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A review by 8bitlapras
Uncanny Magazine Issue 24 September/October 2018: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction! Special Issue by S. Qiouyi Lu, Dominik Parisien, Judith Tarr, Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Elsa Sjunneson, Nicolette Barischoff
4.0
Fiction
The House on the Moon by William Alexander: 2.75/5
Birthday Girl by Rachel Swirsky: 3/5
An Open Letter to the Family by Jennifer Brozek: 1.5/5
Heavy Lifting by A. T. Greenblatt: 2.75/5
The Frequency of Compassion by A. Merc Rustad: 5/5
The Stars Above by Katharine Duckett: 3/5
The Things I Miss the Most by Nisi Shawl: 2.75/5
Abigail Dreams of Weather by Stu West: 3.5/5
A House by the Sea by P. H. Lee: 4.75/5
Disconnect by Fran Wilde: 3/5
This Will Not Happen to You by Marissa Lingen: 3.5/5
By Degrees and Dilatory Time by S.L. Huang: 4.5/5
Listen by Karin Tidbeck: 2/5
Non-fiction
Design a Spaceship by Andi C. Buchanan: 4.5/5
The Linguistics of Disability, or, Empathy > Sympathy by Fran Wilde: 4.5/5
The Body to Come: Afrofuturist Posthumanism and Disability by Zaynab Shahar: 4.5/5
The Expendable Disabled Heroes of Marvel’s Infinity War by John Wiswell: 5/5
And the Dragon Was in the Skin by A. J. Hackwith: 5/5
Miles Vorkosigan and ‘Excellent Life Choices’: (Neuro)Divergence and Decision-Making in Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga by Ira Gladkova: 4.5/5
Give Me Heroism or Give Me Death by Gemma Noon: 4.5/5
My Genre Makes a Monster of Me by teri.zin: 4.5/5
The Future Is (Not) Disabled by Marieke Nijkamp: 5/5
Poetry
I refuse to rate poetry because my autistic ass just can't understand most of it, but I did really enjoy All the Stars Above the Sea by Sarah Gailey and You Wanted Me to Fly by Julia Watts Belser.
Personal Essays
I also refuse to rate the majority of the personal essays included, as I felt that after a while they became a bit long-winded and started blending together and saying much of the same things, but a few that spoke to me personally were The Stories We Find Ourselves In by A. T. Greenblatt,
The Horror and the Reality: Mental Illness Through the Lens of Horror by V. Medina, We Are Not Your Backstories by K. C. Alexander, The Only Thing Faster Than Tonight: Mr. Darkness by Elise Matthesen, A Dream to Shape My World by Eli Wilkinson, and Everything Is True: A Non-Neurotypical Experience with Fiction by Ada Hoffmann.
Average rating: 3.81/5, rounded up to a 4/5.
Overall, I did enjoy this anthology and thought it was a great representation of many different types of disability voices in sci-fi settings. I vastly preferred the non-fiction sections over the fiction sections, though, and that did disappoint me quite a bit.
The House on the Moon by William Alexander: 2.75/5
Birthday Girl by Rachel Swirsky: 3/5
An Open Letter to the Family by Jennifer Brozek: 1.5/5
Heavy Lifting by A. T. Greenblatt: 2.75/5
The Frequency of Compassion by A. Merc Rustad: 5/5
The Stars Above by Katharine Duckett: 3/5
The Things I Miss the Most by Nisi Shawl: 2.75/5
Abigail Dreams of Weather by Stu West: 3.5/5
A House by the Sea by P. H. Lee: 4.75/5
Disconnect by Fran Wilde: 3/5
This Will Not Happen to You by Marissa Lingen: 3.5/5
By Degrees and Dilatory Time by S.L. Huang: 4.5/5
Listen by Karin Tidbeck: 2/5
Non-fiction
Design a Spaceship by Andi C. Buchanan: 4.5/5
The Linguistics of Disability, or, Empathy > Sympathy by Fran Wilde: 4.5/5
The Body to Come: Afrofuturist Posthumanism and Disability by Zaynab Shahar: 4.5/5
The Expendable Disabled Heroes of Marvel’s Infinity War by John Wiswell: 5/5
And the Dragon Was in the Skin by A. J. Hackwith: 5/5
Miles Vorkosigan and ‘Excellent Life Choices’: (Neuro)Divergence and Decision-Making in Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga by Ira Gladkova: 4.5/5
Give Me Heroism or Give Me Death by Gemma Noon: 4.5/5
My Genre Makes a Monster of Me by teri.zin: 4.5/5
The Future Is (Not) Disabled by Marieke Nijkamp: 5/5
Poetry
I refuse to rate poetry because my autistic ass just can't understand most of it, but I did really enjoy All the Stars Above the Sea by Sarah Gailey and You Wanted Me to Fly by Julia Watts Belser.
Personal Essays
I also refuse to rate the majority of the personal essays included, as I felt that after a while they became a bit long-winded and started blending together and saying much of the same things, but a few that spoke to me personally were The Stories We Find Ourselves In by A. T. Greenblatt,
The Horror and the Reality: Mental Illness Through the Lens of Horror by V. Medina, We Are Not Your Backstories by K. C. Alexander, The Only Thing Faster Than Tonight: Mr. Darkness by Elise Matthesen, A Dream to Shape My World by Eli Wilkinson, and Everything Is True: A Non-Neurotypical Experience with Fiction by Ada Hoffmann.
Average rating: 3.81/5, rounded up to a 4/5.
Overall, I did enjoy this anthology and thought it was a great representation of many different types of disability voices in sci-fi settings. I vastly preferred the non-fiction sections over the fiction sections, though, and that did disappoint me quite a bit.