New Suns edited by Nisi Shawl

New Suns edited by Nisi Shawl is, like it says on the cover, an anthology of original speculative fiction by people of colour. Aside from that commonality, there is quite a diverse group of stories contained within. On the one hand, this means there should be a story for every type of speculative fiction reader, but perhaps that not every story will work for every reader.

Anthology of contemporary stories by emerging and seasoned writers of many races

There’s nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns,” proclaimed Octavia E Butler.

New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color showcases emerging and seasoned writers of many races telling stories filled with shocking delights, powerful visions of the familiar made strange. Between this book’s covers burn tales of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and their indefinable overlappings. These are authors aware of our many possible pasts and futures, authors freed of stereotypes and clichés, ready to dazzle you with their daring genius.

Unexpected brilliance shines forth from every page.

I found this anthology to be quite the mixed bag. There were some cute stories, some dark stories, some stories dealing with very interesting ideas, some that I didn't feel I "got" but that I'm sure will be meaningful for other readers. As such, I'm finding it hard to have an opinion on the anthology as a whole. As usual, I recorded my thoughts on each story as I read it — and you can find these below — but an overall impression is difficult. I also ended up reading New Suns over a long period of time, which doesn't help.

A few of the stories which stand out for me are:

• "The Virtue of Unfaithful Translations" by Minsoo Kang, which was based on a delightful premise. It wasn't the easiest read, but absolutely worth putting the effort in for.
• "The Freedom of the Shifting Sea" by Jaymee Goh was a meatier read than some of the others and featured a memorable cross-species romance.
• "One Easy Trick" by Hiromi Goto was cute and entertaining.

The above is not an exhaustive list, so I do encourage you to read the mini-reviews below if you haven't already.

Overall, New Suns is an anthology filled with diverse perspectives and written by diverse authors. If you are looking to branch out a bit in your short story reading and try some new authors, this would be a good place to start. 

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The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex, Tobias Buckell — What if a lot of different aliens all decided that Earth was a perfect tourist destination? Find out how mere humans live on the edges of a society that mainly relies on tourist income to Manhattan. Interesting parallels as well as interesting aliens.

Deer Dancer, Kathleen Alcalá — A story about a collective living arrangement in some sort of post-apocalyptic future (climate change I think). It was mostly slice-of-life, interesting but lost me a bit towards the end.

The Virtue of Unfaithful Translations, Minsoo Kang — I originally started reading this story on the second of two long-haul flights and it transpired that I was far too tired to take the story in. When I restarted it later, better rested, I realised I had had no idea what it was about from the first attempt. It doesn’t help that it’s written in a very dry style, in the manner of a non-fictional historical essay, and that the story itself emerges gradually. Once established, it was a very interesting and amusing read, if not exactly an exciting one.

Come Home to Atropos, Steven Barnes — Told in the form of a horrifyingly unsubtle infomercial, this story is about assisted dying and euthanasia tourism. The overtones of historic and modern slavery seemed a bit gauche for an infomercial but certainly added to the plausibility of the story overall. (Also, the story was more a a take on racism than an interrogation of the concept of assisted dying.)

The Fine Print, Chinelo Onwualu — The premise of the story was a bit unpleasant (from a feminist point of view) and I didn’t feel the story itself really made up for that, despite acknowledging it. The writing was fine but I didn’t really enjoy the plot.

unkind of mercy, Alex Jennings — A slightly creepy story. It reminded me of the episode of Doctor Who with the ghost angels that was part of the Tenth Doctor’s last season finale. With a very different ending, of course.

Burn the Ships, Alberto Yáñez — A story of conquerors from the east colonising an empire in southern America. There is oppression and slaughter and vengeful magic. I think the setting is an alternate world rather than a precisely real historic setting. It was a longer story and featured culture that I have not come across too frequently in stories.

The Freedom of the Shifting Sea, Jaymee Goh — One of my favourite stories in the collection. A multigenerational epic featuring a mermaid/mermillipede (any description from me isn’t going to do her justice, I suggest just reading the story). I liked the twist on the traditional mermaid idea and the way the story spanned many years, in bursts.

Three Variations on a Theme of Imperial Attire, E. Lily Yu — As the title says, variations on the story of the Emperor’s new clothes. It adds to the obvious take and was written in a very readable voice.

Blood and Bells, Karin Lowachee — This story was a slog to get into and I ended up setting it aside for quite a while. When I came back to it and read further it was more interesting (to see the actual plot develop). Gang warfare and a father trying to protect his kid in the middle of a murder investigation.

Give Me Your Black Wings Oh Sister, Silvia Moreno-Garcia — An enticing story about a witch living in a city and attempting to lead a normal life. I enjoyed the time and writing style especially.

The Shadow We Cast Through Time, Indrapramit Das — A dark and fantastical take of a far future but lowish-tech colony on some alien planet. The story evoked a compelling mood, but I found it a bit too slow to draw me in effectively, for all that it was interesting during sufficiently long bursts of reading.

The Robots of Eden, Anil Menon — A dystopian/utopian future in which most affluent people have implants that regulate their emotions and protect them from life’s emotional struggles. I was quite intrigued by the story of a banker dealing exceptionally well with divorce and even befriending his ex wife’s new husband, with the dark realities of the world lurking beneath the surface.

Dumb House, Andrea Hairston — A bit of a slice of life story set in a dystopian rural US. A woman living in a “dumb house” fends off salesmen trying to upgrade her to a smart house. The character development was interesting but I felt that a bit more of the worldbuilding details could have been included; some aspects were clear, some foggy.

One Easy Trick, Hiromi Goto — A cute story about a woman, her belly fat, and a forest. I quite enjoyed it and found it a bit unexpected, in a good way.

Harvest, Rebecca Roanhorse — A kind of creepy story. I found aspects of the ending a little too ambiguous but, nevertheless, it was well written.

Kelsey and the Burdened Breath, Darcie Little Badger — A bit of a mystery but mostly a ghost story. I enjoyed the mythology of it and wouldn’t have minded a longer/meatier story.


3.5 / 5 stars

First published: March 2019, Rebellion Publishing
Series: No
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina is an anthology filled with intersectional Australian voices. The idea being to highlight all sorts of marginalised writers. Taken as a whole, this results in a very broad and diverse anthology. Although I am familiar with the two editors from the spec fic books they've authored, most of the stories did not have a speculative bent, although there were a few.

Meet Me at the Intersection is an anthology of short fiction, memoir and poetry by authors who are First Nations, People of Colour, LGBTIQA+ or living with disability. The focus of the anthology is on Australian life as seen through each author’s unique, and seldom heard, perspective.

With works by Ellen van Neerven, Graham Akhurst, Kyle Lynch, Ezekiel Kwaymullina, Olivia Muscat, Mimi Lee, Jessica Walton, Kelly Gardiner, Rafeif Ismail, Yvette Walker, Amra Pajalic, Melanie Rodriga, Omar Sakr, Wendy Chen, Jordi Kerr, Rebecca Lim, Michelle Aung Thin and Alice Pung, this anthology is designed to challenge the dominant, homogenous story of privilege and power that rarely admits ‘outsider’ voices.

Some of the stories were fun to read, some were intentionally uncomfortable, other fell somewhere in between those two extremes and made me think. Note that I use "stories" here in a generic sense to refer to all the pieces in the anthology, even though it included poetry and memoir. My two favourite stories gained that status for very different reasons. ‘Stars in our Eyes’ by Jessica Walton was a delightful celebration of geek culture, while including queer and disabled characters and refreshingly supportive characters. ‘The Last Stop’ by Alice Pung was not at all what I expected from the opening and is a story that firmly fell into the "made me think" category. It tells of the journey of a teen boy who starts off ignorant of Chinese culture but ends up learning that Chinese teenagers are just like him (but live in China). His experiences were starkly contrasted with those of various people around him.

I enjoyed a lot of the other stories too, but since I've written mini reviews of them all, I'll leave them for you to read below if you haven't already seen them in one of my #ReadShortStories posts. I will add, however, that I was a bit sad that the ebook I read didn't include the back cover art, since the (full) cover art is apparently also one of the intersectional pieces making up the whole. It wouldn't have been hard to include the full artwork inside the book (either near the start or at the back) and I'm disappointed that the publisher didn't bother.

Overall, this was a great read. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking to read more diverse voices or stories of Australia's chequered history. I liked how the anthology was structured, with stories grouped thematically, so that it opened with stories by indigenous people, and ended with stories of the migrant experience, with stories about characters who are queer and/or disabled (or overlapping with one of the other groups) in groups in the middle. The whole book is like a thematic rainbow, shading from one group to another, with overlapping stories in between.

