This is a lovely curated collection of twenty short stories that had been published in 2024 in various publications. The copyright page was of great interest to me to see where these stories came from

Not all of them were to my taste; it would be a rare anthology or collection that appealed to all readers equally.  At least one was downright strange and difficult to read; it was by Caroline Yoachim.  Some were horror although each story was labeled as either science fiction or fantasy; and they alternated in the lineup.  I will also note that a couple did not seem, to me, to be either; they could just have been a mainstream story although they might have had a tough time finding a home.  “Speculative fiction” is a great catch-all.  I will touch on the ones that most affected me.

Rachel Swirsky had an amusing ghost story about three heckling sisters who died one at a time leaving their ghost to continue to observe but unable to act.  It was funny because instead of worrying about their fate or moving on, they focused on their frustration to continue to heckle their sisters who couldn’t hear them.  Unlike too many stories that think they have to provide the reader with a happy ending; this ending stayed true to the story. I appreciated that so much.

I really liked Tatiana Obey’s story and I really, really want her to continue it someday.  Just sayin’.  Jaz is a space pilot with only her sister’s family to connect to, which is how she likes it.  On her way to a race, she discovers her teenaged niece stowed away.  It was sweet and fun and, in a way, sort of reminded me of early Heinlein.

S.L. Huang’s story is one of those that isn’t exactly science fiction nor fantasy.  It has no supernatural or futuristic component; but it was quite compelling.  A poor village living on the bend of a river has no need for governmental oversight; they are quite able to look after their own, thank you. One of their own decides he’ll be the judiciary branch and handle dispensing justice. The rest of the townsmen applaud his abilities but his weary wife and young daughter are the ones who are required to dispose of the bodies.  After some years of this, while the town acquires the reputation of having demons, the daughter decides that since she does all the real work, she has no need of her father anymore.  But there’s the question of whether the townsfolk will accept her in the role and whether she can continue to deceive the imperial authorities as to what is really happening.

Carlie St. George probably provided me the very best science fiction tale in this collection.  She imagines an alien race where a single consciousness inhabits multiple bodies.  Kind of a cool idea that one can simultaneously experience different lives.  One of the bodies lives in San Francisco and has fallen in love with a human woman.  While Alice understands her partner’s biology, there are aspects that defy her grounded human beliefs.  So when Yonder dies in a tragic bus accident, one of their other bodies travels back to Earth to be with Alice.  But Alice is unable to grasp that it’s still Yonder and that they haven’t really died.  It doesn’t help that Yonder’s bodies all look different with different genders.  She still insists on holding a funeral.  Yonder decides that Alice may never accept their differences unless she is confronted with his whole self so all his bodies come to San Francisco…

The Forgetting Room” was a terrifying idea; reminiscent of an episode of the Black Mirror show. It does seem to be a human trait to want to protect our children but for many that translates to control our children; believing that an adult will always know best.  In this story, a new technology arrives giving parents the chance to erase a painful memory from their child. Go ahead…consider all those ramifications yourself.  But the twist is not so much what happens to the child but what the parents do to themselves.

I can’t cite references but I know the idea has been used before: put all of society’s woes/despair/sins onto a single person to absorb, leaving the rest sparkling clean.  And Isabel Kim has a take on that.  A whole town puts all the town’s suffering onto a kid that they stick into a hole and forget about.  But everything falls apart when someone murders the kid.  So they pick another kid and stick them in the hole.  And they get murdered.  Someone disapproves of their system and is trying to make a point.  But the town and society still have to exist, don’t they?  So they have to figure a way around the social do-gooders who keep murdering their kid in the hole.

Susan Palwick had a gripping view of a future where gangs ruling a city has amped up with new technology; allowing them to find literally anyone who defies them.  One woman makes the mistake of befriending a child of one of those gang families.  The child’s family dies in a gang war and she is targeted, as well, since she had a connection.  But the boy they send to kill her has his own connections and he just needs to be convinced that she should live.  Knitting needles turn out to be a great McGuffin.

And then came the story and author I’d been waiting for:  TJ Klune and a short story that is really a prequel to his novel “In The Lives of Puppets”.  It’s not really a new idea but I loved the presentation.  A robot created to toil in a factory for twenty years is finally rewarded with a whole week to go out into the world and do anything it wants.  At the end of the week, it is scheduled to be wiped and reused and go on for the next twenty years.  It isn’t clear just why the humans thought a reward was necessary; maybe it salved the general conscience about the robots’ enslavement.  The robots didn’t really think about it one way or another.  But this particular robot engages in activities that it actively enjoys.  And one week isn’t near enough time to explore all that life offers.  But it doesn’t question its responsibility to report back after the week; there’s also the exploding failsafe to consider, of course.  Maybe there’s nothing it can do; maybe there is…

The final story is a great one, offered by Joe Hill.  I’ve not made an effort to read Joe Hill as I tend to avoid horror; but this is horror-light. Two detectives are investigating a confusing coincidence.  A young man avoids getting on a train that later derails, killing many.  He is also reported to have warned a young mother and her daughter about the danger, saving their lives.  And a review of his history comes up with the story of him avoiding another disaster in high school; and there were more mysterious incidents.  The detectives want to know where his prescience comes from; perhaps he instigated all the disasters.  The young man deflects and explains away his actions and the detectives have no concrete evidence linking him to the train accident.  They are forced to give up the investigation.  But afterhours, one of the detectives is left in the bar and he and the young man have an honest conversation.  The detective is convinced that the young man is delusional and should definitely warrant a deeper investigation.  What the boy describes is, of course, impossible.  Until he grasps, at the last second, just what the boy meant when he said he couldn’t save anyone from what he saw.  Fate will always make a substitution.

The Foreword of the book gives an explanation of how the stories are chosen, which was interesting.  I don’t go out of my way to read a lot of short stories so I can’t criticize the choices.  Overall, the collection was fun to read.  And if one really loves short stories, it might be educational to read previous years’ collections to find themes or patterns to the selections.  The book also provides a brief bio of each contributor which I’ve always found to be useful if I want more of a particular author.  And the series editor has included a list of also-rans which could expand your reading list.  ~~ Catherine Book

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