Lightspeed #150, November 2022
“Beyond the Shore” by Tania Fordwalker
“What if the Whole Camp of Kids Learned How to Liquefy?” by Maria Kelson
“Double Occupancy” by Ben H. Winters
“The Dragon’s Hand” by Alex Irvine
“The Noon Witch Goes to Sound Planet” by Kristina Ten
“Therefore What the Multiverse Has Joined Together, Let No One Separate” by Dominica Phetteplace
Reviewed by Kevin P Hallett
There are six newly published stories in Lightspeed’s 150th issue, plus two previously published stories. The new tales include one novelette and two flash stories. Overall this was an entertaining collection of tales.
“Beyond the Shore” by Tania Fordwalker
This short SF story is set in the future when the world faces yet another pandemic, the fourth in the last forty years. Dyl specializes in vaccines and seeks a remedy. Meanwhile, the infected slough off their clothes, cares, and skin before disappearing beneath the sea’s waves.
In time, Dyl’s wife and daughter succumb to the disease, leaving him to work alone. Eventually, he is the last, somehow immune from the strange virus. He stands at the shoreline, looking out to sea, unsure what to expect.
This easy-to-read prose delivered a chilling story. What if a virus enhances us all, except you can’t catch it?
“What if the Whole Camp of Kids Learned How to Liquefy?” by Maria Kelson
Kelson’s flash fantasy describes a little girl who learns how to liquefy herself so she can return home each night from the internment camp. She wants to help Mami get over her sadness. But others in the camp want to do the same. What if she can show them all how to liquefy?
The story was strange and engaging in equal shares, leaving the reader to ponder its message.
“Double Occupancy” by Ben H. Winters
In this short SF, Jessica is a high school physics genius who makes a time machine inside an old refrigerator. All she needs to do is solve the double-occupancy paradox that prevents forward time travel. But when Jessica experiments with her device, it works. And she discovers a small unexplained change to the motherboard controlling her machine.
Impulsively she travels forward twenty years to find out who modified the board. There she runs into herself and doesn’t like what she finds. Can they work together to solve the issue?
The story tackled a well-explored SF trope without adding much to the plot.
“The Dragon’s Hand” by Alex Irvine
The stranger had no name but did have a story to tell the dying in this short fantasy. It’s a story of a young dragon that wriggled its way into a mine in a mountain. But after eating all the miners inside, it had grown too big to leave. And so, it faced a slow death. When a young woman discovered it trapped, the dragon bestowed on her a mother-of-pearl hand in exchange for telling its story.
Decades later, robbers left a boy to die in a ditch. So, the stranger told him the story of the dragon as she comforted him with her hand that shone in the moonlight.
The author’s poignant story carried a sense of mystery until the end, keeping the reader engaged.
“The Noon Witch Goes to Sound Planet” by Kristina Ten
In this fantasy novelette, Hailey, the new Noon Witch, wants nothing to do with the title, power, or reputation of her mother’s role in this world. Still, she can’t help being the near-immortal daughter of Russia’s original Noon Witch.
People at school fear she’ll cast a spell to cause them to collapse from heat stroke. So, Hailey decides she needs to do something to show everyone that she’s a good person. Her solution is to attend this year’s Sound Planet festival held in the California desert. She will spend the weekend preventing heat stroke—hoping it will show everyone she is the opposite of her mother.
At the festival, she finds things are no different than in school. Few people care for her help, and those who recognize her avoid her. She even runs into some old magical enemies. And it’s not until the festival ends that she finally comes to grips with who she is.
This intriguing coming-of-age story was a pleasure to read.
“Therefore What the Multiverse Has Joined Together, Let No One Separate” by Dominica Phetteplace
Someone or something has sent flowers in this flash SF story. It came through a white hole, the opposite of a black hole. And after extensive research, the message is translated to reveal a picture and a DNA sequence. Cloning the DNA sequence produces a purple flower that matches the image. No one knows where in the multiverse it came from because the senders didn’t leave a return address. And who can blame them?
The author’s flash story lacked enough originality.
You can follow Kevin P Hallett’s writing on www.kevinphallett.com. There are links there to join his mailing list for a weekly newsletter on the recent release of his debut novel, Defender of Vosj.