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Gleanings

As a fan of the Arc of a Scythe trilogy, I was anxious to read this new collection of short stories set in the dystopian universe that Neal Shusterman created. He pens most of the stories, but a few of the stories are co-authored by six others. The stories will reintroduce us to some characters found in the preceding novels, but we meet new memorable characters too. The stories are not chronological, as the stories dip in and out of the timeline during different eras. This book could be viewed as a stand-alone but makes so much more sense if you read Scythe, Thunderhead and The Toll.

The First Swing by Joelle Shusterman

An evocative poem about being a Scythe.

Formidable

We go back to the past when Scythe Marie Curie was young and wants to make a name for herself. The former American president and his cabinet are still trying to hang onto power, but Scythe Curie puts an end to the sham government to great acclaim.

Never Work with Animals co-authored with Micahel H. Payne

The bombastic Scythe Fields loves dogs, but his newest acquisition is more than he ever bargained for!

A Death of Many Colors

A bougie family throwing a Halloween party, who believes that Scythes are a myth, finds out that they do in fact exist when a very unusual Scythe gleans their teen son in an unexpected way.

Unsavory Row

For a book series that centers around death, many character relationships seem bloodless and cold, with no deep family or love connections. But in this story, a sister is so distraught after her older brother’s gleaning that she rebels and goes unsavory.

A Martian Minute

The best story by far! Carson is an ambitious Mars colonist, who will do anything to escape back to Earth. When Scythe Xenocrates visits the planet, Carson takes a suggestion of his and the event that he orchestrates is even bigger than he imagined. But he gets what he wanted, so any collateral damage is of no concern to him. The reveal at the end of who he later became was perfect.

The Mortal Canvas co-authored with David Yoon

Only thirty years after the AI Thunderhead takes over, there are still people who were born mortal, including an elderly art teacher. This art teacher is trying to inspire her last four students when Scythe gets involved and challenges the students to a contest. A poignant story about creativity and passion.

Cirri

The shortest story, yet one of the most powerful. Forty ships are sent by the Thunderhead to look for hospitable planets, and one shares the journey thus far. Not all of the sister ships will make it, as the ship’s inhabitants make each journey unique, and some of them will not make it for a multitude of reasons. You will be rooting for this new AI steward to help ferry her ship to safety.

Anastasia’s Shadow

We only met Anastasia’s brother Ben very briefly in the novels, but he is fleshed out in this short story when Skythe Constantine tries to turn him into Scythe when Anastasia is presumed dead. A surprisingly tender story with a happy-ish ending.

The Persistence of Memory co-authored with Jarrod Shusterman and Sofia Lapuente

Scythe Dali and his rival Scythe Gaudi play cat and mouse in Barcelona, along with a willful girl whose intentions are suspect.

Meet Cute and Die

A very British Scythe is a tyrant to her meek niece until a new relationship emboldens the niece to stand up to her aunt.

Perchance to Glean co-authored with Michelle Knowlden

I did not finish this story- it was about Scyths able to kill in dreams, but since I didn’t finish it, perhaps it changed course.

A Dark Curtain Rises

We revisit Scythe Curie years later, and she gets a new chance at life in an unlikely location after her ignoble death in the series. It was a hopeful way to end the collection.

As a whole, I was very pleased with this short story collection as Shusterman has created a unique and layered world. I’m sure all readers will think about who they would pick to be their patron historic if they were a Scythe.  As it has been a few years since I read the series, I had forgotten some information about certain characters, so I got to go down a rabbit hole of looking up information on a Scythe Wiki page. I would definitely revisit this series if more novels are added!

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A Sliver of Darkness

I loved this horror short story collection by C.J. Tudor! Several of the stories are set in a post-apocalyptic world, and the author pulls you into each story with realistic details but then capably takes you in a new direction.

