The House Beyond Your Sky, by Benjamin Rosenbaum

I am unintentionally rereading some things these days, but no serious regrets here.  The House Beyond Your Sky is a very good exercise in far-future, or just far-speculative, fiction.  The entities span worlds, and possibly soon universes.  Matthias is creating that new universe, but he maintains his human connection. 

It's fun to read through the inventiveness here, that got it a Hugo nomination for best short story in 2007.  I enjoyed it both times, and may remember it better now.  Enjoy it for yourself.

A Siege of Cranes, by Benjamin Rosenbaum

A Siege of Cranes (the link is to Rosenbaum's The Ant King collection) is quite a unique story, challenging to get one's mind around and yet pretty darned fascinating as well.  Marish is found in the remains of his village, destroyed by someone or something.  He is not thinking too well, but decides to pursue it.  He meets an unlikely but capable Anubis-type fellow, and together they discover that the destroyer is The White Witch.  Their pursuit involves djinns and other strange beasts, and the companions don't quite cooperate perfectly, but no matter.  Marish here is quite impressive as a creative thinker, he is quite good at resolving what look to be battle situations without any battle at all.  A really interesting fantasy--I didn't feel like I was reading a human tale in a fantasy world.  The world was truly alien in its view, but with recognizable points of reference.  Good stuff, worthy of its World Fantasy Award short story nomination in 2007 and of 3 stars.

Biographical Notes to "A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, With Airplanes", by Benjamin Rosenbaum, by Benjamin Rosenbaum

No, the title of the post is not a misprint.  Biographical Notes... (part of Rosenbaum's The Ant King collection) is one of those highly self-referential SF stories, so much so in this case that the story nearly disappears into philosophy.  There is a plot, but that is mere trappings for thinking.  The author's protagonist is eponymously named, a plausible-fabulist in an alternative world made as unlikely as possible, with an entirely different view of causality from our own.  He must think his way through his situation as though he were in our world, with our view of causality.  With me so far?  I thought not. 

Having dabbled in the philosophical, it's pretty easy for me to either think too hard about this stuff or dismiss it.  This story possibly deserves more attention than I gave it.  Or possibly not. It did get a Hugo nomination for best novelette in 2005, which is pretty good.  You might give it a try.  I give it 3 stars, for the attempt.