No Fair Maidens from Earth to Mars
Rowan Hill
Trepidatio Publishing (October 11, 2024)
Reviewed by Nora B. Peevy
Rowan Hill exploded onto the writing scene in 2021 and hasn’t looked back since. Making her mark in short fiction, she also has two long pieces under her belt and like literary crack monkeys we are awaiting more. With a doctorate and a love for Applied Linguistics she has traveled the world and taught, English and drama being her first love in her beloved country of Australia. No Fair Maidens from Earth to Mars sucks the oxygen out of your nervous system from the first story and you don’t breathe again until after you close the book.
Indeed, there are no fair maidens between these pages. From farm girls harvesting future babies in a forbidden tree to evil cheerleaders plotting the sacrifice of the new girl at school for a team football win to a rape survivor seeking justice in the most diabolical way imaginable to females harboring parasites on Mars missions savagely protecting their host bodies; it’s a wild ride, baby. Prepare to have a love/hate relationship with the ruthless, the bold and shameless seductresses in these worlds, the femme fatales who will go to any length to accomplish their mission. If you love creature horror, teenage sacrificial offerings, or Mars science fiction shorts linked by a mission gone terribly wrong, you are in the right place.
There is something for everyone in this collection. In fact, it is so mesmerizing I couldn’t stop turning the pages and read straight through until 4AM when my weary eyes finally closed at the Acknowledgments page. Look for this forbidden gem debuting in October 2024 , the perfect spooky time for a trope of terrifying women to darken your boudoir on a chilly autumn night. Maybe, keep a candle or two burning beside your bedstead, along with a chainsaw or a sharpened machete or a shotgun. Weapon of your choice. And don’t be afraid my darlings. That’s not an alien you hear creeping inside your eyeball for sustenance. It’s just the rustling of the trees outside. You’re perfectly safe tucked into your beds. After all, you’re in the comfort of your own home, my sweets. But just in case, keep those weapons handy. Cheers!
