Wells does have her finger on how to get a quick sale, but by now I’m thinking this is a pretty stale message. The story has the same jumbled feel as the mix of places and people Juana sees, leaning toward surrealism, and the theme seems to be getting rid of that nasty Demon King and freeing the Ghost Bride to be her own woman. On the less positive side, none of the other characters really take much in the way of form, and only seem to be flashes of imagery and symbols that Wells manipulates. There’s a twist midway through, and Juana eventually identifies the key to fixing things, leaving us with a warm feeling as she moves on to other digs. There are some good images and Juana’s character is solid, contemporary and street-wise. Interestingly, the setting has the feel of Kacen Callender’s Queen of the Conquered, which won the World Fantasy Award this year, as if Wells borrowed that universe for a little while. This looks pretty long, and I’d expect it’s a novelette, but it doesn’t have much substance. She traces the heart of the problem to the Queen, an ancient fortress motel, where the Ghost Bride and the Demon King are trying to complete their wedding plans. Something is obviously wrong on the island, as all the ghosts are jumbled by time period, mostly drowned by hurricanes and all searching for something. She finally gives up and lets the boat take her where it wants to go, which turns out to be a ghostly barrier island. She’s found a wreck of a sailboat and is trying to fly it to Hispaniola, but something keeps tugging it back. Martha Wells, of course, is the best-selling and award-winning author of the Murderbot Diaries, which will add a new novella in April 2021. This is a longer fantasy story, though, published in the most recent issue of Uncanny Magazine. Savvy readers may have figured out that I’ve not had much time to read just lately.
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