[On May 10, 2021 Strange Horizons officially expressed its political support for Palestinian solidarity. The views of Tangent Online reviewers are not necessarily those of Strange Horizons. Fiction critiqued at Tangent Online is, as much as is humanly possible, without prejudice and based solely on artistic merit.]
Strange Horizons, June 14, 2021
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
“Scoria” by Liza Wemakor takes place in a dystopian near future, where those who are considered not to contribute enough to society are banished into the wilderness. The protagonist, a filmmaker, is one such exile. She meets two women in the wilderness. Because she does not have the means to create a film for them, she writes a shadow play instead.
The play itself takes up a major portion of the story. The rest of the narrative is a simple, rather sweet one, in which all the characters learn that life in the wilderness is better than in the repressive city. Readers may find the play-within-the-story opaque, and the rest of the tale minor, if pleasant.
Victoria Silverwolf is writing this review while the floor at her workplace is being cleaned and waxed.