~

‘Night Feet’ by Ellen van Neerven — A story about a teenaged girl playing soccer. And a bit how poverty and family circumstances are hurdles to that end. I expect the story would be more exciting for people who are into soccer, which I am not.

‘Dream’ by Graham Akhurst — A poem with formatting that didn’t work on my phone screen and was much more powerful when I was able to read it on the iPad. It’s also the kind of poem that becomes clearer with subsequent readings.

‘Dear Mate’ by Kyle Lynch — A distressing story, in some ways, about a young person who wants a job but has little idea how to get one. Although I didn’t realise how young he was until near the end, which did make it a bit less distressing.

‘Embers’ by Ezekiel Kwaymullina — A sad, short poem about dyslexia.

‘Harry Potter and the Disappearing Pages’ by Olivia Muscat — An essay/memoir about the author going blind at the start of high school and the frustrations of being disabled in modern society.

‘Fragments’ by Mimi Lee — The story of a young Chinese Australian dealing with her grandfather’s death and a difficult family situation. This was an interesting read but in some ways (the mental illness ways more than the grief ways) felt like it ily scratched the surface. I wouldn’t have minded it being longer but I can see why it made sense to leave it where it was. 4/5 30/12

‘Stars in our Eyes’ by Jessica Walton — A wonderful story about geeky teens and adults that made me laugh. Certainly the most fun story so far.

‘Trouble’ by Kelly Gardiner — A story of non-conforming girls in 1950s Melbourne. I enjoyed the local colour even if the end was not quite as I had hoped/shipped.

‘Sheer Fortune’ by Jordi Kerr — A more Australian story that I would have expected from a short summary of it, with some strong New Zealish elements thrown in via the second character. Shifters, lesbians, high school. A nice read.

‘Telephone’ by Yvette Walker — A timey-wimey story in which the main character receives a phone call from her teenage self. As she talks to this version of herself that had been trying to call and LGBT support hotline, she reflects on her life and how she got to where she is now (happily living with her wife). A sweet story, overall.

‘DNA’ by Melanie Rodriga — A story about a queer teenage girl and her interactions with her family and one of her teachers. I found it to be a slightly unusual story, full of direct questions and teen anger but not as many answers as I might have expected.

‘Almitra Amongst Ghosts’ by Rafeif Ismail — A kind of depressing story about not fitting in due to race, religion and queerness, all at once. Written in a lovely style.

‘The Other Son’ by Omar Sakr — An autobiographical story about a father’s death and meeting a half brother for the first time, told by the middle eastern author.

‘School of Hard Knocks’ by Amra Pajalic — A Bosnian girl moves to Australia and starts high school in a rough suburb, where she is bullied. Another autobiographical story.

‘Autumn Leaves’ by Wendy Chen — A nice, if bittersweet, story about a Chinese family in Melbourne around the time of Federation. I quite liked it.

‘How to Be Different’ by Michelle Aung Thin — An autobiographical essay about being different, especially as a young child in primary school.

‘The Last Stop’ by Alice Pung — This story wasn’t at all what I expected. Told from the point of view of a bogan or “feral” teenage boy who enters a competition for a laugh and wins a Rotary Club trip to China. Discovering that the ordinary high school kids in China are just like him significantly changes his world view and opens his eyes to racism. A really good read, in the end, though you had to get past some racism near the start to appreciate the change in the character’s perspective.

‘Border Crossings’ by Rebecca Lim — Another autobiographical essay, this morning me focusing on our interactions and reactions to the world, especially with respect to language.

4 / 5 stars

First published: 2018, Fremantle Press
Series: No
Format read: ePub
Source: Purchased from Apple Books

#ReadShortStories, that are intersectional, as the year draws to a close (211-215)

For all that this post is going up in the new year, this are the last short stories I read in 2018. That brings my short story total up to 215 stories, which I'll go into more detail (and stats) in a dedicated roundup post. In the meantime, these stories all come from Meet Me at the Intersection, an anthology edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina. So far, it's been a lot more contemporary/realist and less spec fic than I usually read.

Dear Mate by Kyle Lynch — A distressing story, in some ways, about a young person who wants a job but has little idea how to get one. Although I didn’t realise how young he was until near the end, which did make it a bit less distressing. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Embers by Ezekiel Kwaymullina — A sad, short poem about dyslexia. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Harry Potter and the Disappearing Pages by Olivia Muscat — An essay/memoir about the author going blind at the start of high school and the frustrations of being disabled in modern society. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Fragments by Mimi Lee — The story of a young Chinese Australian dealing with her grandfather’s death and a difficult family situation. This was an interesting read but in some ways (the mental illness ways more than the grief ways) felt like it ily scratched the surface. I wouldn’t have minded it being longer but I can see why it made sense to leave it where it was. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Stars in our Eyes by Jessica Walton — A wonderful story about geeky teens and adults that made me laugh. Certainly the most fun story so far. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Resist Fascism edited by Bart R. Leib and Kay T. Holt

Resist Fascism edited by Bart R. Leib and Kay T. Holt is a mini-anthology of stories about exactly what the title advertises. I backed it on Kickstarter because a friend who's in it (Rivqa Rafael) drew my attention to it. It made for an interesting read.

RESIST. ANY WAY YOU CAN.

The world is in turmoil. The world is always in turmoil, but in recent years, people have seen violence and hatred become proud instead of ashamed. What meager rights we've fought for are being deliberately eroded. And the vulnerable have any help stripped away. All of this is happening openly and without fear of reprisal. And the worst perpetrators are some of the largest governments of the world.

Resisting the spread of fascism is as important now as it was 75 years ago. And there are many effective ways to resist.

RESIST FASCISM is a micro-anthology of science fiction and fantasy tales that explore the many and varied ways people can fight back. From helping promote low-income housing, to fighting fascists hand-to-hand, to burning it all down. Best of all, RESIST FASCISM shows that you don't have to be a hero to advance change.

These stories were all good reads and, as usual, I've written some notes about each one at the end of this review. Taken as a whole, this anthology definitely delivered on what it promised. I enjoyed most of the stories individually, but I did find that overall there was a very strong US-ian vibe and maybe more small rebellions than I would have preferred. My favourite stories were "Ask Me About My Book Club" by M. Michelle Bardon, which was fun to read as well as being powerful and "Meg's Last Bout of Genetic Smuggling" by Santiago Belluco which wasn't without its flaws, but backed a powerful punch. Also, I can't not mention "Pelecanimimus and the Battle for Mosquito Ridge" by Izzy Wasserstein for being so different from the rest, and also containing dinosaurs.

Overall, I recommend this short anthology to anyone that finds the theme appealing. Aside from the Americanism mentioned above, I didn't find the stories repetitive and, unexpectedly, read the whole anthology through, without reading other stories in between.

~

To Rain Upon One City by Rivqa Rafael — A story set in a future on another world, where the poor aren’t even allowed fresh water that rains outside, but must drink recycled water as they barely scrape by. The main character, despite her youth, spends most of her time looking after her mother. I liked this story and I thought the martial arts aspect was a nice distinguishing touch.

3.4 oz by R.K. Kalaw — A story set in a dystopian world where airport security scanners check for emotions as well as liquids etc. To seem as compliant and unthreatening as possible, put protagonist must use magic to hide emotions. It’s also a story about family, love, and risk.

In the Background by Barbara Krasnoff — A story of small resistance in a world where rights have been eroded away. I liked it, although it leaves a lot unsaid.

The Seventh Street Matriarchy by Marie Vibbert — This story is about a housing estate and the new case worker who notices something odd when she’s assigned there. The story is about resisting corruption as much as actual fascism, but, either way, I liked it.

We Speak in Tongues of Flame by J L George — This story was rather more fantastical than lose of those that went before it. It has clear fantasy elements and a less obvious context. It’s definitely about resisting, though.

Meet Me at State Sponsored Movie Night by Tiffany E. Wilson — Young women briefly hijack the state-sponsored movie night to show some old cartoons instead of propaganda. It was a very minor form of resistance do while the story was clearly building up to something more off the page, I didn’t enjoy this story as much as some of the others. It felt like a very American take on the problem. (Also, if they have frequent blackouts, why not go back to cheap analogue watches instead of wasting precious smartphone battery just to check the time?)

Ask Me About My Book Club by M. Michelle Bardon — This is probably my favourite story in this anthology so far. After literal dragons take over the US government, a book club of witches form a resistance, posting coded photos of their brunch online while discussing books. I kind of guessed part of the ending, but it was still a very solid story. Recommended for fans of Tansy Rayner Roberts.

Pelecanimimus and the Battle for Mosquito Ridge by Izzy Wasserstein — Quite a different tone for this one. An epistolary story set during World War II in which a solder writing to his sweetheart back home talks about fighting fascists and also discovering and befriending some dinosaurs in Spain (they sounded like velociraptor to me). A welcome change of pace in this collection.