End of the Liner

In an apocalyptical future, most of humanity has survived on cruise ships, for those who had been rich enough to afford to do so. Fifty years have passed on a Disney-esque ship, and Leila reminisces about her rebel daughter Addison who abandoned the ship and tried to make it to shore, not knowing what awaited her there. Leila and the other survivors are forced to conform and are always watched, but are given an unrealistic but safe environment. When Addison reappears to whisk Laila away to land, Laila realizes perhaps the artificiality of the ship is better than the hard reality of life on shore.

The Block

A group of foolish British teens break into an abandoned apartment building and discover an otherworldly horror.

Runaway Blues

A widowed man reminisces about his courtship years in the 1970s and how he and his girlfriend (later wife) would frequent a blues bar for the music. An unlikely musician befriends them, and the couple later suspects the singer of killing his girlfriend when she cheats on him. There is a twist at the end, but wait, there is yet another nasty surprise in the last paragraph!

The Completion

A narcissistic realtor thinks he has the deal of a century when he believes an old man will sell his property to him to be redeveloped. There is an odd reveal at the end, and I was unsatisfied with how this young man seemed to escape justice.

The Lion at the Gate

A group of teens see a lion mural and discover it comes to life. Not all the friends survive.

Gloria

Gloria is a character found in the book The Hiding Place written earlier by the author. She is a hit-woman who retains a bit of morality, although the ending is ambiguous as to what decision she will make regarding her newest assignment. This story makes me want to check out the novel!

I’m Not Ted

This story has a Twilight Zone vibe, as a man is given chance after chance to make the right decision.

Final Course

A widowed father is invited to a country estate by an old college friend and he and his blind daughter join his friends in this murder mystery story. The father and daughter duo are hiding a very dark secret.

The Copy Shop

An unsatisfied wife discovers a special shop that makes copies that are even better than the original. I was pleased that this story was on the lighthearted side, instead of giving the reader an ugly conclusion.

Dust

A seaside vacation for a jilted woman turns out to be quite hellish, as a dark reason for her being there is revealed.

Butterfly Island

In a post-apocalyptic world, some survivors think a nearby island might be the sanctuary they need. Two boatloads of adventurers head out, but of course, the island is not what they expected. The survivors are faced with a no-win situation and grapple with the few choices left to them. The author indicated that she plans to turn this unfinished short story into a novella. I was intrigued- so I hope she does asap.

I love discovering new (to me) authors, so I will certainly be checking out other books by her!

3

20th Century Ghosts

I am a big fan of Joe Hill, first becoming aware of him through his graphic novel series Locke & Key. Afterward, I read other graphic novels by him, plus his horror-themed short story collections. I read this book years ago and found it uneven, for it was his first published book. While it did include some gems, he has honed his writing since then.

Best New Horror (4/5): An editor on the lookout for a promising author finds him in a home reminiscent of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Did he escape?

20th Century Ghost (3.5/5): A theatre is haunted. Alec buys it anyway.

Pop Art (4/5): I almost gave up on this magical realism tale, but it grew on me. An inflatable boy is real- just go with it.

You Will Hear the Locust Sing (2/5): Radiation turns Francis into an insect. Chaos ensues.

Abraham’s Boys (4/5): Atmospheric rural gothic horror.

Better Than Home (2/5): Skipped most of this baseball-themed story.

The Black Phone (5/5): First of my two favorites. A boy is kidnapped and the disconnected black phone in his prison will help save him. Recently it was tuned into an excellent movie with Ethan Hawke.

In the Rundown (4/5): Kensington is a punk who gets drawn into a domestic tragedy. Who will be believed?

The Cape (4.5/5): This story is the reason I picked up the collection. I read the graphic novel that is based on this story, hoping for more insight. Turns out the graphic novel story is more fleshed out than this story. A solid and disturbing story. Read my review of the illustrated version, plus its prequel.

Last Breath (3/5): Saw the ending coming a mile away.

Dead-Wood (3/5): Super short story about trees.

The Widow’s Breakfast (4/5): Historical fiction set during the Depression with a slightly creepy end.

