeps being drawn into it by seeing the ship’s crew making mistakes. Catherine Taveres has portrayed a strong character with a dilemma of using her expertise on something she thought she had given up years ago. The story is a strong one, and to my mind the best of the issue, though the ending is unfortunately a little too easy.
“A Place to Grow” by Sarah Grace Tuttle seems to be about a group of sentient plants, probably mushrooms, living underground who turn out to be important for the planet. Interesting idea, but the lack of characterization is a problem.
I appreciated the range of the stories in this issue, even if they didn’t all work for me. It looks like a good start to a new magazine.
Chuck Rothman’s novel The Cadaver Princess is out from Amazing Stories Selects. He’s online at chuckrothman.com and blogs at greatbutforgotten.blogspot.com.