Meg's Last Bout of Genetic Smuggling by Santiago Belluco — This was a really solid story and a good way to end the anthology. It’s about a girl from Mars smuggling culture and information to Texas/Earth, where such things are banned. It took an interesting angle, sociologically as well as scientifically, and the ending packed a powerful punch. My only quibble was with the small issues that arose from the male author writing the female protagonist and getting a few details off. Disappointing but it wasn’t enough to ruin the story for me.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: November 2018, Crossed Genres Publications
Series: No
Format read: ePub
Source: From backing on Kickstarter

80,000 Totally Secure Passwords That No Hacker Would Ever Guess by Simon Petrie

80,000 Totally Secure Passwords That No Hacker Would Ever Guess by Simon Petrie is the most recent (unthemed) collection of his short stories. It's mostly reprints from various venues (including some from the authors previous two collections, which felt a bit odd, but perhaps isn't given that I think they're currently out of print) and story lengths range from flash fiction up to short novella.

Amorous space squids. Sentient fridges. A derelict alien spacecraft adrift within an interstellar cloud. Speed-dating zombies. The truth behind the extinction of the dinosaurs. A potentially lethal interasteroidal freight consignment. And a planet on which biological diversification has utterly failed to take hold in eight billion years.

My favourite stories in this collection were generally the longer, meatier ones. I quite liked "All the Colours of the Tomato", which is about semi-intelligent alien fauna and painting and radiation. But my favourite story was probably "The Thirty-First Element" which was a weird hard SF story that quite appealed to me. Short reviews of these and all the other stories are below, as usual. I have generally omitted reviews for flash stories (also as per usual), since these are difficult to properly review.

I did not reread all the stories in this collection that I had previously read. I have indicated the titles of stories I did read in bold below, but have also included the mini-reviews I wrote of the other stories the first time I read them. These aren't bolded and are instead italicised.

Overall, I recommend this collection to science fiction readers who are looking for a mix of series and silly stories. Fans of Petrie's work will find much to enjoy here, even if they've read the previous collections of his work (as I had). Some of the flash stories are groan-worthy shaggy dog stories, but if you can make it past that, there's much to enjoy here.

~

Product Warning — A very amusing introduction/warning about an explosive anti-piracy measure.

Introduction by Über-Professor Arrrrarrrgghl Schlurmpftxpftpfl — mildly amusing, but a bit wordy.

Jack Makes a Sale — Flash, which I may have read before...

All the Colours of the Tomato — An interesting premise and a long story to explore it. I had to read it over a few sittings but then, once some questions were answered in interesting ways, it felt like it ended a little abruptly. Still an interesting read, though.

Working Girl — Flash

The Fridge Whisperer — Hilarious. Writer attempts to write (what seems to be The Hitchhiker's a Guide to the Galaxy) while his fridge gains sentience and wreaks havoc. Awesome.

Running Lizard — A haunting story about a series of gruesome murders, a forensic psychologist who is also a were-creature, and her brother.

You Said ‘Two of Each’, Right? — Biblically amusing flash

The Speed of Heavy — An amusing space cargo caper involving an exchange student, some crickets and some bats. I lol'd.

Talking with Taniwha — A lovely and thoughtful hard SF story about learning to communicate with very alien aliens. I love the depth of world building and consideration that went into this one.

Half The Man - amusing flash

Tremble, Quivering Mortals, At My Resplendent Tentacularity — Another amusing flash, shaggy-dog stories though they are

The Assault Goes Ever On — Weird flash.

Dark Rendezvous — A space explorer comes across a derelict ship drifting in a favourable direction for rendezvous. Where did it come from? Ominous. I particularly liked the attention to dust particle detail in the nebulous setting of the story.

Podcast — Inadvertently stranded in an escape pod, trailing the main shop through hyperspace. Limited supplies and a broken hyperspace switch with only the pod's AI for company. A very enjoyable story. One of my favourites so far [in Difficult Second Album].

Must’ve Been While You Were Kissing Me — Zombie speed-dating noir shaggy dog story.

The Day of the Carrot — An amusing tale of giant vegetables. I liked the choices of authors for the interspersed pseudo quotes.

Latency — A really solid hard SF story. A research team on another planet studying it's only life form. Solid science, interesting concepts played with.

At the Dark Matter Zoo — an amusing poem.

Suckers for Love — Alien mating romance. An ultimately disconcerting story. Squidlike.

The Thirty-First Element — An excellent story that put me in mind of classic hard SF. Not because it was, shall we say, scientifically plausible, but because it took an idea and ran with it to an extreme conclusion. In space. It was interesting and contained some mystery (although the ending did not come as a surprise) and some light horror elements.

Against the Flow — A short nonsensical story with an eye-rolling shaggy-dog ending.

Reverse-Phase Astronomy as a Predictive Tool for Observational Astronomy — A very amusing story written in the format of a scientific article.

DragonBlog — The story of a dragon-slayer told in blog style. Amusing.

Niche — Flash. Lots of moths.

November 31st is World Peace Day — One of the longest stories in this collection, this one follows a woman who gets kidnapped by time travellers after a failed job interview. The kid appears haphazardly plan to hold the world to ransom using their time machine, but they didn’t count on our protagonist being smarter than them. An entertaining read written in a lighthearted style.

Mole of Stars — short flash. Probably better if you know what a mole is (it’s a chemical term meaning 6.02 x 1023 particles), but even so, a poignant end.

4 / 5 stars

First published: September 2018, self-published
Series: Not really
Format read: ePub eARC
Source: Author-provided review copy

Mother of Invention edited by Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts

Mother of Invention edited by Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts is an anthology exploring robots and artificial intelligences created by women and non-binary people, rather than the male inventors many older stories have focussed on. It contains stories covering a wide variety of ideas and settings within this theme and is a must-read if you are interested in exploring diverse robot/AI stories.

An ambitious anthology from award-winning Australian publishing house Twelfth Planet Press, Mother of Invention will feature diverse, challenging stories about gender as it relates to the creation of artificial intelligence and robotics.

From Pygmalion and Galatea to Frankenstein, Ex Machina and Person of Interest, the fictional landscape so often frames cisgender men as the creators of artificial life, leading to the same kinds of stories being told over and over. We want to bring some genuine revolution to the way that artificial intelligence stories are told, and how they intersect with gender identity, parenthood, sexuality, war, and the future of our species. How can we interrogate the gendered assumptions around the making of robots compared with the making of babies? Can computers learn to speak in a code beyond the (gender) binary?

If necessity is the mother of invention, what exciting AI might come to exist in the hands of a more diverse range of innovators?

This was a very interesting read and I was pleased with the breadth of stories and ideas presented in Mother of Invention. I have found some themed anthologies need to be broken up because of too much similarity in their stories, but that was not the case here. I admit I didn't quite read it straight through, but that was for other, mostly external reasons, not because I found it repetitive.

Overall, this was an excellent read. While not every story necessarily worked for me, I certainly enjoyed the majority of them. My three favourite stories were "Sexy Robot Heroes" by Sandra McDonald, "Quantifying Trust" by John Chu and "S’elfie" by Justina Robson. All three took very different approaches to the theme and, really, the only similarity between them is that they contain artificial intelligences. You can read more of my thoughts on these stories and all the others below, where I have included my mini reviews of the stories that I wrote as I read them.

I would highly recommend Mother of Invention to readers interested in exploring different ideas of robots and artificial intelligences, including as a vehicle for exploration of other themes such as gender, religion and creation. This is not I, Robot, filled with logic-puzzle stories, but rather is filled with stories of humanity and inhumanity, and a spectrum on both sides of that divide.

~

Mother, Mother, Will You Play With Me? by Seanan McGuire — A story about an AI child learning through games and growing up. I enjoyed it, although it wasn’t what I expected (from the title and author I expected something creepier). I liked how many different ideas it explored, and also the ending.

Junkyard Kraken by DK Mok — A roboticist builds an ocean-exploration robot after failing to get funding for it. A fun story, especially thanks to the inclusion of other AI robots, such that it can be forgiving for being a bit unrealistic.

An Errant Holy Spark by Bogi Takács — A Jewish AI growing up, learning, and trying to talk to aliens. Written in the unique style I’ve come to expect from this author, the inner voice of the AI was very different to conventional (robot/AI) tropes. An interesting story and premise, with baffling aliens.

The Goose Hair of One Thousand Miles by Stephanie Lai — A story written in the form of an annotated translation of a wuxia story. The story itself is particularly bizarre, to my eye, because of the way the robots are included and thanks to the aspects the commentary focuses on. Even so, it engages with ideas of colonialism well.