Bobby Conroy Comes Back From The Dead (3.5/5): Not scary at all, and the a$$ in the story might steal away his ex.

My Father’s Mask (2/5): Weird, weird story with a 70s vibe.

Voluntary Committal (5/5): Second fav, and the longest of the stories. A cool and creepy story about brothers and other dimensions.

Even if this collection didn’t knock my socks off, I adore his work as a whole, and will always seek his books out.

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Strange Weather

Strange Weather is a collection of four novellas by a favored horror novelist of mine, Joe Hill. I listened to it on audio, and was pleased by the four different narrators, two of them Star Trek alum!

Snapshot (4.5/5)

Set in California in 1988, awkward and friendless Michael helps his elderly former babysitter back home when she is found wandering the neighborhood. Shelly, suffering from dementia, tells Micahel of a strange man who has taken pictures of her using a Polaroid-type camera to steal her memories. Micahel agrees to be her occasional caretaker and learns that her ramblings were actually correct when this evil man comes after her again. After the deadly struggle, there is a surprisingly long conclusion where teen Micahel grows up and takes steps to help Shelly escape her mortal life from her ignoble life in a nursing home. This was a sad and poignant story about the loss of identity and family ties. Voiced well by Wil Wheaton.

Loaded (4/5)

This story was rough. An unhinged mall security guard seemingly saves the lives of others when a shooting between a jewelry store owner and his jilted mistress results in collateral damage at the mall. The readers know how he illegally gained his gun and how the shooting truly unfolded, but to those in his community, he is hailed as a hero. But a single mother journalist, who has her own story of an unjustified shooting in the past, begins to find holes in the guard’s story. The conclusion was deadly and heartbreaking and proves the quote: “Guns don’t kill people, people do”.

Aloft (3.5/5)

A young man’s first parachute jump goes haywire when as the last to jump of his friends, he lands on a strange cloud that had looked like a UFO…and is. Stranded there this ship senses him and taps into his mind giving him a cloud woman based on his unrequited love, but he knows it is but a fantasy and stumbles upon the remains of three people from the 1800s who had perished there after crashing their hot air balloon on the UFO. He discovers the alien (the description reminded me of the tentacled alien found on the animated The Simpsons) and then makes the decision to jump using the old hot balloon silks. I wondered how he would explain that he landed two states away from his jump point.

Rain (4/5)

On an ordinary day in Boulder, Colorado, a deadly rainstorm suddenly appears- raining down crystal spikes that kill anyone unlucky enough to be outside. A woman who had been excited that her girlfriend was moving in that day, instead sees her beloved die. She then takes off on a post-apocalyptic road trip to tell her lover’s father what happened and, of course, is besieged. There are a few political digs towards Trump/Pence that will amuse you (me) or make you mad. Voiced by the indomitable Kate Mulgrew aka Captain Janeway.

All four stories had different feels, from very dark to almost light-hearted. In his afterward Hill said, “Short novels are all killer, no filler” and I agree. I love short stories (that’s why I love the LeVar Burton Reads podcast so much) because they get straight to the point, for there is an economy to the writing that is stronger than some authors who write 500+ page books that are overflowing with unneeded details. This is yet another book of Hill’s that I would recommend to others!

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Nightmares and Dreamscapes

While Stephen King will always be considered a horror writer, some of these stories had more of a science-fiction bent or had a coming-of-age angle. These stories were written in the 1970s to the early 90s, so it is a time capsule of life then- certainly “modern-day”, yet very dated several decades later. I’ve also noticed in many of his works, that he has bad things happen to good people. That actually scares more people, because these people are not deserving of their fate, and readers worry that tragedy could befall them around the next corner, and that is frightening indeed.

Suffer the Little Children

An old-school third-grade teacher thinks one of her students is possessed. When she also begins to suspect it is spreading among her students, she takes drastic measures.

