History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Review of The Iron Below Remembers by Sharang Biswas

| February 25, 2026

The Iron Below Remembers by Sharang Biswas (Neon Hemlock, 2025) is a charming novella that mashes up academia and superheroes with a largely LGBTQ+ cast of characters. Professor Laxman Yadav, who specializes in art history and archaeology, is brought in to examine a recently unearthed artifact, a rare example of a fully intact technology from […]

Review of Luminescent Machinations

| October 22, 2025

Luminescent Machinations: Queer Tales of Monumental Invention, edited by Rhiannon Rasmussen and dave ring (Neon Hemlock, 2023), is a fantastic anthology of speculative fiction stories (mainly sci-fi, but not entirely) featuring queer characters and filled with mecha and other technologies that are deeply integral to the stories. As usual with anthologies, I have a handful […]

Review of Redundancies and Potentials by Dominque Dickey

| October 8, 2025

Redundancies and Potentials by Dominque Dickey (Neon Hemlock, 2025) is a fantastically weird and weirdly touching novella about time travel and sisters. Isadora and Aster are purpose-created sisters with the ability to travel through time. They’ve been told all their lives that they need to practice traveling so that someday they can fix a massive […]

Review of The Oblivion Bride by Caitlin Starling

| September 10, 2025

Caitlin Starling’s The Oblivion Bride (Neon Hemlock, 2025) is a gorgeous science-fantasy novella with some Gothic and surreal elements worked into an incredible world. Lorelei is one of a very small number of members of her family who hasn’t been killed by the family curse, which no one has been able to figure out. In order […]

Review of The Transitive Properties of Cheese by Ann LeBlanc

| July 30, 2025

The Transitive Properties of Cheese by Ann LeBlanc (Neon Hemlock Press, 2024) is a sci-fi novella featuring duplicated consciousnesses and a cheese heist with wonderful character development and worldbuilding bundled within its pages. Millions Wayland has focused all of her attention on making cheese, after an incident when some of her duplicated consciousnesses rebelled against […]

Review of North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher

| May 7, 2025

North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher (Neon Hemlock, 2024) is a collection of six linked sci-fi short stories that span 400 years, but with all but one of the stories taking place in a 100-year span. Featuring queer characters occupying a vast star-faring culture, the stories stand alone but also contribute to the larger storyline. […]

Kickstarter Recommendation: Neon Hemlock’s Sixth Novella Series

| April 9, 2025

Neon Hemlock is at it again with another novella series for 2025! This year’s Kickstarter will fund the publication of six novellas and a short story collection. There’s one historical fiction novella on tap, alongside several contemporary fantasy titles, which will carry into early 2026. I’ve enjoyed all of the Neon Hemlock novellas and collections […]

Kickstarter Recommendation: Shatter the Sun anthology

| October 23, 2024

I’ve gotten a ton of anthologies and novellas from Neon Hemlock, and now they’re running a Kickstarter for a new anthology, Shatter the Sun! The anthology will collect stories, a poem, a game, and a comic (and possibly more) in the queer sword and sorcery genre. You can back the Kickstarter for just this anthology or […]

Review of A Mourning Coat by Alex Jeffers

| August 28, 2024

Alex Jeffers’ A Mourning Coat (Neon Hemlock, 2024) is a lushly written, cozy novella about what happens after the death of a loved one for whom you gave up much of your own life. Set in a world just slightly removed from our own, with a minimal bit of contemporary fantasy elements, the story weaves together […]

Review of The Dragonfly Gambit by A. D. Sui

| August 7, 2024

A. D. Sui’s The Dragonfly Gambit (Neon Hemlock Press, 2024) is a twisty, keeps you guessing, sci-fi novella with an unreliable narrator and a rich cast of characters who all want something from each other and will go to any lengths to get it! Nez was a skilled pilot until an accident left her nearly dead […]