The Art of Broken Things by Joanne Anderton — An eerie story based on the really interesting premise/theme of kintsugi. I liked the idea and the way different aspects of the story meshed together, but at the same time it creeped me out a bit (mostly in a good way).

Sexy Robot Heroes by Sandra McDonald — I really liked this story. It featured a trans girl mechanic, a whole barge of girl mechanics, and androids bound to serve them. It was the right mix of sentimental and sensible.

A Robot Like Me by Lee Cope — An agender AI programmer makes an AI in their image. A lovely and slightly bittersweet story about gender. I liked it.

New Berth by Elizabeth Fitzgerald — A futuristic take on regency romance that put me in mind if Austen in tone. However, I found it a bit confusing to keep track of characters and motivations and it didn’t really work for me for that reason. I expect some readers will enjoy it more than I did.

Fata Morgana by Cat Sparks — Post-apocalyptic/war-torn Australia with fighting mechs wandering around, at least one of which is intelligent. In rough conditions the mech protects the old lady that was its creator and helps a poor settlement. I enjoyed it.

Bright Shores by Rosaleen Love — A fantastical story about robots (and one woman) living in a nuclear exclusion zone. Clearly taking cues from the Fukushima tsunami disaster, I liked the premise of the robots left behind (because they are too contaminated from dealing with radioactive material), but it lost me a bit with some of the less scientific ideas.

Quantifying Trust by John Chu — A robot engineering grad student works on her design and ponders the question of trust for AI. And meets a postdoc who may or may not be an advanced AI sent from the future. I really liked this story.

Sugar Ricochets to Other Forms by Octavia Cade — A pretty weird story. On the one hand, we have a couple of women running a brothel staffed with magic automaton boys made out of sugar and cake (who often come back with parts missing in the morning). On the other hand, there is a clockwork witch made of brass I love with baby crabs lured by sugar. A compelling read, but also a strange one.

Kill Screen by EC Myers — A teenage girl makes an AI program of her recently deceased best friend. It was a bit morbid, mostly because it dealt with the question of why the friend had killed herself, but also for other reasons (spoilers). I mostly enjoyed it, but it also made me feel uncomfortable (intentionally, I assume), especially near the end.

Living Proof by Nisi Shawl — A story about an AI reproducing. The setting was quite different — a prison — and to some degree aspects of the story put me in mind of Bitch Planet. Not the overall thrust of the narrative, however, which is more about purpose from the AI perspective. Not my favourite story, but I didn’t hate it.

S’elfie by Justina Robson — A very interesting story about a world in which everyone has an AI personal assistant and what happens when they move far beyond what we currently have with Siri etc. Told from the point of view of one of these AIs, while her human is working on something in secret, I really enjoyed the incomplete knowledge of the narration.

Knitting Day by Jen White — A lovely story about knitted robots, poor working conditions and the subversion of capitalism. I enjoyed it, despite its grim setting and whimsical approach to assembly.
The Revivalist Kaaron Warren A creepy story (of course, look at the author) about a process that imbues discarded robots with the last words of the dead. Mostly murder victims. I liked it. And note it wasn’t heavy on the horror, more creepy/eerie.

Arguing with People on the Internet by EH Mann — An interesting story about an AI set loose arguing with people on the internet to unexpected consequences. Also features an asexual protagonist and engages with the concept of motherhood from a different angle. I quite liked it.

Rini’s God by Soumya Sundar Mukherjee — This story took an unusual approach. Not only was the protagonist AI interested in theological ideas but she has a hidden purpose. Which, in the context of the story was odd since it’s hard to program someone to do something when they have free will, so I found the creator’s motivation confusing from that point of view. Also, running an orphanage of AI humanoids was either sneaky or very strange, I haven’t decided which.

Tidefall by Meryl Stenhouse — Ow, my astronomy hurts. This was absolutely not a story to read at at astronomy conference, in between talks about merging stars oh em gee. So that coloured my reading of it considerably. Questionable astronomy aside, the plot and ideas didn’t really do it for me either. What seemed like it would be a really interesting idea ended up feeling a bit bland.

The Ghost Helmet by Lev Mirov — The AIs in this story are basically ghosts of soldiers whose memories became imprinted on their helmets. Our protagonist is a coder who accidentally caused the situation and now always wears her brother’s helmet so he can talk to and help her. I would have liked the story to spend some more time on the ethics of creating the helmet ghosts (is it really a good form of immortality?) but otherwise it wasn’t a bad read.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: Kickstarter backers got it in July, general release September 2018
Series: No
Format read: ePub
Source: Kickstarter backer
Disclaimer: Although the editors, Rivqa and Tansy, are friends, I have endeavoured to write an impartial review

Lumberjanes: Bonus Tracks

Lumberjanes: Bonus Tracks is the collected volume of Lumberjanes one-shot special issues. I didn't really know what to expect when I picked this book up. I bought it because it (and Volume 4 of the main story) were what was available in the comic book shop. I'm glad I did grab this book, though, as it exceeded my expectations.

The Lumberjanes short stories collected for the first time in paperback!

Join April, Jo, Mal, Molly and Ripley as they explore their all-girls camp. From ghost ponies to strange plants, these Lumberjanes are ready to take on anything that comes their way as long as they have each other.

Once I overcame the slight weirdness of seeing different artists draw familiar characters in slightly different ways — exacerbated by the fact that I had just read one of the regular volumes — I really enjoyed the short stories presented here. This volume contains five stories written and illustrated by different creators. Each is a self-contained story and they don't require very much prior knowledge of the series except for the general setting. I think there were a couple of very minor references to events in Lumberjanes issues I haven't read, but the plot certainly didn't hinge on them.

It's not a terrible sampler to get an idea of whether you want to read more Lumberjanes, even if the writers are not the regulars. That said, I think readers will get a little bit more enjoyment out of Bonus Tracks if they've read a bit of Lumberjanes before, since these stories do none of the work of establishing setting or character (which makes sense, given the context). I don't want to say much about the content of the stories since they're so short it would feel like spoilers; I think the blurb says enough. However, I will note that my favourite story was the one written by Holly Black, "Faire and Square", but it was a very close race between all of them.

I highly recommend this volume to fans of Lumberjanes. As far as I can tell, it can be inserted anywhere in your Lumberjanes journey and still be enjoyable.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: 2018 (for the collected volume), Boom! Studios
Series: Lumberjanes, non-series one-shots
Format read: Trade paperback
Source: Local comic book shop

Not So Stories edited by David Thomas Moore

Not So Stories edited by David Thomas Moore is an anthology in conversation with Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, with stories shining a light on (mostly British) colonialism and its legacies. (I really like how this idea is conveyed through the union jacks on the cover.) If you've been following along my blog and my #ReadShortStories posts you will have seen me slowly making my way through these stories. The individual story reviews are reproduced at the end of this review, but first I will talk about the anthology as a whole.

Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories was one of the first true children's books in the English language, a timeless classic that continues to delight readers to this day. Beautiful, evocative and playful, the stories of "How the Whale Got His Throat" or "The First Letter Written" paint a magical, primal world. It is also deeply rooted in British colonialism. Kipling saw the Empire as a benign, civilizing force, and his writing can be troubling to modern readers. Not So Stories attempts to redress the balance, bringing together new and established writers of color from around the world to take the Just So Stories back; giving voices to cultures that were long deprived them.

This anthology contained an interesting mix of stories and authors of different backgrounds, including a lot of new-to-me authors. Most of the stories tackled colonial themes in one way or another and most of them took cues from Just So Stories (mind you, I haven't read the other book since I was a child and even then I'm not sure I read all of it, so my opinion on that point is unreliable). A lot of the stories engaged with difficult themes and were emotionally challenging to read, which is why I found myself breaking up the anthology with other unrelated short stories and a couple of novels.

My favourite stories, in table of contents order, were: "How the Spider Got Her Legs" by Cassandra Khaw, which did the thing where the starting situation was quite far from what we now think of as the status quo and made the story more interesting for it; "Best Beloved" by Wayne Santos, which was heartbreaking and powerful; "How the Tree of Wishes Gained its Carapace of Plastic" by Jeannette Ng, which was told on a grander scale than the other stories for all that it focussed on a specific tree; "The Cat Who Walked by Herself" by Achala Upendran, which was also heartbreaking and which ended in a way I didn't foresee from the start. As you can see, I liked a lot of the stories. Some didn't grab me as much, but that's to be expected in an anthology.

By the time I got to the end of the anthology, I did find the arrangement of the stories a little peculiar. Not only was it odd to find the only two cat-centric stories next to each other, but I also found the last few stories engaged with ideas of colonialism a lot less strongly than the earlier stories. That didn't necessarily make them bad stories, but a lot of the last part of the anthology didn't feel like it fit in with what the first part had set the book up to be. I think it would have worked better if the stories had been more intermixed and set up the expectation of varying engagement with colonial ideas earlier. As it was, I felt faintly confused reading three of the last four stories, even though they were perfectly fine stories in their own right.

