That Story Isn’t the Story, by John Wiswell

Short stories by default have to be more direct about their topic, and That Story Isn't the Story is. It’s a kind of magical realism story where the protagonist is trying to get out of an abusive living arrangement and does so with the help of a friend. The author does a good job of showing how difficult that can be—the friend is indeed a good one but the living arrangements are late stage capitalism precarious. What I liked here was the way the title of this story is used.  The characters use it to keep focus on the lesson being conveyed and not go down pity rabbit holes. Read it for that. The rest is ok and potentially moving to someone in that situation.

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The Giants of the Violet Sea, by Eugenia Triantafyllou

Not sure what to make of The Giants of the Violet Sea. The setting is a colony on an inhospitable world where most life is toxic to the colonists. One of these toxic life forms is highly revered--the Venedolphin. More like a whale, and the colonists understand it to have a complex social structure. But they are being poached. The protagonist is a girl child of a Venedolphin tamer and a healer. The society has structured gender roles so she could not be a tamer, but didn't want to be a healer like her mother so she left for a time. She comes back to solve the mystery of her brother's death.

The story is mostly confusing and kind of hard to follow. There's a lot of side issues, like a more-favored sister colony that seems to have ruined its environment, that are introduced but don't really go anywhere. In the end it all resolves but it's in a kind of awkward space where the author needed a lot more space to develop it all, or a lot less plot. It's also a bit awkward to read for a major award nominated story.

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The Necessity of Stars, by E. Catherine Tobler

This is a neat little novella blending themes of climate change, social disorder and mental health breakdown. Protagonist Breone Hemmerli is a diplomat, a very capable one who is suffering from dementia. She is called on to engage in diplomacy with what might be aliens (or might be created beings).

The story references the themes but it's mostly Breone's reflections on her memory and what is happening to it. One of the other reviewers said that it is more fun to discuss than to read, and I have to concur. Many of her reflections become repetitive, and not in that poetic way where you know it is on purpose. But there are some great lines in it.

Something that I think others have missed--Breone is aware of her breakdown and a lot of the imagery she uses about herself is that of an elderly person. But at the beginning of the book she states her age as sixty-three--not old enough to be retired, for many of us, and for a diplomat that's a prime age for using one's experience. Breone seems aware of this and has the idea that she should be capable, IS capable. Breone is suffering from early-onset dementia, a particularly debilitating condition, though often not as drawn out as dementia that occurs later.

Interesting as a literary piece. Not compelling as a read. But I'm glad I read it.

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Flowers for the Sea, by Zin Rocklyn

Maybe better than a 2 but not a 3. The book jacket description--Rosemary's Baby by way of Octavia Butler--is pretty accurate. Kind of dead on really. There's a lot of really luscious description of body horror, quite organic and messy. Pregnant Iraxi is definitely a force on this doomed ark (climate change refugees, probably?) in all sorts of ways. As literature it works pretty well. But it feels like it is just getting started, and yet had nowhere to go. So in the end just OK for me. Some uniqueness as a Black horror writer, it comes through in the writing, not quite enough for me to really like it.

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Elder Race, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I haven't read much Adrian Tchaikovsky (just this year, Shards of Earth), though I know he's written a lot. I get the feeling from the reviews that his recent work is more character driven than in the past, when he was more into plot twists. I would say that is the case with this book. The characters of Lynesse Fourth Daughter and Nyr Allem Tillich (Nygoroth Elder to Lynesse) are the heart of the story, and they make it a great read. Lynesse is from a culture of woman warriors on a colony founded from Earth but abandoned in a technological retreat. Nyr is there to study that culture as Earth has recovered. But during his time there Earth has retreated again. His struggles with his mission vs. his conviction that it is meaningless can seem forced, but that is explained by his bigger struggle with depression. No surprising twists or turns, but a very heartening tale of people being their best selves. Great action and adventure, pretty horrifying at times but overall fun.

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Across the Green Grass Fields, by Seanan McGuire

This series has a really good formula and Seanan McGuire puts out solid work. She understands and is writing for girls just crossing that line from girl to woman. This time bringing some diverse understanding in by making the main character intersex. Folks like this are near and dear to me so I have stuck with this series as a way of understanding them.

The setup and characterization are fine here, if slightly threadbare at this point. It's a concept that's been worked pretty hard now, and I find myself paying attention to the fact that "our world", the one these children come from and go back to, is central, and all others are relatively simple expressions of one kind of fantasy space or another. In this one it's fantasy equines. Why privilege our world, without doing that explicitly?

Have to say this one disappoints due to the ending. It's just kind of lame. Ending books is hard, and it just seems like McGuire was on deadline to get this out and start on the next one. 2.5 rounded up for a sensitive story.

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Comfort Me With Apples, by Catherynne Valente

This is a jaw-dropper of a book. I have tended to think of Valente as a kind of lightweight, but not any more. The style of the book is horror, but there's a whole lot more going on here than jumpscares. It is deeply allegorical, and the reveal of the allegory is gradual. I should have read it more than once. I didn't pick up on a lot of the references until I read other reviews with spoilers in them.

Between this and "The Past Is Red" it looks like Valente is ready to move into a powerful writing phase. It's always been fun to read her stuff--lots of action and adventure, and she's not afraid to be feminine in her writing. This was better than fun.

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