Crouch End

Two detectives investigate a neighborhood in north London that seems to have an otherwordly portal that opens without notice which has caused people to go missing over the years.

Rainy Season

Inspired by Shirley Jackson’s story The Lottery, a married couple is unlucky enough to visit a town that demands a sacrifice every seven years. Venomous toads rain down on the town one night, and the townspeople move on quickly afterward, explaining away the tragedy and are not willing to break its ugly cycle. The audio edition was voiced by Yeardley Smith, so it was incredibly distracting to have the story read by someone who sounds like Lisa Simpson, from the cartoon series The Simpsons.

Dolan’s Cadillac

When a schoolteacher’s wife is killed by a mobster for testifying against him, the husband vows revenge. He then plans the most ridiculous, convoluted and difficult Rube Goldberg type of trap to capture this man on a deserted stretch of road.

The House on Maple Street

Based on the story prompt and picture from Chris Van Allsburg’s children’s book The Mysteries of Harry Burdick, four siblings discover their house is transforming into a rocket ship and they conspire to get rid of their ogre stepfather.

Umney’s Last Case

Told in a noir-type manner, a detective’s life starts to go to shit with people leaving him and disrespecting him. Holed up in his office licking his wounds, a client comes thru and reveals he is an author and that Umney is a character of his in a book and he intends to change lives with him.

Head Down & Brooklyn August

Head Down is an essay that is an ode to baseball and Brooklyn August is a short poem also celebrating baseball. Neither is horror related at all.

Chattery Teeth

A traveling salesman buys a set of novelty teeth for his son, and when his trip across a desert goes sideways because of a psychotic hitchhiker, this little gift helps him out in an unexpected manner.

My Pretty Pony

“Time is a pretty pony, with a wicked heart” is the theme of the story as a grandfather ruminates on the nature of time to his grandson. Kinda boring, and not horror related.

Sneakers

A recording engineer notices dirty sneakers in a bathroom stall near him for weeks, before finding out that a drug deal gone wrong years ago resulted in a haunting of the building by the victim. This ghost tells him who killed him.

Dedication

A working-class mother is thrilled that her son has written a novel that is bound to be a best seller and she tells a friend how she was able to use some black magic years ago to give her son his writing gifts. Overly long story.

The Doctor’s Case

King decided to write a non-canon Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson story in a pastiche manner- honoring the original style and building upon it. In this story, a horrible father is found murdered and the duo needs to figure out if it was his put-upon wife or abused sons that did it. Dr. Watson figures it out before Holmes, and it is unrealistic, but true to the style of British mysteries written during that time frame.

The Moving Finger

What’s worse than finding a rat in your NYC apartment? How about a moving finger?!

The End of the Whole Mess

A man recounts in a journal how his prodigy younger brother discovered a cure for aggression in a water source, without noting it also brought on dementia. While trying for world peace, he instead doomed the whole planet to death. The last part of the journal reminded me of Flowers for Algernon.

Home Delivery

A timid young widow who is pregnant needs to learn how to cope by herself when there is a zombie apocalypse and those in the local graveyard come back to life. This was a surprisingly strong story with realistic details on how a small island community would survive.

It Grows on You

Set in Castle Rock, King’s favorite fictional Maine town, a house seems to mysteriously have new wings added on that correlate when bad things befall the townsfolk. This story didn’t seem complete.

The Fifth Quarter

A heist gone wrong…a double cross…a shootout. Meh.

You Know They Got a Hell of a Band

A couple takes a scenic backroad and gets lost, leading them to the picturesque town of Rock and Roll Heaven, Oregon. The town inhabitants look very familiar, and soon they realize there is no escape from this strange vortex. Reminded me of Pines by Black Crouch and In the Tall Grass written by King years later with his son Joe Hill. Grace Slick was the inspired choice for the audio narration of this story.

The Night Flier

A sleazy tabloid journalist reports that a vampire is on the loose. What happens when his headline is actually true?!

