Now I know why uncanny

Just didn't seem to make sense... The majority of content wasn't the fiction, but interviews and essays. One essay in this issue cleared that up. Apparently the publication is aimed at the social breed... Those who not only insist on perceiving Everything done by everyone in terms of politics & refuses to believe in apolitical beliefs or actions from anyone. Not espousing a party, but refuses to believe some of us don't have one. At least the bits of fiction tacked on make a bit more sense within that viewpoint. ( )

2021 Winter (February);

She took a deep breath and said, “What about no.”

It said, “What do you mean, no? No to what?” The voice was sneering and deep, just like she had expected, but also just a little whiny.

“Monsters like you, you got to start with ‘no’,” Juana said. “Then just keep working your way further toward ‘hell no’.”

I blitzed in a read of this recent 2020 award-winning short story by Martha Wells before interviewing her this past weekend. I fell in love with story so very quickly (with all the times blurring and fading in and out of each other), and as it simultaneously unspooled the past of the main character and brought into focus the message of the story itself, I was riveted.

Say no, my dears, and give no man your crowns. ( )

So far only listened to:

"The Salt Witch" by Martha Wells - 2*
iirc (I read it a month ago and am trying to get caught up on my reviews/notes) - Our protagonist is young and is trying to get somewhere on her boat but her boat is forcing her to go somewhere else. When she gets "there", there is a mystery to solve and there is a twist about her identity. *yawn*

Read by Erika Ensign on the Uncanny Magazine Podcast, Episode 37B.

Some of the stories (like "The Salt Witch" by Martha Wells and "The Span of His Wrist" by Lee Mandelo) I liked a lot. Others (notably "50 Things Every AI Working with Humans Should Know" by Ken Liu) were okay but not quite my cup of tea. There were one or two I didn't like, and at least one (though I forget which) that I disliked enough to DNF the short story and move on to the next piece. I really only skimmed the essays and interviews, but the poetry was neat. I had forgotten poetry was in these magazines too. ( )

I leave
your number; not to grieve,
nor as one surviving;
But just to leave

As ever, my poetry stanning cannot be sated. I read Making Accommodations by Valerie Valdes, An Elder Resigns from the Chorus of Oedipus at Colonnus by Peter Tancy, Cento for Lagahoos by Brandon O’Brien and The Automaton Falls in Love by Jennifer Crow.

I mean, how lovely is Making Accommodations:

I’ve tried to thin
my bones and sinews, ink myself in lines
so small, so shrinking, safe to overlook—
passed between palms, a secret note in school,
crumpled and cast into a fire as fuel,
or pressed between the pages of a book ( )