A review by e_flah
Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel by Julian K. Jarboe

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Everyone on the Moon Is Essential Personnel was a thoroughly enjoyable collection of speculative short stories, which is really saying something as I'm a very hesitant short story reader. I absolutely loved the queerness in this collection -- sometimes it's a main feature of a story, sometimes it's just present. Jarboe's prose had a knack for worming under my skin and placing me inside of the stories. Some of my favorite stories were "The Marks of Aegis," "The Android that Designed Itself," and "I Am a Beautiful Bug!"

“Choosing is extremely powerful magic. Its power derived from the death of what is not chosen.”

Ironically the only story I didn't enjoy was the titular one, which also happened to be the longest story by quite a significant amount. That said, the range of subject matter and style of these stories made for a gripping read. I look forward to recommending Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel to everyone I know who loves delightfully bizarre stories.

“To take shape is to sever the infinite possibilities of wanting into a fragile burden of being.”
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