Overall this anthology was filled with solid stories that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone interested in the themes and ideas it explores. The authors come from a variety of backgrounds so the anthology does not lack in diversity on that front. (It could have stood to be a bit more gender diverse, however.) I very much like the concept of Not So Stories and recommend it to all readers to whom the basic premise appeals.

~

How the Spider Got Her Legs by Cassandra Khaw — Probably my favourite Khaw story so far. Told in the style of Kipling/traditional children’s cosmology stories as suggested by the title. It was also a bit longer and more complicated than I might have expected with a few acts to the story rather than just one simple origin explanation of how the spider got her legs. Anyway, I rather liked it.

Queen by Joseph E. Cole — A story about slavery and human cruelty. Not exactly an enjoyable read but not a bad story either. It didn’t particularly grab me but it was still told in an evocative way (and I think I spotted several references to Just So Stories).

Best Beloved by Wayne Santos — A Singaporean guardian of the living against the dead has taken up with a British official while still finding time for her duties. Until those duties become more difficult and she learns more of what the British are up to. A powerful story of love and devastation.

The Man Who Played With the Crab by Adiwijaya Iskandar — A father and daughter come across a westerner killing animals and demanding to be taken to their sacred crab so that he can kill it. A story that’s about as positive as possible, given colonial history.

Saṃsāra by Georgina Kamsika — A story set in the present day about a mixed race teenager reconnecting with her Indian heritage as she and her mother clean out her late grandmother’s home. It feels a bit out of place among the other Not So Stories I’ve read so far, but then so does the protagonist in her life, and maybe that’s the point.

Serpent, Crocodile, Tiger by Zedeck Siew — This is more like a few stories that ended up being tied together in a way I didn’t predict from the start. It tells Malay folktales as well as giving a few different modern perspectives on the tales and on the people having perspectives. It gives an interesting cross-section of views and various cultural influences. I enjoyed it although I found the sections that were academic excerpts a little too dry.

How the Tree of Wishes Gained its Carapace of Plastic by Jeannette Ng — A story telling the history of a wishing tree in Hong Kong and, by necessity, the history of the people and the place. A sweeping story of gods and history told in the style of a bedtime story. I enjoyed it.

How the Ants Got Their Queen by Stuart Hotston — A clear metaphor for colonialism, it’s ills and aftermath. Although the story was not subtle, I still found myself enjoying it. And the direction of the ending was not overly telegraphed, which was nice. Not a cheerful story (of course), but a good read.

How the Snake Lost its Spine by Tauriq Moosa — As you can guess from the title, this is another creature-origin type story. I liked the ideas in it, but I didn’t find it to be as strong as some of the others. The writing could have been tighter where I found it a little dull in places. Not bad overall, just not one of the best.

The Cat Who Walked by Herself by Achala Upendran — This story is about how common domesticated animals, as well as Man and Woman found their place. I found this story quite upsetting in how it just kept escalating in patriarchal (not sure that’s the right word) terribleness. The ending was satisfying but didn’t erase what went before.

Strays Like Us by Zina Hutton — A story about Bastet, the Egyptian cat goddess, who no longer has a place in the world, and a stray kitten. The story was fine, but I’m not sure how well it fits with the other stories in the anthology. It put me more in mind of various forgotten/unworshipped god stories more than colonialism per se.

How the Simurgh Won Her Tail by Ali Nouraei — A lovely story within a story. A grandfather visiting his sick (cancer, I think) granddaughter in hospital and telling her the titular story. It was very heartwarming, despite the depressing hospital setting and the hints of life outside the hospital.

There is Such Thing as a Whizzy-Gang by Raymond Gates — A story about a boy in Australia, his uncle that likes to (mostly) benevolently tease him and the Whizzy-Gang that attacks him. Not a bad read, but I didn’t really spot any direct engagement with colonialism.

How the Camel Got Her Paid Time Off by Paul Krueger — If not for the title itself, this story would feel quite unresolved, which I have mixed feelings about. I didn’t mind the story overall, but I again didn’t find it to be quite what I expected. It’s about animals fighting (or not) for worker rights.

4 / 5 stars

First published: April 2018, Abaddon Books
Series: No
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction 2015 edited by Julia Rios and Alisa Krasnostein

Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction 2015 edited by Julia Rios and Alisa Krasnostein is, as advertised, an anthology collecting the best YA speculative fiction short stories published in 2015. The stories are a mix of fantasy, science fiction and horror, and a few somewhere in between.

Fans of Kaleidoscope will find more tales of wonder, adventure, diversity, and variety in this collection devoted to stories with teen protagonists.

Our goal is to uncover the best young adult short fiction of the year published in the anthologies dedicated to the form, the occasional special edition of a magazine, and individual pieces appearing in otherwise “adult” anthologies and magazines, and bring them together in one accessible collection.

I have, in general, read "best of" anthologies before, but not any that focus on YA stories. In fact — and this is a phenomenon discussed in the introduction of the anthology — I don't think I've read more than the occasional isolated YA story in the context of some other anthology or magazine. Collecting a whole book of YA stories then made for an interesting overview of the genre as aimed at a younger audience.

A lot of the stories in this volume tackle difficult issues, such as abuse or the necessity of touch decisions, and do so well. However, that does not make for light or comforting reading. My favourite stories in this anthology were a mix of hopeful and more challenging: "Blood, Ash, Braids" by Genevieve Valentine, "Function A:Save (Target.Dawn)" by Rivqa Rafael, "Entangled Web" by E C Myers, and "Blue Ribbon" by Marissa Lingen. The last was my absolute favourite, despite being one of the more difficult to read stories, thanks to the subject matter.

As usual, more detailed notes on each story are below. I recommend this book to fans of both science fiction and YA. Beware, as I have already mentioned, it is not overall a light read, though some individual stories are light.

• Songs in the Key of You by Sarah Pinsker — a nice story about a near future when “everyone” has personal soundtracks playing from their wrists and a girl who can’t afford the device but loves music. 
• Blood, Ash, Braids by Genevieve Valentine — A witchy fantasy story about the the Night Witches in WWII (Russian women bombing Nazis from planes). An enjoyable read about friendship, protection and magic.
• Mosquito Boy by Felix Gilman — A concept that didn’t really grab me. The narrator tells us of the emergence/existence of mosquito boy creatures (why are there no mosquito girls?). That’s pretty much the whole story. Meh.
• The Rainbow Flame by Shveta Thakrar — This story is about teenaged girls questioning the world and their place in it. Except it’s a world made of magic and stories and, of course, things aren’t exactly as they have been told. I found it a bit slow to start and, while it picked up and got more interesting, it’s not a favourite.
• The Sixth Day by Silvia Anna Hivén — A strange apocalyptic world in which the edges of reality seem to be stretching out and disappearing. It was interesting and a bit disturbing.
• For Sale: Fantasy Coffins (Ababuo Need Not Apply) by Chesya Burke — An outcast girl with a special, magical role to play for her Ghanan home city, which will make her die young.
• Kia and Gio by Daniel José Older — A story about ghosts, aliens and unrequited love. A nice read.
• Bucket List Found in the Locker of Maddie Price, Age 14, Written Two Weeks Before the Great Uplifting of All Mankind by Erica L Satifka — A flash story told in the form of a bucket list (as per the title), complete with some crossed out items. Also more hints about the coming end than I expected. I liked it more than I expected to.
• Function A:Save (Target.Dawn) by Rivqa Rafael — a lovely story about a coder and the president’s daughter/her almost-girlfriend. Set in a near future with bio-hacking and fancy medicine, this story was engaging, a little magical and, ultimately, satisfying.
• Noah No-one and the Infinity Machine by Sean Williams — an odd yarn set in the Jump universe, but much earlier that that trilogy. I expected it to have a dark ending, but it ended up being quite lighthearted.
• Forgiveness by Leah Cypess — a challenging story about a physically abusive relationship in a future where there are chips to control that sort of behaviour once it’s reported.
• Probably Definitely by Heather Morris — a nice story about a ghost and a teenager still working on finding their place in life. I am impressed at how naturally-seeming the author’s non-use of pronouns was.
• I’m Only Going Over by Cat Hellisen — a slightly odd story about a weird girl at a party and the protagonist trying to chat with her.
• The Ways of Walls and Words by Sabrina Vourvoulias — This story took a while to grab me, which was unfortunate since it was quite long and a bit slow. It’s about two girls imprisoned and in service, in an unkind situation. The setting is, I’m pretty sure, colonial times in what is now the Dominican Republic. Their histories and friendship were interesting.
• Reflections by Tamlyn Dreaver — The setting of this story seemed promising, but I had difficulty getting past the lack of (semi-)scientific explanation as to how the moon could be terraformed. The story of a girl being forced to move away upon the failure of that terraformation didn’t, unfortunately, do enough to draw me in. Not bad, but not enough for me. 
• Entangled Web by E C Myers — A quick story set in a world with quantum smartphones that allow you to see how other versions of you are living. An interesting idea piece. I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of the world.
• Blue Ribbon by Marissa Lingen — An affecting story about a group of teens and younger kids who get locked out of their space station after quarantine is enacted during a series of races they competed in. Tragic. One of my favourite stories in this anthology. 
• Bodies are the Strongest Conductors by James Robert Herndon — A troubling story about a teen with an unusual medical condition and his friend. I didn’t exactly enjoy this story, but I also felt like I couldn’t look away.
• Pineapple Head by Joel Enos — An odd story that didn’t go where I expected it to from the ominous hints (I thought) it gave the reader near the start. It’s about two gay boys connecting over time.
• Grass Girl by Caroline M Yoachim — A shirt story about girls made of wood and the bamboo girl who feels out of place and uncool among them. I liked the symbolism.
• The Birds of Azalea Street by Nova Red Suma — This story started out creepy and gross, but finished satisfyingly. I started out not very into it but ended up liking it more than the opening made me think I would.

