Fantasy Magazine #83, September 2022
“The Probability of One” by Jen Brown
“The Weight of It All” by Jennifer Hudak
“This Blue World” by Samantha Murray
“How to Join a Colony of Sea-Folk; or, Other Ways of Knowing” by K.S. Walker
Reviewed by Mike Bickerdike
“The Probability of One” by Jen Brown is flash fiction. There are a lot of words here, and some of them go together and make sense, but not enough of them. A baby is born—the king’s son—and the protagonist chants at the boy in the speech of particles in reference to quantum physics. Other readers may make more of it, perhaps.
“The Weight of It All” by Jennifer Hudak is a ghost story with a difference. A spirit cohabits the body of a neurotic young woman with an eating disorder. The woman holds onto the spirit, not letting it escape, although it wishes to move on to a human who better appreciates their body. It’s quite an inventive idea and addresses the challenge of eating disorders thoughtfully, though it would be more effective if it had created more warmth of feeling toward the protagonist at the outset, as she doesn’t invoke the sympathy one might expect.
“This Blue World” by Samantha Murray is an interesting little piece of flash fiction. In this tale, everyone dead or alive has a living ghost version of themselves. Those who are loved, haunt those who love them, but most cannot see these ghosts. It’s somewhat better than a lot of flash fiction.
“How to Join a Colony of Sea-Folk; or, Other Ways of Knowing” by K.S. Walker is rather a mess, structurally. Like many short stories that fail to engage the reader, the main effort here has gone into structure, overwrought prose, imagery and colourful adjectives—and an attempt at deep meaning—and little of it into a story that makes much sense or engages the reader in plot or character. The result is a story that’s very hard to summarise in review, though the title provides sufficient precis, perhaps.
More of Mike Bickerdike’s reviews and thoughts on science-fiction can be found at https://starfarersf.nicepage.io/