Popsy

The vampire is back! A gambler makes a grave mistake when he grabs a child to sell and finds out he shouldn’t have messed with Popsy and his creepy grandson! An effective story that was also one of the shortest.

Sorry, Right Number

Written like a screenplay, a wife receives a frantic call phone call from someone in distress but doesn’t realize until five years after her husband’s death who was actually making the call. The audio version was terrible.

The Ten O’Clock People

A bizarre story about how people who are trying to quit smoking and thus are in nicotine withdrawal are the only people to see how evil bat people are taking over society.

The Beggar and the Diamond

A short retelling of a Hindu parable. I thought it was an odd addition to this collection.

Chattery Teeth, Home Delivery and Popsy were my favorites from this long 816-page book. While I didn’t enjoy every story, I admire how King likes to vary his writing style and tries new approaches. His short stories have always appealed to me, and I will continue to seek out his work.

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Suicide Woods

This short story collection was excellent! The ten stories were all atmospheric and wonderfully creepy. I first became aware of the author as the writer of the excellent Wolverine podcasts, but am now glad I looked up other work by him and will now search out other novels by him.

The Cold Boy- The visiting nephew of a taxidermist falls through the ice in his backyard pond and comes out changed. It had a Pet Semetary vibe.

Suspect Zero-A woman con artist is underestimated, much to the dismay of those who interact with her. The train intro was intriguing.

The Dummy- A female high school student who wrestles is attacked by a fellow teammate but the stuffed dummy she had been practicing on, seems to save her.

Heart of a Bear- This was a strange tale that was never going to end well for the family involved. A bear is entranced by a family and becomes human-like for a time, without the townspeople noticing.

Dial Tone- Don’t underestimate the quiet man working alongside you. His mild manner could be covering a black heart.

The Mud Man- A busy man accidentally creates a doppelganger out of mud, but this mud man starts to become more engaged with his family life than he was. Another tale of people accepting a strange creature in their midst without raising the alarm.

Writs of Possession- More a sad slice-of-life story about evictions than a horror story. A deputy steels herself for the sorrow she has to witness as she evicts people from their homes.

The Balloon- A pandemic story that was written before our current crisis so it feels strangely prophetic.

Suicide Woods- My least favorite story, yet the book’s namesake. Suicidal individuals have joined a support group that has a radical way to make them appreciate life again.

The Unchartered- This last story is more a novella, and could have been fleshed out into a full novel. A woman working for a mapping company hires a trio of adventurers to chart some islands off the coast of Alaska where some previous workers have gone missing. On a whim, she joins them, but their small plane crashes and the survivors are sucked into a mind-bending and horrific experience.

These stories all have a sinister edge to them and I enjoyed all of the dark tales.

2

LeVar Burton Reads: Season Ten

I love being introduced to new authors by LeVar’s podcast, and then serendipitously finding that author in other works and books soon after. This podcast always expands my reading boundaries and I look forward to listening to a new story weekly for several months at a time while each season lasts.

The Wishing Pool by Tananarive Due

Careful what you wish for! An adult daughter, Joy, finds her widowed father in ill health when she visits him at the family cabin, both physically and mentally as he has worsening dementia. She remembers a nearby wishing pool that she and a childhood friend would visit in the nearby woods, but her wish for her father has (of course) unintended consequences. This story was a perfect blend of the harsh reality of caring for elderly parents and then the fantastical.

Different People by Timothy Mudie

In this story, a man meets a refugee from another dying but similar dimension whose first husband was him in their world, and they end up marrying themselves. But he begins to doubt that they should be together, as he is jealous of the other him, and wonders if they were meant to be together in this world. This multi-verse storyline is very popular in sci-fi tales, as there is a lot to explore in why things are the same or different in other worlds and what that means to the characters living through it all.

The Usual Santas by Mick Herron 

Set in London, eight mall Santas discover a ninth among them at the year-end Christmas Eve party. Is one of them an imposter, or could he be the real Santa? Who then led the crime caper at the mall, in which many gifts were given to orphans and the needy the next day?