4 / 5 stars

First published: 2016, Twelfth Planet Press
Series: The last of 3 yearly "best of" volumes
Format read: ePub
Source: The publisher
Disclaimer: This book was published by the same publisher as Defying Doomsday. Nevertheless, I have endeavoured to give an unbiased review.

Monstrous Little Voices: New Tales From Shakespeare's Fantasy World

Monstrous Little Voices is a novella anthology, containing five somewhat interlinked novellas written by Jonathan Barnes, Emma Newman, Kate Heartfield, Foz Meadows and Adrian Tchaikovsky. They are more or less set in the world of some of Shakespeare's plays, but extended beyond what happens in the original play, and tweaked so that all the referenced plays actually happened in the same world of fairies, magic and politics.

Mischief, Magic, Love and War. 

It is the Year of Our Lord 1601. The Tuscan War rages across the world, and every lord from Navarre to Illyria is embroiled in the fray. Cannon roar, pikemen clash, and witches stalk the night; even the fairy courts stand on the verge of chaos. 

Five stories come together at the end of the war: that of bold Miranda and sly Puck; of wise Pomona and her prisoner Vertumnus; of gentle Lucia and the shade of Prospero; of noble Don Pedro and powerful Helena; and of Anne, a glovemaker’s wife. On these lovers and heroes the world itself may depend. 

These are the stories Shakespeare never told. Five of the most exciting names in genre fiction today – Jonathan Barnes, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Emma Newman, Foz Meadows and Kate Heartfield – delve into the world the poet created to weave together a story of courage, transformation and magic. 

This was an interesting read, even when the stories touched upon Shakespearean plays I was not very familiar with. My favourite story was definitely the opening one, "Coral Bones" which extended the story of The Tempest beyond where the play ended and included some neat genderfluid characterisation. My second favourite story was probably the closing one, "On the Twelfth Night", mainly for the way it played with narrative by writing in the second person. That story would not have really made sense without all the stories preceding it, however. I was particularly impressed by how the later stories seemed to be aware of events in the earlier stories. An excellent feat of narrative planning.

I definitely recommend this anthology to fans of Shakespeare and fans of fantasy fiction generally. And theatre. These novellas push Shakespeare's plays into new territory, giving them some modern sensibilities without literally modernising the settings. As always, individual comments on the stories are below.

~

"Coral Bones" by Foz Meadows — What happens after The Tempest. Miranda has left the island, but the real world did not bring her as much joy as she hoped. Luckily, she still has Ariel, the genderfluid fairy who helped raise her and keep her sane. This was a very strong start to the anthology, which had me wanting to come back for more every time I had to set it aside. The main story is neatly intertwined with flashbacks to the island, which serve to build up our understanding of and sympathy for Miranda's relationship with Ariel. In the meantime, we also see quite clearly Miranda learning about herself and the world and, thanks to Ariel's influence (or really, just her presence from an early age), questioning her place and identity in it.

"The Course of True Love" by Kate Heartfield — This novella involves some of the characters from Midsummer Night's Dream but mainly focused on a hedge witch (well, a wyrtwitch) who stumbles upon a prisoner of Titania's and ends up helping him out. This wasn't a bad novella but I just didn't love it as much as the previous one, which set the bar quite high. I suspect if I'd read it in isolation without the comparison, I would have enjoyed it more. As it was, it was well written enough, but didn't push the envelope like "Coral Bones" did.

"The Unkindest Cut" by Emma Newman — A young woman is fated to marry her love in an alliance that will end a war. But even though it has been foretold, nothing is straightforward when Prospero is involved, or the cursed knife from Macbeth. Not a bad story, but I thought it ended a little abruptly. I didn't dislike the ending, but wouldn't've minded seeing more, or more immediately before the end. (Also, it was a depressing ending, which I wouldn't have wished upon the main character. :-/ ) It was a nice touch to have the Miranda from "Coral Bones" appear and I am impressed with the planning that must have gone into this anthology.

"Even in the Cannon’s Mouth" by Adrian Tchaikovsky — I felt a bit lost during the middle of this story. I think it might have been because of the more theatrical/script-like scene changes the author used. It took me a little while to get used to paying attention to them properly. That said, I liked the version of Macbeth that appeared in this one (and had sort of been mentioned in earlier stories, but not nearly as clearly). I especially loved the ending as it involved Macbeth. Not to be too obvious with the spoilers, but a favourite loophole-fail is resolved. I also got the impression that this story was leading into some sort of climax in the last story...

"On the Twelfth Night" by Jonathan Barnes — This last story was fascinating in many ways. It did sort of tie up some of the weirder elements of the plot brought up in the previous story, but that wasn't what really made it stand out. Usually, it was written in second person... and (very minor spoiler) the second person was Shakespeare's wife. Not quite the wife of the Shakespeare that we know, though, but rather a non-playwright from a parallel universe. I found it quite a compelling read (especially compared with the previous novella, which did not hold my interest). Unfortunately, for readers who might have picked these novellas up individually rather than in the collected volume, I'm not sure that this novella would work as well as a standalone. But it does make an excellent conclusion to this anthology.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: January 2016, Rebellion
Series: No, unless you count Shakespearian as a series
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

An Alphabet of Embers edited by Rose Lemberg

An Alphabet of Embers edited by Rose Lemberg is an anthology of flash fiction that was funded by a Kickstarter (that I missed) last year. The stories are 500–1400 words long, which ranges up to a little longer than what I would normally call flash, and one of the aims of the anthology was to include diverse voices. On that point, the editor has certainly succeeded. There are also some lovely illustrations by M Sereno throughout the anthology, to enhance the reading experience.

An anthology of unclassifiables – lyrical, surreal, magical, experimental pieces that straddle the border between poetry and prose.

This is an anthology filled with gorgeous writing, multicultural stories, and variety. While there is a certain "feel" to the stories in the anthology, the stories themselves covered a lot of ground in terms of setting and theme. Some of the stories are multilingual, containing phrases in other languages and the modern wonders of ebooks and Google Translate meant that I could look these up as they appeared. Said technology also showed me that I really didn't need to pause in my reading to check these phrases; the stories were not lesser without full understanding.

Having said that, there were a few stories which, for various other reasons, went over my head a little. There weren't any stories that I actively disliked, but there were a few that I don't think I personally grasped. That's more a reflection on me than the stories themselves, however. And there were several stories I liked a lot, which I will talk about in more detail shortly.

What I found interesting about this anthology, and didn't actually notice until I was close to the end, was the way in which the stories were grouped. Similar stories were grouped together in what felt like rolling waves throughout the book. When I first started reading, I thought all the stories would be somewhat surreal fantasy, but before I knew it the tone gradually shifted to more realistic stories, or more science fictional stories, or stories that were both beautiful and horrifying (not necessarily in that order). This sort of grouping could have backfired, but in this case it worked well; the stories didn't echo each other, rather they built upon each other while also pushing the anthology forward.

(Usually, for an anthology, I would write a bit about each non-flash story. However, since this is an entirely flash fiction anthology, I won't be doing that.)

