Books:




Stories:

*** "Curse" by Samantha Henderson
**** "Animus Rights" by John Shirley
***** "Angie's Errand" by Nick Wolven
** "Clockwork Chickadee" by Mary Robinette Kowal
**** "Leaving the Station" by Jim Aikin
*** "A Large Bucket, and Accidental Godlike Mastery of Spacetime" by Benjamin Crowell
*** "Flight" by Jeremiah Sturgill
**** "The Bride of Frankenstein" by Mike Resnick
** "Some Like It Hot" by Brian Stableford
** "The Captain's Lament" by Stephen Graham Jones
***** "Stories of the Sand" by Dirk Strasser


QuickTakes:

"Angie's Errand" by Nick Wolven (Asimov's): masterfully written and moving story of a moment in time: the end of civilization as experienced by a young woman trying to take care of her family after society collapses.

"The Bride of Frankenstein" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's): witty take on the familiar tale from a most unusual point of view

"Some Like It Hot" by Brian Stableford (Asimov's): a novelette looking at a future conflict between people trying to reverse global warming and others trying to accelerate it; way too talky for me, characters lecture each other about bioengineering and global politics, but nothing else ever comes to life.

"Stories of the Sand" by Dirk Strasser (Realms of Fantasy): rich, dreamlike tale of a journey through a mystical desert that is also a journey of loss and redemption.


My ratings:
*****excellent: memorable, satisfying, a pleasure to read
**** very good: well written, good read
*** good: readable, engaging, but not very memorable or exciting for me
** sub-par: a rough read, I found it flawed or just uninteresting to me
* huh? someone published this?

Myratings are part objective appraisal of the writing, part unapologeticpersonal preference (certain subjects and subgenres just don't appealtome as much as others)