Flash Fiction Online #72, September 2019

“Eating the Sun” by Beth Goder

Reviewed by Jody Dorsett

September’s issue contains four short stories that deal with examining our state of being. Something that SF/F, when done right, does so well.

“Eating the Sun” by Beth Goder

A short, well written story about a goddess to be and the needs she has. What we see is that every being has a need and will often make subservient some needs for other needs and wants.

“Together we will Burn Forever” by Micah Hyatt

Space is a dangerous place and accidents will happen. Medical advances are also amazing. As we’ve seen in the recent conflicts around the world more and more traumatic injuries are survivable. The question is asked whether we would rather not have survived and what would those who do not wish for us to do.

“Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Stardust” by Wendy Nikel

Sometimes we take for granted, or don’t even know of the people who make our lives so much better. The people who create the technology we, likewise, take for granted. For instance, who are John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley? The device you are reading this review on wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for their creation of a transistor.

In addition to this large question there is just as large a question of how we handle loss, particularly of someone who should be remembered. How we move on and honor those we need to honor, personally, is asked and answered.

“Loneliness in Transit, Sixty Light Years from Earth” by Kurt Hunt

It is inevitable, at least to those of us who dream SFnal dreams, that colony ships will one day fare to the stars to spread mankind throughout the galaxy. Often these stories examine the good reasons or the bad reasons that such an effort would be made.

In this story it is the AI posses ship that is examined. What would an AI become after spending millennia in thought? In this case the ship calls it’s human inhabitants Baby. This is a worthwhile examination reminiscent of “The Ship who Sang.”