Lukas Deicke > Recent Status Updates

"If Someone You Love Has Become a Vurdalak" by Sam J.Miller

A neat tragic story about a pair of twins. One of them has become a Vurdalak (a variant of Vampire who only can feast upon people who love it). It's also a story about addiction and loving an individual who is an addict. It was written well and the end was ambiguous. Overall a solid ending for this anthology! 3/5

"Falling Bodies" by Rebecca Roan horse

Geez, this was depressing...but well, this is the result when you combine sci-fi with a depiction of modern day imperial politics, media and ideology. To someone out there who still thinks that recent attempts of deletion of culture such as the Ukraine War and Gaza are not as bad as people think: Read this story and you will understand the people who are suffering better. 4/5

"How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub" by P. Djèlí Clark

Read more Jules Verne!! This was surprisingly good! I did not expect this kind of story when I read the title. A funny short story set in Victorian London with surprisingly interesting world building telling a post-imperial narrative. The best is the world-building which leans heavily into the stories of Jules Verne. Ma boi Captain Nobody is also there. 5/5

"Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont" by P. A. Cornell

I really liked this one! This short story tells the story of a female resident of the high-rise building called the "Oakmont" in New York City. This building is built on a weird location which puts it out of the natural time flow. Because of that, people from different eras are living, interacting, and falling in love with each other in this building.

4/5

"Bruised-Eye Dusk" Jonathan Louis Duckworth

This one was okay. Nothing more nothing less. Taking place in the post-apocalyptic, post-literal USA this story tells the story of a witch-hunter and spell breaker who is riding on an alligator (literally the best part of the story). He is asked to hunt down a witch who is plaguing a swamp village. But something is not right with this job...

2,5/5

"Emotional Resonance" by V. M. Ayala

This one was straightforward narratively and thematically speaking. Two battle robots with human souls fall in love with each other over the span of a thousand years in a universe dominated by mega corporations. These mega corps put the souls of their deptors into various machines. A hopeful transhuman story about eternal love. I enjoyed the writing style and story well enough. 3

"Making Space" by R. F. Kuang

I really liked this short story. Kuang's prose is solid as ever and the scenario is intriguing. It reminded me a lot of the movie "Tennet." I think it is fascinating how Kuang achieves to depict an American progressive suburb-setting which feels decadent, cruel and sad at the same time. For me, this setting was the real horror, not the boy who comes from the future. 4/5

"Ankle Snatcher" by Grady Hendrix

This was a straightforward horror short story about a young man who has a monster under his bed and gets realistically incriminated for the death of the human snacks the Ankle Snatcher is yoinking. It was well written, but nothing that really stuck with me. Anyway, neeeext please!
3/5

"The Last Four Things" by Christopher Rowe
This was an exhausting one. The plot is hard to describe. I think the best description would be: What if James Joice and Catholic Cateshism would have a post-human child. Exhausting but not entirely unenjoyable. 2,5/5.

"Resurrection Highway" by A. R. Capetta

This short story was by far the worst one I have read so far in this anthology. The plot is decent enough. A redemption story set in a Mad Max setting, but with car necromancy. However, the thing is written in simple present and the second person singular making it a self insert narrative. I didn't know I could dislike a choice of narrative so much. 1,5/5. 1,5 points for plot.

"Form 8774-D" by Alex Irvine

This story was a definite highlight of the anthology. It follows the daily work life of a desk clerk who has to make sure, that the registration paperwork of every human, who possesses an emergent superpower, is in order. Everything is here, from the weird and funny over the wholesome to the menacing and escalating. The typical life of a lower government official. Very good. 4/5

Yaaay, space mongols on jetbikes!

"The Blade and the Bloodwright" by Sloane Leong

An elite team of warriors "escorts" a sort of flesh magician to the city centers of the enemy where she proceeds to kill everyone by turning them all into body horror flesh clouds. In the end, she and the other protagonist are eaten by the god of death who emerges from the waves. Brilliant! A lot of trans-human topics going on there. Thought about that a lot. 4/5

"3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years" by John Scalzi

This time-traveller short story was very entertaining and thought-provoking. Scalzi is a master of absurd and comical science-fiction. What if time-travel would become a flourishing tourism business? Well, people would use it for all sorts of things. Truly funny and sometimes sad indeed... 4/5.

"Calypso's Guest" by Andrew Sean Greer

It's the story of Odysseus stranding on Calypso's island...BUT IN SPACE. The island is a planet and O's ship is a space ship. Calypso is also a dude who was imprisoned by a mighty (one might even say godly)precursor race for betraying his race. This story is about the depression of loneliness and the curse of monotinous eternity. A very melancholic one. 3/5

What an amazing read

Am Ende anfangen, warum nicht.

Good stuff

"John Hollowback and the Witch" by Amal El-Mothar

A moral tale in the shoes of a medieval fantasy story. A man with a hole in his back looks for help at a witches hut. First, I thought, it would be cozy fantasy, but sadly no. However, if you still want to know how the hole in the back of the protagonist is connected to his old friends and why he cannot remember how he got this hole, read the story. One word: Envy.

"The Long Game" by Ann Leckie

A scifi story telling the story of a an intelligent and presumably cute space slugg. This story is about colonialism, the relativity of time and value or raison d'être of a functioning education system in a civilization. I really enjoyed it, although I am not a big fan of a narrative told from the first person perspective. But if that is my only critisism, it was still highly enjoyable.

"Disassembling Light" by Kel Coleman

This story is about an old bitter inventor who struggles to let go of his workshop and give it to a possible apprentice. This tale is about frustration which comes with old age. It's also about creative unhappiness, I think. I enjoyed the prose and the worldbuilding, however, the story was too vague in order to transmit clear feelings, but perhaps this is intentional. 3/5

"Window Boy" by Thomas Ha
This short story was the complete opposite to "Bari and the Resurrection Flower." Where Kim seeks to critizise specific social structures and paradigms thus positioning herself clearly, Ha paints a vague but extremely atmopheric picture of a postapocalyptic world, but leaves it to the reader to ponder the reasons and motivations which lead to this horrible nightmare and the people in it.

"Bari and the Resurrection Flower" by Hana Lee

This fantasy short story is proof that genre fiction like fantasy and Sci-fi can tell stories which are deeply meaningful and intelligent, but also tackle questions which move the world right now. This story is about identity, parental rejection, hurt and the lies we tell ourselves because of it. Fantasy truly contributes to the better understanding of ourselves. 5/5