My favourite stories, those that jumped out at me when I read them, or stuck with me after I moved on, were these (bulleted list for ease of reading):

• “Mistletoe and Copper, Water and Herbs” by Mari Ness — About a woman asking a witch to help her have children, a request delivered not quite how she hoped.
• “An Awfully Big Adventure” by Nisi Shawl — The youngest of three sisters talking about how she is the brave one, always the one to jump in first. Contains cancer.
• “Everything Under One Roof” by Zen Cho — A story about a magical food hall and two friends who find their way there.
• “The Swing, or How to Ricochet According to Sylvia Plath” by Nolan Liebert — Detailing the key days of a life. I found it very emotional.
• “Dreaming Keys” by Mina Li — A woman who discovers that keys can unlock dream worlds. A story I enjoyed because it was fun.
• “Telomerase” by Ian Muneshwar — As cancer takes the narrator, their partner loses words. Sad but powerful.
• “The Binding of Ming-tian” by Emily Jiang — A lovely, horrible story. The description of foot binding made me cringe.
• “Rhizomatic Diplomacy” by Vajra Chandrasekera — A story of war, aliens and featuring a clone-in-alien-body narrator. One of the most science fictional stories
• “Wing” by Amal El-Mohtar — A story about a girl with a book around her neck.

An Alphabet of Embers was a gorgeous read that I highly recommend to people who enjoy lyricism in their stories, or surrealism, or just plain like flash fiction and/or very short stories. The shortness of the stories made it easy to pick up and read a bit of this anthology in between other things. It also lead me to finish the anthology more quickly than I expected, when I wanted a break from other things. It also features a very diverse lineup of authors and hence is ideal for sampling new authors and hopefully enjoying them enough to seek out more of their work. I know there were some authors in here that I have been meaning to get around to reading for some time and now I have even more motivation to do so.

4 / 5 stars

First published: May 2016 (March for Kickstarter backers), Stone Bird Press
Series: No.
Format read: eARC
Source: The publishing team

Cranky Ladies of History edited by Tansy Rayner Roberts and Tehani Wessely

Cranky Ladies of History edited by Tansy Rayner Roberts and Tehani Wessely is an anthology of stories about historical women who were not content to leave the status quo be. The stories cover pirates, queens, nuns and warriors and come from a variety of authors, many of whom I've reviewed here before.

Warriors, pirates, murderers and queens...

Throughout history, women from all walks of life have had good reason to be cranky. Some of our most memorable historical figures were outspoken, dramatic, brave, feisty, rebellious and downright ornery.

Cranky Ladies of History is a celebration of 22 women who challenged conventional wisdom about appropriate female behaviour, from the ancient world all the way through to the twentieth century. Some of our protagonists are infamous and iconic, while others have been all but forgotten under the heavy weight of history.

Sometimes you have to break the rules before the rules break you.

This was a fascinating collection of women, many of whom I hadn't heard of before, or didn't know much about before reading. The collection is framed by two stories of the women and children of Henry VIII, about whom I probably knew most before reading, which give a pleasant effect of tying the collection together.

My favourite stories were "Bright Moon" by Foz Meadows,  "Neter Nefer" by Amanda Pillar and "Due Care And Attention" by Sylvia Kelso, all very different tales — especially the latter — which are a good example of the breadth of the collection.

The only thing negative from which the collection suffered was a tendency for some of the stories to fall into a pattern of recounting their subject's life events. Sometimes this was done to fill in gaps, sometimes not, but it resulted in more telling rather than showing and came across as a bit dry at times. On the other hand, this was made up for by the stories which threw us into key events in a more active way.

Overall, interesting and fascinating are the two words that best describe this collection. I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to dip into the lives of a variety of historical women. Although it's not technically a speculative fiction anthology, I strongly feel it will appeal to readers of spec fic as well as readers of main stream and historical fiction. As always, some notes on individual stories follow.

~

Queenside by Liz Barr — A scene among Henry VIII's women.

The Company Of Women by Garth Nix — Bees and Lady Godiva and unpleasant magic.

Mary, Mary by Kirstyn McDermott — A tale about Mary Wollstonecraft's life, especially her darker moments. While interesting, I found it a bit too depressing to really enjoy.

A Song For Sacagawea by Jane Yolen — a poem or, I suppose as the title says, a song.

Look How Cold My Hands Are by Deborah Biancotti — An account of the end of Countess Erzébet of Báthory, the most prolific known female serial killer. Interesting and dark.

Bright Moon by Foz Meadows — My favourite story so far. About the Mongolian princess who refused to marry any man who couldn't beat her in wrestling.

Charmed Life by Joyce Chng — About the empress who discovered silk to make women's lives easier.

A Beautiful Stream by Nisi Shawl — I think this story could've been tighter. Although I got the drift — a wartime spy fearing those around her might be used as leverage — I found it difficult to follow.

Neter Nefer by Amanda Pillar — the story of Hatshepsut taking the throne, told front eh pint of view of her daughter. An enjoyable story and one of my favourites.

The Dragon, The Terror, The Sea by Stephanie Lai — Chinese pirate lady who commands a large fleet. She tries to stop opium taking over China but fails obviously. I liked this one.

Due Care And Attention by Sylvia Kelso — A lady doctor and much angst about speeding at the turn of the century. A very fun story. (Alarming how recently the benefit of putting cold water on a burn was discovered.)

Theodora by Barbara Robson — The story of a Roman empress, framed by a historian's scathing commentary of how she was bringing down the Roman Empire (by, y'know, being nice to women and stuff). An enjoyable read.

For So Great A Misdeed by Lisa L. Hannett — a rather long story about an island of woman who had several husbands, all of whom died. Although the length was necessary to cover all the key events in her life, it felt a little drawn out.

The Pasha, The Girl And The Dagger by Havva Murat — A girl is abandoned by her father for being born a girl but secretly rescued by her aunt. She grows up to be a kick-arse knight.

Granuaile by Dirk Flinthart — Irish pirate queen who has a run in with Poseidon.

Little Battles by L.M. Myles — A story about Queen Eleanor at age 70, who was still kicking are. A nice tale about a lady who knew what was what.

Another Week In The Future, An Excerpt by Kaaron Warren — Written in the style of Catherine Helen Spence who wrote a book about time travel into the future (1988), this considers the same character going another 100 years forward. The foreword explains that it is written as though the author wrote it in the final years of her life when she was feeling less hopeful about the world. It’s a very engaging and interesting read. I liked it more than I expected to from the description.

The Lioness by Laura Lam — story about a French pirate queen and a young man that crosses her path.

Cora Crane And The Trouble With Me by Sandra McDonald — told from the point of view of Cora's diary, languishing forgotten in some archive. Quite a clever way of telling. I enjoyed it.

Vintana by Thoraiya Dyer — A queen of Madagascar who olives both her husband the king and her lover. Set at a time when French Christians were insinuating their way into the king's graces and the traditional ways were under threat. A good read.

Hallowed Ground by Juliet Marillier — A having reached old age reflects upon her life and upon new hardships she and her sisters face. A very enjoyable story.

Glorious by Faith Mudge — A story about princess Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn, and her life in the confusing English court (and out of it) of the time. An enjoyable read. 

4 / 5 stars

First published: March 2015, FableCroft Publishing
Series: No
Format read: ePub
Source: I received an eARC but I ended up reading the nicer-formatted backer epub edition which I received for backing the Pozible campaign of this project last year
Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge

Phantazein edited by Tehani Wessely

Phantazein is a fantasy anthology edited by Tehani Wessely. It's heavily fairytale/fable/mythology themed and contains stories by a range of female authors. This is the second all-female anthology Tehani has put together (the first was One Small Step), which is interesting, especially as Phantazein was unplanned.

You think you know all the fables that have ever been told. You think you can no longer be surprised by stories. Think again.

With origins in myth, fairytales, folklore and pure imagination, the stories and poems in these pages draw on history that never was and worlds that will never be to create their own unique tales and traditions…

The next generation of storytellers is here.

All the stories in this anthology have very strong fairytale-like themes (a point I unfortunately reiterated a few times when commenting on individual stories). I have to admit this isn't my favourite style of fantasy, but nonetheless there were some stories that really stood out to me.

My favourite stories, in the order they appear, were: "Kneaded" by SG Larner, which really grabbed me when I got up to it; "Scales of Time" by Foz Meadows and Moni, an illustrated poem, which was predictably sad but gorgeous; and "Love Letters of Swans" by Tansy Rayner Roberts, about Helen and Paris and Helen's slave girl, was probably my favourite story of the lot. I suspect leaning heavily towards the mythological rather than fairytalesque added to that, but however you want to classify it, it was an excellent story. Other stories I liked, again in the order they appear, were "Twelfth" by Faith Mudge, "Bahamut" by Thoraiya Dyer, and "A Cold Day" by Nicole Murphy.

