"The Millay Illusion" by Scott Lynch in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 67, November/December 2025 by Sarah Pinsker
Narrator: Erika Ensign
Format: ebook, podcast
Source: supplied by publisher via Hugo Packet
Formats available: magazine, podcast
Genres: fantasy, magical realism, short stories
Series: Uncanny Magazine, Issue 67, November/December 2025
Pages: 29
Length: 1 hour and 12 minutes
Published by Uncanny Magazine on November 4, 2025
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo
Goodreads

The November/December 2025 issue of Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine. Featuring all-new short fiction by Sarah Pinsker, Natalia Theodoridou, Ana Hurtado, Rati Mehrotra, Eleanna Castroianni, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Russell Nichols; essays by Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Mari Ness, Jordan Shiveley, and Marissa Lingen; poetry by Somto Ihezue, Romie Stott, Angel Leal, and Hannan Khan; interviews with Natalia Theodoridou and Eleanna Castroianni by Caroline M. Yoachim; and Paul Lewin’s Mushroom Mother of Us All as the cover; and an editorial by Michael Damian Thomas.

My Review:

This is the fifth review in this year’s series of Hugo readings. It’s also the third time I’ve reviewed this author’s work in my annual Hugo reading, so plenty of things to compare to on multiple fronts.

Last week’s Hugo nominee, Kaiju Agonistes, was the first one this year that turned out to be fun as well as a potential choice for number one of my Hugo ballot. This week’s story, another novelette, was one of those things. But in the other, it matched my previous Hugo reviews for this author.

I’m being cryptic, and it’s fun for me but not informative for MY readers, so let me try again.

“The Millay Illusion” was fun to read. It’s a story about magic, but not “foolish wand waving” magic. Although sometimes there is a wand involved. But the wand isn’t functional in casting the magic, because there isn’t any. It’s only functional in the sense of magically fooling the eye of the beholder. Or hopefully so.

This is a story about stage magic and stage magicians in the days well before, well, a whole lot of things. It feels like the late 19th century, but might be a bit later. Before burlesque and vaudeville, but still in the heyday of when live performances were the heights of entertainment and traveling shows were the norm for the players and a rare treat for the audiences.

Also a time period where women were assumed to be many things – and none of them involved being the headline act of a magic show. So Lottie performed onstage in her Uncle Albert’s magic show as “Johnny Chess The Boy Wonder”. And Suzanne Miller was only allowed to perform as herself if “herself” was a comedy act.

The story is Lottie’s, either complacent or scared of being thrown out of the only home she had. Even though her act as “young” Johnny was starting to get a bit old and obvious. Suzanne, however, wasn’t willing to remain a disregarded and disrespected “clown” when she knew she was better than ANY of the male headliners. Because she was.

Which she eventually proved in a truly spectacular fashion, once and for all.

Escape Rating B: Which is pretty much where my ratings for the author’s previously nominated short fiction, “Signs of Life” last year and “One Man’s Treasure” the year before, ended up. The other voters agreed with me – or agreed enough – as neither won their category in their year.

Howsomever, I enjoyed this as I was listening to the podcast, as read by the always excellent Erika Ensign. Lottie is a fascinating perspective on the scene and the era and the story because she’s close to Suzanne, but chooses to go along to get along – and, admittedly, to stay employed and housed and fed. Also, she’s been trained to believe that she isn’t any better than her uncle believes she is and doesn’t believe she has any better chances. She admires Suzanne and envies her drive but not enough to follow her path – or even to back up her assertions when Suzanne needs her to – severing their relationship irrevocably.

I did love the ending, which combined a whole lot of epic but bloodless revenge AND an opportunity for Lottie and female performers just like her to take center stage in Suzanne’s wake. But the way it happens – as much of a WOW as it is – isn’t really fantasy. It’s magical realism. So the story is fun but not Hugo-worthy, at least not IMHO. We’ll see how that turns out when the awards are announced.