cerv's review
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (F&SF) July/August 2020
Knock, Knock Said the Ship - Rati Mehrotra
A Lunarian refugee and a spaceship AI who tells jokes may be the only chance they have when their spaceship is boarded.
Enjoyable
Last Night at the Fair - M. Rickert
An aged woman laments her loss of innocence and childlike wonder, but perhaps there's a way to regain it one last time.
Blah
Bible Stories for Adults No.37: The Jawbone - James Morrow
Biblical fanfiction more or less.
Blah
Spirit Level - John Kessel
Guy sees the ghost of his ex-wife even though she's alive and other supernatural happenings as well as various interpersonal problems.
Blah
All Hail the Pizza King and Bless His Reign Eternal - David Erik Nelson
See post image/magazine cover. A pizza oven is possessed by a demon and they have to fight it. Includes uxoricide, cannibalism, mental illness, Seinfeld, Bitcoin, and other stuff.
Ok
Madre Nuestra, Que Estas en Maracaibo - Ana Hurtado
Grandmother is dying. Daughter doesn't want her to. Granddaughter says she wants to. Conflict ensues.
Blah
A Bridge from Sea to Sky - Bennett North
An orbital elevator is in disrepair and due to government malfeasance this leads to events that no one expected, perhaps least of all the protagonist who sets them into motion.
Enjoyable
Crawfather - Mel Kassel
A family has hunted a massive crawdad for many generations and it has become an annual tradition to do so, even though from time to time family members die. This year it goes differently. I couldn't help but be thinking about Crawmerax the entire time.
Ok
'Omunculus - Madeleine Robins
A wealthy nobleman hires an engineer to develop an automaton that can speak like a human and learn. He identifies it as female, because it is subservient to him. A woman's liberation story follows.
Ok
The Staircase - Stephanie Feldman
Contemporary urban legend silliness that is meant to be unsettling but falls flat for me. I didn't like her previous story at all either that was along similar lines.
Blah
The Shape of Gifts - Natalia Theodoridou
Bird researchers fall in love with each other at their remote outpost. However, one of them isn't what they seem and a tragedy unfolds.[spoiler] Why do so many of these "lesbian" romances end with one of them dead by the end? Maybe it's just random chance by what I've been seeing. Also, soul(?) transferal between bodies briefly occurs.[/spoiler]
Ok
I feel like the issues, but I haven't done an actual check, are increasingly lighter on speculative content in general, let alone SFF.
Knock, Knock Said the Ship - Rati Mehrotra
A Lunarian refugee and a spaceship AI who tells jokes may be the only chance they have when their spaceship is boarded.
Enjoyable
Last Night at the Fair - M. Rickert
An aged woman laments her loss of innocence and childlike wonder, but perhaps there's a way to regain it one last time.
Blah
Bible Stories for Adults No.37: The Jawbone - James Morrow
Biblical fanfiction more or less.
Blah
Spirit Level - John Kessel
Guy sees the ghost of his ex-wife even though she's alive and other supernatural happenings as well as various interpersonal problems.
Blah
All Hail the Pizza King and Bless His Reign Eternal - David Erik Nelson
See post image/magazine cover. A pizza oven is possessed by a demon and they have to fight it. Includes uxoricide, cannibalism, mental illness, Seinfeld, Bitcoin, and other stuff.
Ok
Madre Nuestra, Que Estas en Maracaibo - Ana Hurtado
Grandmother is dying. Daughter doesn't want her to. Granddaughter says she wants to. Conflict ensues.
Blah
A Bridge from Sea to Sky - Bennett North
An orbital elevator is in disrepair and due to government malfeasance this leads to events that no one expected, perhaps least of all the protagonist who sets them into motion.
Enjoyable
Crawfather - Mel Kassel
A family has hunted a massive crawdad for many generations and it has become an annual tradition to do so, even though from time to time family members die. This year it goes differently. I couldn't help but be thinking about Crawmerax the entire time.
Ok
'Omunculus - Madeleine Robins
A wealthy nobleman hires an engineer to develop an automaton that can speak like a human and learn. He identifies it as female, because it is subservient to him. A woman's liberation story follows.
Ok
The Staircase - Stephanie Feldman
Contemporary urban legend silliness that is meant to be unsettling but falls flat for me. I didn't like her previous story at all either that was along similar lines.
Blah
The Shape of Gifts - Natalia Theodoridou
Bird researchers fall in love with each other at their remote outpost. However, one of them isn't what they seem and a tragedy unfolds.[spoiler] Why do so many of these "lesbian" romances end with one of them dead by the end? Maybe it's just random chance by what I've been seeing. Also, soul(?) transferal between bodies briefly occurs.[/spoiler]
Ok
I feel like the issues, but I haven't done an actual check, are increasingly lighter on speculative content in general, let alone SFF.
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