As I said, the stories are mostly fairytalesque, but towards the end of the anthology there's an interesting shift away from what I usually think of fairytales towards other time periods. There's a steampunky story (still with magic) and then the Ancient Greek story of Tansy's I mentioned above. I should also note that when I say "fairytale" I don't just mean the European forest kind of tale, there is a pretty good amount of cultural diversity, including eastern and tribal stories. It's quite a mixed bag and all of them are a new take or twist on old ideas. None of them are straight retellings of anything that's ever been made into a Disney movie.

If you enjoy fairytales or fantasy more generally, this is definitely the anthology for you. I've made comments on individual stories below, and I think it's fair to say there's something here for all kinds of fairytalesque fantasy fans. I have used the word "fairytale" too much in this review. Sorry. If you don't think I should be apologising, go buy this anthology.

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Twelfth by Faith Mudge — A fairytale about twelve brothers, complete with darkness and hope. Well maybe not a fairytale per se because the cautionary part is less the point of the story and anyway doesn’t caution the usual suspects. Mudge weaves a beautiful tale with a pleasing ending.

Bahamut by Thoraiya Dyer — A story about the sacrifices one must make to protect those one loves. Which is more important, saving a kingdom or being loved?

The Nameless Seamstress by Gitte Christensen — a tale of magic clothes, the imperial court and the near-mythological Weaver and Seamstress.

How the Jungle got its Spirit Guardian by Vida Cruz — A surprisingly epic tale for all that it retains the vibe of the earlier stories. And much more about people than the title suggests. Also gender roles

The Seventh Relic by Cat Sparks — An odd, slightly surreal story. Not quite my thing, I have to admit.

Rag and Bone Heart by Suzanne J Willis — A nice and sort of horrible (in happenings) story about a girl in a magic kingdom, a king and a helpful old witch. I liked it.

Kneaded by S.G. Larner — I found this story absolutely delightful. A brilliant take on the idea of people made not of flesh. (With, I think, a twisted allusion to Hansel and Gretel thrown in briefly). Definitely one of my favourite stories in this collection.

The Village of No Women by Rabia Gale — Into the village of no women comes a clever scholar to make the men wives from animals. A satisfying tale.

The Lady of Wild Things by Jenny Blackford — Evil fairy-type beings. Not a bad story, but it didn't leave a very strong impression on me.

The Ghost of Hephaestus by Charlotte Nash — Steampunky while still having a fairytale feel to it (but perhaps less so than a story involving forests). The style wasn’t really to my taste and I personally didn’t connect with this story.

A Cold Day by Nicole Murphy — A potter who makes magic pots to protect newborn children and the demands placed on her by the royal family. I liked this story, although I found the end a little abrupt.

Scales of Time by Foz Meadows & Moni — A sad/lovely poem of a girl and her dragon, written by Foz and illustrated by Moni. Sad thumbs up.

Love Letters of Swans by Tansy Rayner Roberts — A new take on the story of Helen (of Troy, sort of) and Paris. Engaging, awesome, an excellent note to end the anthology on. One of my favourites in this anthology.

4 / 5 stars

First published: October 2014, FableCroft 
Series: No.
Format read: ePub
Source: Review copy courtesy of publisher (but you can buy it here)
Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge

Kaleidoscope edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Julia Rios

Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Julia Rios is a crowd-funded anthology that does what it says in the tag line.

It's an incredibly strong anthology, filled with thoughtful and creative stories. The stories cover a wide range of diverse characters, with diveristy stemming from race, gender, chronic/mental illness and disability. I was pleasantly surprised to see several stories deal with characters who fit into more than one of those labels. I also found it awesome that most of the stories weren't about being black/queer/sick/etc but had those aspects as background to the main plot, generally a fantastical one (since it is an SFF anthology).

It's really hard to pick favourites in this collection. Although I didn't love the stories equally, there weren't any duds. (The one I talk about disliking below was because of a theme I'm sick of, not because there was anything wrong with the story per se.) Really, I liked all of them. However, some that stood out to me more than the others were: "Cookie Cutter Superhero" by Tansy Rayner Roberts, which was just awesome and needs a novel set in its universe; "Signature" by Faith Mudge, which was clever, amusing and ultimately happy-making; "Careful Magic" by Karen Healey about a magical school and a girl dealing with being an outsider for her eccentricities; and "Double Time" by John Chu, which was about ice-skating and having a pushy parent.

Most of the stories, I found, were reasonably upbeat but the anthology was punctuated with a few sadder stories. For example "The Legend Trap" by Sean Williams and "Krishna Blue" by Shveta Thakrar both have ambiguous and not entirely happy endings. 

It's hard not to comment on all the stories now, but I've already done that below as I usually do with anthologies and collections. Kaleidoscope is an excellent anthology and I strongly recommend it to everyone. If you haven't already picked up a copy, do so!

~

Cookie Cutter Superhero | Tansy Rayner Roberts — A very strong start to the anthology. A girl with one hand is chosen to join a superhero team. It touches on the lack of female super heroes and deals with the main character’s fear that if the superhero machine “fixes” her, then what does that do to her sense of identity? What would then happen to her when she stopped being a superhero (because they have a limited tenure) and went back to being normal? 

The Seventh Day of the Seventh Moon | Ken Liu — A portmanteau of two teenage girls in love and a Chinese Fairytale, with a twist on the take of the Fairytale's ending (I think, I'll have to google it later)

The Legend Trap | Sean Williams — Set in the Twinmaker universe and an odd story. It deals with the idea of d-mat teleportation sending people to a parallel universe and some of the consequences of that. I say odd mainly because of the ambiguous ending.

End of Service | Gabriela Lee — A story about the daughter of an overseas worker from the Philippines, struggling to come to terms with her mother's work choices. And of course with a speculative twist.

Chupacabra's Song | Jim C. Hines — A girl discovers chupacabras, magic and cruelty.

The Day the God Died | Alena McNamara — A short story about a character dealing with some heavy issues and a series of encounters with a dying old god.

Signature | Faith Mudge — I loved this story! It was clever and lovely and funny. Bookshops, supernatural contracts and an especially diverse cast.

The Lovely Duckling | Tim Susman — A story told in transcripts and other documents. A trans character works to escape her oppressive father in a world where people can also be shape-shifters. It had several pretty great elements, including the ending.

Kiss and Kiss and Kiss and Tell | E.C. Myers — A drug that lets teenagers see into the future while they are kidding someone. Or a possible future, anyway. A girl on psych meds has a different reaction to it than her peers do and fixates on leaning more.

Vanilla | Dirk Flinthart — Alien refugees have come to live on Earth in this story about an Australian girl with Somalian parents whose two best friends are aliens.

Careful Magic | Karen Healey — A girl with powerful magic and possibly OCD gets caught up in some of her magic-school classmates' shenanigans. A high-stakes magical story.

Walkdog | Sofia Samatar — A progressively sad story told in the form of a school-girl's essay. (Crappy grammar and all.) It's hard to comment on without spoiling, but the essay is ostensibly about the urban legend of Walkdog, the dog who walks you.

Celebration | Sean Eads — A gay teen is sent to gay camp (you know, the deprogramming kind) but when he gets there it's not quite the kind of brainwashing he expected.

The Truth About Owls | Amal El-Mohtar — A girl from Lebanon moves to Glasgow and discovers the joy of owls, Welsh and the truth about the power she feels inside herself. (Sort of.)

Krishna Blue | Shveta Thakrar — This was a weird story and one of the most horrifying. The story itself is wide open to interpretation, so I don't want to blatantly say what it's about other than a girl who doesn't fit in.

Every Little Thing | Holly Kench — A witch who also happen to be chronically ill, her supportive friend and her crush. About the importance of having friends that understand your needs/problems.

Happy Go Lucky | Garth Nix — Honestly, this story didn't really do it for me. It wasn't terrible, but it reminded me of far too many YA dystopian novels, with the usual variation on a theme. The "privileged youth hits hard times in dystopia" is a formula I've run out of patience for. (But I'm torn as to whether the diverse elements' complete irrelevance to the plot is a good or bad thing.)

Ordinary Things | Vylar Kaftan — Probably the least YA story with a 19 year old protagonist. Girl dealing with the end of a serious relationship and seeking safety in ritual.

Double Time | John Chu — An elite figure skating teen in a world where it's possible to jump back in time by up to four minutes to watch your practice or even skate with yourself. It was bittersweet.

Welcome | William Alexander — I think this was the shortest story, and certainly the most fantastical in the collection. The moon and earth are connected by a magical bridge, which smugglers cross at night. A whimsical (if not entirely cheerful) end to the anthology.

5 / 5 stars

First published: August 2014, Twelfth Planet Press (official Australian launch is October, though, for technical reasons)
Series: No...
Format read: Bit of paper, mostly ebook
Source: Kickstarter rewards