Lest We Forget, by Elizabeth Bear

This one is on the disturbing side of SF, though not severely so.  A veteran is dying of the war they fought, in an unusual way.  Not in combat.  Much of the story is description leading up to the moment of the reveal.  A doctor has found a way to infect people with memories via a virus, but it requires some sacrifice to get the memories into that form.  Our veteran is making it.  Lots of possibilities here, this could go wrong in so many ways, and they know it too.  I think that would be the end of our species as thinking beings--we'd never know again when a thought was ours.  The leadup is pretty believable too.  Good stuff!

Erase, Erase, Erase, by Elizabeth Bear

This is a story that F&SF says it has held for a long time, waiting for the right time to publish.  And it is a fine literary piece.  Our protagonist is slowly disappearing--parts fall off, become transparent to ordinary objects.  Not consistently, but inconveniently.  And she is losing her memory, and losing track of things.

Sounds like an Alzheimer's story, but the cause seems to be guilt--the protagonist does a lot of writing, and is trying to remember the name of the leader of the terrorist cult she joined in college.  Before he does terrible damage.

The story is well written and good to read.  Made me think about the Unabomber a lot.  How do people in this position find their way back to reality?

It's 2059, and the Rich Kids are Still Winning, by Ted Chiang

This story was commissioned by the New York Times as part of a series of "future editorials"--opinion pieces speculating on how some event or social trend is going to develop in the form of a newspaper opinion piece.  Ted Chiang's version, like pretty much everything else he does, is fully brilliant.  His piece speculates on a social intervention where some disadvantaged children are given a genetic enhancement that is popular with wealthy parents--one that boosts the IQ.  The kids generally finished a college education, but are still not any better off.  He gives various reasons for this that are drawn from today's knowledge, and draws reasonable conclusions.  He could do this for a living, except that being a sysadmin has to be more fun.

A Country Called Winter, by Theodora Goss

This story belongs in that small but significant set of stories featuring small, obscure countries that are semi-magical but exist in our world.  Veriska (approximately) is from a country called Winter (approximately).  She came with her mother when they left for America.  A lot of the story is centered around her relationship with the son of the Danish ambassador, and how his foreignness contrasts with hers.

Her ambition is to get a doctorate in English literature and go into teaching.  She is pretty buried in that space.  But (spoiler alert) it turns out that she is royalty in Winter, and will be instrumental in getting Summer to come.

It's nice, not a lot of powerfully original stuff here but well written.

Permafrost, by Alastair Reynolds

This is a pretty standard time-travel story, but adds to that literature in a good way. Time is a crystal with flaws--people who know about time travel can add to those flaws, but can't break it. The protagonist and colleagues are trying to save what's left of the future by stealing some seeds that can grow in mostly sterile soil, because pretty much all small-scale life has died during the Scouring. There's nothing left to grow and stored food is running out.

The story is set in Russia, which gives it an exotic twist and explains the laconic feel of the story. The protagonist is an interesting person--she is a 71-year old teacher, and in the book she is an action hero. Good on you Al!

There are some loose ends--the teacher is recruited because her mother invented the mathematics that permitted time travel, and worked out some of the theories with her daughter. They think she can help, but it's not clear that her math knowledge really helps at all. But overall it is good stuff--the desperation is conveyed through circumstance, and the strain on the characters, rather than any over the top explication.

My Goodreads Review

A Time to Reap, by Elizabeth Bear

I'll say right off the top that I loved this story.  Time travel stories are all about the motivation, and in this case it's a gorgeously told tale.  Kat is a child actor, performing in a play based on a videogame, that is in turn based on a murder mystery set in 1978.  She goes to the scene of the murder to gather background for the character she is performing.  Some characters live, and some die--her character is one of the victims.

Kat is a sixteen year old playing a twelve year old, and that makes a lot of difference in the story.  Because she gets sucked up in a time machine one of the characters built (by accident, it was supposed to be a space bender) and is deposited back in 1978.

There's a lot of interesting nostalgia about that time--being kind of old I am personally familiar with it.  Lots of junk food (that has not changed, though the character stays away from it to maintain low weight), unaccompanied children, no cell phones--it's an odd world for her.  Interesting to see the surprise at how that time was, reflecting on the difference between what I remember and how things are now.

The story centers on the relationship between Kat and the IRL version of the character she is playing, Sissy.  It is beautiful and complex, and weaves well into the mystery story as Kat tries to solve and prevent the murders, even as she risks changing the future in unknowable ways.  We get some time travel paradox and it is central to the resolution but not the story.

This should have gotten more respect.  It didn't get on the major (Hugo, Nebula) ballots and finished somewhat low on Locus.

The Bookstore At The End of America, by Charlie Jane Anders

This is a very modern-day allegory in which California has split from the rest of the United States, now known as America.  The split must be somewhat amicable, because America does not thoroughly invoke the current right wing border fetish--the protagonist's bookstore sits on the border, with one side in each place, and with some navigation one can cross over.  The proprietor finds things to like and dislike about both sides, and they seem economically tied.  But a water war breaks out, and all the propaganda leading up to it is making the respective citizens hate those caricatures of each other.  But they must shelter together.

Not really a new idea, but in the end I think a very necessary one in these times, and Anders handles it very gracefully.