Flash Fiction Online #49, October 2017
“A Siren Song for Two” by Steven Fischer
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
Editor Suzanne Vincent offers two new stories dealing with the fear of losing a loved one.
Set on a frozen world in another solar system, “A Siren Song for Two” by Steven Fischer vividly depicts the seductive songs produced by the planet’s crackling ice fields. Something about them causes many of the people working there to wander off to their deaths. The narrator fears for the life of a lover when she begins to feel the call of the cold music. The theme is an intriguing one, but the author does little other than describe it.
Large, spider-like beings are the title creatures in “Monsters” by Edward Ashton. They come to a man whose wife has a terminal disease, asking him to release her to them. This story is clearly an allegory about letting go of those we love. Although emotionally powerful, the plot is very simple, with no surprises.
Victoria Silverwolf would like to explain that her review would have been twice as long, but this issue also contains one reprinted science fiction story and one mainstream story disguised as fantasy.