Cosmic Roots & Eldritch Shores, May 2023

“Wish Upon a Star” by Rob Nisbet

Reviewed by David Wesley Hill

I really wanted to like “Wish Upon a Star” by Rob Nisbet, the May offering of Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, and also the “short short” category winner of the annual Kepler Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy. The story is artfully written and deftly captures the viewpoint of a little girl, Annie, sitting on her swing and looking up into the night sky while thinking about her father, an astronaut, who is flying by overhead in an orbital space station. Nisbet also expertly creates a mood of apprehension, ratcheting up the tension until the moment of tragedy arrives, leaving this sentimental reviewer with tears in his eyes. The thing is, up to this point, up until its very last line, “Wish Upon a Star” presents itself as science fiction, a tale exploring the unintended consequences of technology. The last line, however—the epiphany—turns this assumption on its head, suggesting that the story may in fact be fantasy, not SF. I can’t go into details without spoiling the plot, but I will say the twist undermined the emotional validity of the story for this reviewer…. A cathartic, but ultimately unsatisfying tale.