Status Updates From Horse of a Different Color:...

Avast, Abaft!: Gilbert & Sullivan meets Peter Pan, etc., as one does.

Frogskin Cap: Dying Earth story about the last curator of the museum of man.

Ninieslando: A secret country of Esperantists under No Man's Land.

The Horse of a Different Color (That You Rode in On):

The King of Where-I-Go: Reread. Brother & his psychic sister reshape history.

Thin, On the Ground: Two Texan teenagers have an adventure in Mexico.

Kindermarchen: What an utterly ridiculous pun of a story, LOL.

Why Then Ile Fit You: A dying actor with dementia experiences some strange things.

The Wolf-Man of Alcatraz: Werewolf in prison, nice guy otherwise.

"The Bravest Girl I Ever Knew . . .": Ann Darrow if she was real and made a few movies before retiring.

5* for "Ninieslando," wherein Waldrop takes an obscure WWI school of thought to its logical (and heartbreaking) conclusion. Also, a textbook example of what Orson Scott Card is talking about when he talks about a "milieu" story.

5* for "Frogskin Cap." If Paolo Bacigaluppi was a little more economical (yet still effective) with his post-apocalyptic world-building, it would look like this story.

5* for "Avast, Abaft!" The very model of a modern, major pirate story to end all pirate stories because of this line: "It was as if he were living a dream; he was translated to a higher state of consciousness that included a perceptual breakthrough and had a paradigm shift. It was like having deja vu two times in a row."

4* for "Kindermarchen." I should've just given this a 5, but it did bother me that the piece didn't have the punch I thought it should, being 1600 words long. Of course, that could've been because I'd pretty much had the end figured out before I got there.

5* for "Thin, on the Ground." I don't think I got a single reference/Easter egg in this story. It totally didn't mater.

5* for "The Bravest Girl I Ever Knew." King Kong is real. 'Nuff said.

5* for "The King of Where-I-Go." I think this is the kind of magical realist story of childhood past that Steven Millhauser tries to write, but with a heart(ache) to it that only Waldrop can pull off. Also, "Coca-Cola comic book orgy." is now my favorite HW line.