Drones to Ploughshares by Sarah Gailey

A sentient government surveillance drone is captured while out on a mission and must determine what to do next when offered freedom. Is it a trap? A sweet, but somewhat light, AI story.

To Jump is to Fall by Stephen Graham Jones

Told in first person, a telepathic spy gives us a stream of consciousness as he freefalls after a jump off a plane. When he realizes his mission has gone sideways and he and the pilot are purely collateral damage, he makes a radical decision.

The Placement Agency by Tobias S. Buckell

A fresh take on the “Hitler Dilemma”- what do you do with mass murderers from history when time travel is available and you have a chance to rewrite the past? The short story started out slowly but gained traction as you realize the true nature of the temporary job that is outside of time and space.

The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex by Tobias S. Buckell

*This story was originally in Season Four, but remixed with new sound* I found this tongue-in-cheek short story delightful. Sometime in the future, Earth has become a tourist playground for wealthy aliens, with Manhattan being the favored location. While aliens are looking for authentic experiences in the city, life for humans actually living on Earth has become anything but, as the entire economy is based on the service industry and catering to tourists. A cab driver, whose flying taxi is on its last legs, has to deal with an alien falling to their death from his vehicle and trying to avoid an interspecies war when the alien’s family investigates. While this tale is amusing, it’s also a reflection on how our society relies on social media with trying to make their life look perfect when really it’s only a facade.

The Final Performance of the Amazing Ralphie by Pat Cadigan

In deep space, an AI magician is utilized to entertain hospice patients, and during a performance, the patient dies. The caretaker, who already had strikes against them, tries to explain what happened during a review and discovers that the AI saw a situation unfolding and took steps to offer comfort to the dying patient. I didn’t vibe with the narrative- although LeVar offers commentary at the end of the story, I didn’t really get this story.

Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell

A sentient house, not quite a haunted house, aches for new owners. During an open house, it utilizes some powers to convince a father and daughter that it would be the perfect house for them. The house just wants someone to love it and live in it! A charming little story.

John Dillinger and the Blind Magician by Allison M. Dickson

Set in an alternative magical world in 1934, mobster John Dillinger goes to a speakeasy to find a magician to help him escape the feds. Two magicians get roped into the scheme, and of course, there was a double-cross. Meh.

Troll Bridge by Terry Pratchett

Set in author Pratchett’s Discworld (he has written 41 books set there!), this wistful short story includes a grizzled Cohen the Barbarian crossing a troll bridge and how the two old-timers reminisce about times gone by. This is a bittersweet tale, that stands on its own, about lamenting the past and reflecting on how much has changed in one’s lifetime. My husband and I recently had a conversation about how much has changed since we were children, and how things you take for granted then, are not around as an adult. While set in a fantasy world, this tale is universal and will pull at the heartstrings of adults who can relate.

The Last Truth by AnaMaria Curtis

The winner of LeVar’s first ever short-story contest was this bittersweet tale of how memories define us. Set in an alternative world, Eri is an indentured thief, who is forced to pick locks for her mobster employer. However, locks are opened by revealing memories, that then disappear from their minds, which results in a great cost for the thief. Eri meets a musician on board the ship they are on, and both wish to escape together, but will Eri be Eri any more once she completes the last required lock-picking? As Eri faces an uncertain future, readers will ponder if friendship, music and/or love can reestablish old memories. Will a possibility of good new memories renew her?

Afterlife by Stephen King

I am a huge fan of Stephen King’s short stories, so I read this story before in his collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, but as with other short stories that I have read before listening to on the podcast, LeVar can put an interesting twist on it. In this story, a man who recently died of cancer is given a chance to relive his life again, hoping to correct the wrongs he committed. But we find out he has done so numerous times, with no change, even to the atrocious sin he committed while in college. A disquieting tale, but I expect no less from King.

