★★★★☆ A cozy catastrophe

Uncanny Magazine Issue 55: November/December 2023

Naomi Kritzker

I am reviewing only the story "The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer.

It has come to my attention that "cozy" is having a moment in speculative fiction. I picked up Uncanny Magazine Issue 55: November/December 2023 because the story “The Year Without Sunshine” by Naomi Kritzer is a finalist for the 2024 Best Novelette Hugo Award. It's not my favorite of the finalists in this category (that would be Nghi Vo's On the Fox Roads), but I still enjoyed it.

And it certainly had a cozy feel to me.

A disaster has occurred that caused the ejection of large amounts of dust into the atmosphere. It is never explained what caused this, but there are many possibilities -- a big volcanic eruption, for instance. All that dust blocks sunlight -- not completely, but enough to be a problem for solar power and for growing crops. The loss of sunlight coincides with (or causes) a general breakdown of society. Grocery stores run out of food, there is no gasoline, electricity is unreliable, the supply of medicines is unreliable or nonexistent. Some people makes raids on other neighborhoods to steal the things they need.

OK, you're saying -- how the Heck is that cozy? Aha! I'm not going to answer that, because that's the story. It was fun.

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