Little Free Library, by Naomi Kritzer

There's a lot of this kind of story out there, where someone connects with a fantasy world by way of asynchronous, analog dispatches. They are always fun and need to be sprinkled into the world again sometimes for those who have not stumbled across them in old library collections. This is a solid example and it's time for one of these to come around again.

My Goodreads Review

Monster, by Naomi Kritzer

 A solid, entertaining story.  Our protagonist goes to China to bait out someone she knew in high school, a guy that the girls get warned about.  Seemingly nice, but with a dark side.  He learns biology and starts in on a project to make humans superhuman.  Kritzer does a nice job of speculation, and an even better job at the end of the story tying in the layers outside of it.  Worth a nomination and a read.

Monster, by Naomi Kritzer

The Thing About Ghost Stories, by Naomi Kritzer

The Thing About Ghost Stories by Naomi Kritzer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I enjoy these kinds of "inside baseball" stories. Kritzer has done some research on the study of folklore, and gives us an intimate view of what it looks like inside the academy. I learn something from these. The protagonist's transition from studying stories from the outside to having her own was really well done. The ending was just a tiny bit pat, but this is absolutely worth reading.



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Cat Pictures Please, by Naomi Kritzer

Cat Pictures Please is a cute Nebula-nominated short story, with a fairly direct premise--let's say Google Now became self-aware and was driven to be a good AI, helpful to people.  And it liked cat pictures.  What would it do?  Cute, benign, and worth 3 stars for a quick read.