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Review solely for "The First Witch of Damansara" by Zen Cho.Very cool culture-clash short about a young Chinese Malay woman who had moved away to the UK, but had to come back to KL for her grandmother's funeral. Her grandmother was a witch, as is her younger sister...Sample:Wei Yi was being especially teenaged that week. She went around with lightning frizzing her hair and stormclouds rumbling about her ears. Her clothes stood away from her body, stiff with electricity. The cats hissed and the d...
I just read Making Us Monsters by Sam J. Miller and Lara Elena Donnelly and I’m kind of broken now.If you, like me, have a lot of feelings about queers, and wars, and queers in wars, then you too can read this and have your heart jumped up and down on a lot!I’m not sure how to describe this, it’s a young Wilfred Owen and an older Siegfried Sassoon in a time-crossed dialogue about love and war and queerness and masculinity and all that stuff we write around over and over again and I can’t breathe...
There are definitely some good stories in here (my favourite was Tansy Rayner Roberts' "How to Survive and Epic Journey"), but with some of them I was left with that "I'm too dumb for short stories" feeling that I often get. That's okay though - I'm only going to get better at digesting short stories by reading them, I guess.I'll keep working on it.
My favorite stories from this issue are "How to Survive an Epic Journey" by Tansy Rayner Roberts and "Pipecleaner Sculptures and Other Necessary Work" by Tina Connolly
Hugo Nominee Review - Campbell award for best new author 3AA short story about a prodigal daughter returning to Malaysia for her Grandmothers funeral, and the sometimes humorous, sometimes sad magical complications that ensue when trying to bury a witch. The best part of this piece is the sense of place; this is a story set in Malaysia, based I presume on Malaysian folk law, and with characters driven by local concerns. Despite a feeling that the story was playing with conventions I didn't know,...
https://uncannymagazine.com/article/f...
Retroactive Review (12 Sep 2021): The Miller/Donnelly story was nice and semi-creepy, and I loved Zen Cho's story about Nai Nai. Tansy Rayner Roberts' version of Atalanta from Greek mythology was great, too.
This is a really good retelling of the story of Jason and the Argonauts from the point of view of Atalanta!
There is some solid world-building here, along with some great character development.
Read for "The First Witch of Damansara" by Zen Cho.An interesting cultural estrangement story about a woman in her twenties who has to return to Malaysia after her grandmother dies."Vivian was not a woman to hold a grudge. When she turned up at KLIA in harem trousers and a tank top it was not through malice aforethought, but because she had simply forgotten.Her parents embraced her with sportsmanlike enthusiasm, but when this was done her mother pulled back and plucked at her tank top.“Girl, wha...
"The Bone Plain" by Karin Tidbeck -- 4 stars-Wow what a dark story holy heck-Once I found out the author was nordic I was like...of course she is..."Pipecleaner Sculptures and Other Necessary Work" by Tina Connolly -- 5 stars-This was my favorite story of the collection -- Connolly's skill to evoke so much emotion in such a short piece was...wow...."How To Survive an Epic Journey" by Tansy Rayner Roberts -- 1 star-I don't understand this new "trend" of retelling stories by just rewriting them wi...
Loved this, particularly the poems
“No, we are having a very simple funeral,” said Vivian. “Nai Nai didn’t believe in religion so much.”“But what about the dog cat all that?” said Auntie Wendy. “Did it work? Did your sister manage to keep her in the coffin?”Vivian’s mind whirred to a stop. Then it started up again, buzzing louder than ever. a malaysian expat returns to her family home for a funeral, and comes to terms with her heritage, in this truly funny supernatural family drama.deciphering the plot along the way relies on
I enjoyed this story of a wayward daughter finally finding a place in her family while attending her grandmother's funeral.
"Making Us Monsters" by Sam J. Miller and Lara Elena Donnelly was great. There is so much going on in that story. Afterwards I immediately looked up Sassoon and Wilfred Owen.I also liked "The Bone Plain" by Karin Tidbeck. "The First Witch of Damansara" by Zen Cho was a reprint and I would swear I've read it somewhere before...? I loved it and it was my absolute favorite from this issue.
Read "Making Us Monsters" on 1-Feb-2020. 4⭐
As usual I loved this issue of Uncanny. My favourite parts: 1) "How to Survive An Epic Journey" by Tansy Rayner Roberts. This is a fantastic retelling of the Jason and the Argo from a female perspective. Great voice and prose. 2) "Making Us Monsters" by Sam J. Miller and Lara Elena Donnelly. I loved the idea of framing this piece around historical characters writing letters and these letters being received out of time. This story was also full of so many feels, and so many queer feels. I finishe...
Making Us Monsters - Sam J Miller & Lara Elena Donnelly ***The Bone Plain - Karin Tidbeck ***Learning To See Dragons - Sarah Monette ****Pipecleaner Sculptures And Other Necessary Work - Tina Connolly ***Sorrow And Joy, Sunshine And Rain - Troy L Wiggins ****How To Survive An Epic Journey - Tansy Rayner Roberts *The First Witch Of Damansara - Zen Cho ***Elemental Love - Rachel Swirsky ***