My favorites this season were Different People and Troll Bridge. I enjoyed listening to the winning entry, The Last Truth, from LeVar’s contest and hope he does one again. So, in the meantime I suggest you check out his podcast if you haven’t already, “But you don’t have to take my word for it.”

-Nancy

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Out of Skin

Happy Halloween! This little story is delightfully creepy to read tonight and is by the esteemed Emily Carroll who wrote Through The Woods.

Illustrated in Carroll’s trademark black and red, a lonely woman in the woods finds a pit of dead girls from a nearby town. She buries them but a strange tree grows on the burial site. Back in her cottage, the dead women call to the woman and later seem to invade her home. She thinks of her mother, father and cousin, all dead, and you may begin to suspect that the woman herself is not innocent. Is she delusional or are the women seeking vengeance? When a traveling man comes to visit, and she hints that they have had a prior relationship, you will wonder if the man killed the townswomen or was it this woman out of jealousy. That this atmospheric tale is so ambiguous makes it all the better.

Carroll’s work is subversive, for the horror is implied and not always shown. Closeups of jagged teeth, strange eyes and wispy hands support the ghastly underpinnings of the story. The coloring and shading are delicate and eerie with the red used sparingly but with great precision to the mood of the short story. As you scroll downwards through the webcomic, it lends to the idea that you are seeing the deep pit yourself and are caught in the dark woods with an unstable and perhaps dangerous narrator.

What is extra delightful about this sinister tale, is that you can read it online for free! Read it for yourself at: Out of Skin.

-Nancy

2

LeVar Burton Reads: Season Nine

Season Nine was dominated by speculative fiction that LeVar loves, so he ran a writing contest looking for writers to send in short stories from this genre, with the winner’s entry read next season.

The Bank of Burkina Faso by Ekaterina Sedia

We are all familiar with the scam of a foreign-born prince who needs our help in attaining his funds… but what if were true? In this short story an exiled prince now living in Moscow teams up with the widow of a military general to recover their fortunes from the Bank of Burkina Faso. This magical realism tale weaves together dogs and dreams into a very odd conclusion.

Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot by Robert Olen Butler

In this odd little tale, a husband is reincarnated as a parrot and bought unknowingly by his widow who is now dating the man that the husband had been jealous of. In fact, that jealousy had led to his death and he pines away for his wife, as a lack of communication then and now prevents him from ever being happy with her.

Dark Spaces on the Map by Anjali Sachdeva

A 107-year-old woman is interviewed about her experiences as a form of cultural anthropology and she needs to decide what she is willing to share in this speculative fiction story. Memory becomes subjective when compared to photos and verified documentation, but it also takes away emotional weight from the person remembering the past. Does everything need to be shared especially when it could put someone in a bad light or the facts can be manipulated to fit an agenda? This story was timely, for I recently saw a friend from middle school, and she shared stories that I barely remembered or remembered differently, and it made me really ponder memories and how perspective can adapt a shared experience into different memories of it.

Milagroso by Isabel Yap

Milagroso means “miracle” and that is what Marty is looking for as he returns to his hometown in the Philippines with his family. Marty is a selfish scientist who helps engineer synthetic food and had turned his back on his dying elderly father, only coming back for an annual festival that promises a special phenomenon of real food being transformed from fake food. The miracle occurs and he is torn as to whether he will allow his children to eat the authentic fruit, as he and others are so brainwashed that synthetic food is better.

The Angel of Khan El-Khalili by P. Djèlí Clark

Set in 1912 in an alternative Cairo, this steampunk story is set within the author’s Dead Djinn series. A young woman, burdened with guilt, seeks a miracle from a mechanical angel in the Ministry of Alchemy. But every gift comes with a price, and she must reveal her dark secrets to obtain a gift to help her sister. Ultimately, this is a story about forgiveness and I thought the world-building was strong for such a short tale.

