A Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy, by Rebecca Roanhorse

The references in the title are all oblique--no actual astronomy, but the story concerns Native American celebrity actors and even involves some space travel.  The protagonist has lost his lover, who tragically died young.  There is a way to experience her again--essences of people's memories can be extracted, and consumed by way of a VR Experience (see Welcome to Your Authentic Native American Experience).  They can also be experienced by injection where they go straight to your brain, but that's not recommended.  Our protagonist does it anyway, and gets his lover back--but she is not so well preserved.  Certainly a fun story.

Fisher-Bird, by T. Kingfisher

 This story is a retelling of the Seven Labors of Hercules, as a dialog between a fisher-bird and a simple, but very strong and somewhat reluctant hero.  Most of what's interesting here is the dialog between the bird and the man--he is a poor, put-upon soul, and the bird is quite spicy.  They take a risk together to complete one of the labors.  It's fun.

The Justified, by Ann Leckie

 Our protagonist is Het, one of the Eyes of Mehar, and she has been away for a long time.  She is called back to deal with her ruler's paranoia about opposition.  Dissent keeps arising in the underclass known as the Single-Lived.  The Justified and above come back, by way of their Animas.  Het is one bloodthirsty goddess, enjoying solving issues through mass slaughter.  She observes that the single-lived come and go, but the Justified are constant.  Her lieutenants recommend a purge of the single-lived--she goes the other way.  This one is also in The Mythic Dream and comes by way of Egypt.

Phantoms of the Midway, by Seanan McGuire

 This story is a retelling of Hades and Persephone for The Mythic Dream collection.  Our protagonist lives in a carnival, and never gets to leave--her mother does it to protect her.  Turns out she is being protected from the knowledge that she is dead--hit by a truck as a little girl.  Her mother has trapped her ghost, which has grown up as a normal and substantial girl to everyone in the carnival--they can't even tell she is dead.  But as all young people do, she has to leave.  And find kindred spirits.

It's a good story, enjoyable and sad, but nothing deeper than that for me.

The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday, by Saad Z. Hossein

This book was just incredibly fun to read. Didn't get near enough respect this year. Our protagonist is a powerful djinn imprisoned in rock for 3000 years, coming back to life in a postapocalyptic future where humans survive with a lot of careful management and help from AIs. The AI that manages Kathmandu is called Karma, and it's intelligent but does not have agency--it's just an algorithm. Other reviewers have commented that this is how they understand karma IRL--it's just rules. With the djinn we have a Gurkha who has renounced technology, and a "sheriff" who serves as backup to Karma.

It's hard to convey all the fun you have reading this without just quoting large blocks of it. The djinn who would be King likes to party, and finds the best partying among the "zeros", people with no Karma points at all. Some folks have hacked the system and seem to have all the Karma. Drama ensues.

Descriptions do very little for this lively novella. You just really need to read it.

My Goodreads Review

The Ascent to Godhood, by Neon Yang

I don't know. I read the first three books. Everyone seems to love this one, but I just didn't really get it. Having this relationship told as a drunken monologue just seems to sell it really short. To me it came out sounding like an ordinary authoritarian monarch story, and the first three entries had a lot more going on. There's not really any drama, since it is all recollection. So the loose ends are now tied. I just hoped for more. My Goodreads Review

 

Away With the Wolves, by Sarah Gailey

 Away With the Wolves was nominated for a Hugo in 2020.  This story is well written but I have to say it confused me a bit. The protagonist's struggles with chronic pain and the choice between a lonely wolf life and a pain-filled but social human life are a real strength, as is the strained support she gets from her community. So there's a compromise of some kind where she gets to spend most of her time as a wolf (acting kind of like a dog?)--I'm looking for the tradeoff but it's not clear. It was OK.

My Goodreads Review