Uncanny Magazine Issue 64: May/June 2025

Uncanny Magazine #64

by Michael Damian Thomas, Caroline M. Yoachim, Aliette de Bodard

The May/June 2025 issue of Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine. Featuring new fiction by Caroline M. Yoachim, Angela Liu, Anjali Sachdeva, Aliette de Bodard, Delilah S. Dawson, DaVaun Sanders, and Ewen Ma; essays by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Alex Jennings, Tina Connolly, and J.R. Dawson; poetry by Elizabeth Hart Bergstrom, Margaret Rhee, Praise Osawaru, and Gospel Chinedu; interviews with Angela Liu and DaVaun Sanders by Caroline M. Yoachim; a cover by Grace P. Fong, and an editorial by Michael Damian Thomas.



Uncanny Magazine is a bimonthly science fiction and fantasy magazine first published in November 2014. Edited by 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 Hugo award winners for best semiprozine, and 2018 Hugo award winner for Best Editor, Short Form, Michael Damian Thomas, Betsy Aoki, and Monte Lin, each issue of Uncanny includes new stories, poetry, articles, and interviews.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Anthologies

174 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 6, 2025

About the author

Michael Damian Thomas is the two-time Hugo and Parsec Award-winning co-publisher and co-editor-in-chief of Uncanny Magazine with his wife, Lynne M. Thomas. In this role, he has also been a finalist twice for the World Fantasy Award and a finalist for a Locus Award. Michael was a two-time Hugo Award finalist as the former Managing Editor of Apex Magazine (2012-2013), co-edited the Hugo Award finalist essay anthology Queers Dig Time Lords (Mad Norwegian Press, 2013) with Sigrid Ellis, and co-edited the anthology Glitter & Mayhem (Apex Publications, 2013) with John Klima and Lynne M. Thomas. He has also worked as an Associate Editor on numerous books at Mad Norwegian Press, including the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords (edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Tara O’Shea, 2010) and Hugo Award finalist Chicks Dig Comics (edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Sigrid Ellis, 2012). Michael was additionally a contributor to the SF Squeecast podcast (with Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Lynne M. Thomas, and Catherynne M. Valente) and was a contributor to the Down and Safe- Blake’s 7 podcast (with Amal El-Mohtar, Scott Lynch, and L.M. Myles).

Michael lives in DeKalb, IL, with his wife Lynne, their daughter Caitlin, and a cat named Marie. Caitlin has a rare congenital disorder called Aicardi syndrome, and Michael works as her primary caregiver.

Reviews

[Silvana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating only for Angela Liu's Barbershops of the Floating City. More like 2.5 stars I guess. Near future setting, interesting ability to read memory from hairs, but the tension is not there, lost among the melancholy, so the short story felt like a long one.

[Heni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barbershops of the Floating City by Angela Liu
I don't find anything different except the fragments of memories locked in a hair, therefore a barber holds some kind of power here. 2 ⭐

Vivisection by Anjali Sachdeva
Domestic abuse with a very unpredictable individual. Glad she got out. 3 ⭐

Unfinished Architectures of the Human-Fae War by Caroline M. Yoachim
The title explains itself. At least this one is short and the point, and the format is easy to read. 3 ⭐

Pale Serpent, Green Serpent by Ewen Ma
two companions, or partners or lovers, who only meet periodically but regularly always have soft spot in my heart. 3 ⭐

The Breaker of Mountains and Rivers by Aliette de Bodard
*sigh* love conquers all etc. 1 ⭐

All the World Is Fog by DaVaun Sanders
I like the world building, the sense of "doesn't belong", but the story itself is not very different than others with a theme like this. 3 ⭐

Hi! I’m Claudia by Delilah S. Dawson
It's like the movie Her, but the guy becomes obsessive towards his family borderline unhinged. 3 ⭐

[emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Breaker of Mountains and Rivers" by Aliette de Bodard - 3.5/5 stars
28 Reads in 28 Days : 18/28
This was sweet and sad and queer but there wasn't much else to it. War between angels and demons, but it felt like most of the interesting stuff had already happened before the story started.

Read it free here : https://www.uncannymagazine.com/artic...

"All the World Is Fog" by DaVaun Sanders - 5/5 stars
28 Reads in 28 Days : 19/28
goddaaaaaaaaaamn what a story. a waterworld-esque future where two siblings are caught between their community's current survival and the myth of a world beyond the storms. beautiful and sad and hopeful.

Read it free here : https://www.uncannymagazine.com/artic...

"Hi! I'm Claudia" by Delilah S. Dawson - 3.5/5 stars
28 Reads in 28 Days : 20/28
lmaoooooo this was very funny in a "kill chatgpt before it kills us" sort of way, but also, i hate men. justice for mandy.

read it free here : https://www.uncannymagazine.com/artic...

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I backed this on Kickstarter, so I received the issue in advance of publication as part of the campaign.

I don't really have a favorite this month, they were all really good. I have a feeling I'll be coming back to this issue over and over again to read.

[Dolorosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up. Rating is for ‘The Breaker of Mountains and Rivers’ (Aliette de Bodard).