The War of the Wall by Toni Cade Bambara

This story is a refreshing slice-of-life story set during the Vietnam War instead of the speculative fiction that dominates his podcat. In this short story, two youth are dismayed that an artist is creating a mural in their city neighborhood and are worried that she will ruin the wall that so many people congregate near. She doesn’t seem friendly or responsive to other’s overtures, so the boys plan to graffiti the wall. But once back from their trip out to the country to visit family they come back to see the mural beautifully finished and honoring their culture and incorporating their community into it. The story really captured personalities and capably showed how change can be viewed with distrust but can end up being for the best.

You Perfect, Broken Thing by C.L. Clark

In this apocalyptic future, a degenerative disease has taken hold of the population, and medicine is in short supply. Athletes participate in a grueling race to win shots for themselves and their loved ones, but the training also speeds up the disease’s toll on their bodies. One participant pushes her body to the limit for a chance to save her lover and daughter, with a win at all costs mentality, but her sacrifices prove worth it.

The Years of My Birth by Louise Erdrich

This excellent tale is a layered story with a moral dilemma. When a white baby girl is born disabled she is rejected by her mother, who takes home her healthy twin brother instead. Tuffy is adopted by a Native American nurse and raised on a Chippewa reservation. Her new family helps rehabilitate her, leaving her with few signs of her original diagnosis and she knows she is loved. But years after her parent’s death, her biological mother contacts her and wants to meet with her, showing her true colors with an agenda that becomes clear quickly. Tuffy is faced with an unenviable decision regarding her brother and we are left not knowing what happens next, yet knowing Tuffy’s heart, we can guess what she will do despite how reprehensible her twin is.

 Words We Say Instead by Brit E. B. Hvide 

The story started out slow but gained traction, as a veteran space pilot is at a shady spaceship dealership, looking for old technology that has been banned by the government. Turns out years ago, she and other pilots were given AI ships that connected to their brain waves, and these ships became like family to them. When they were ordered to decommission their ships due to potential problems with the technology, she reluctantly complied but has regretted it in the decades since. Now she searches for bits of old technology that she hopes she can reinstall and seeks penance for betraying her AI ship years ago.

Shock of Birth by Cadwell Turnbull

A man who feels that he was switched into another body at a different age and in a different city plus there are details about the world at large that are incorrect, reminded me of the Star Trek: TNG episode The Inner Light. That is praise indeed, as that is one of my favorite ST episodes ever. As there is no proof and no way to switch back even if he convinced others of his new reality, he unhappily continues through life. Only at the end does he start to realize he needs to make the best of his situation and live in a manner that would honor his old life. No matter if we are time travelers or not, the message of blooming where you are planted is a good one! 

Tía Abuela’s Face, Ten Ways by Lisa M. Bradley

Coping with death can be very challenging, as a space anthropologist finds when she arrives back at Earth to find that her beloved great-aunt has died. Chided by some family members at not being there at the end of her aunt’s death, she takes it upon herself to honor her in an extreme way. Set sometime in the future, technology enables her to transform her face into what her Tía looked like. Although she seems sane, I felt this was an incredibly unhealthy way to deal with her grief. My mother and aunt both recently died within five months of one another, and while I miss them terribly and like to wear jewelry of theirs or use some of their household belongings in my own home, what this woman does is disturbing.

On the Lonely Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Best described as a Victorian Gothic with a fantasy twist at the end, the story builds slowly. Balthazar is an ailing young man sent to live seaside along with his companion Judith, as his family is strangely uninvolved. A romance develops between the two, although his health deteriorates and he seems to be dying, but Judith is more aware of his condition than he realizes. This atmospheric short story has a melancholy end, and its conclusion will leave you with questions.

My favorites this season were Dark Spaces on the Map, The Years of My Birth and The War of the Wall. I look forward to hearing the winning entry from the contest next season, so in the meantime I suggest you check out his podcast if you haven’t already, “But you don’t have to take my word for it.”

-Nancy

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