Status Updates From Multispecies Cities: Solarp...

By the Light of the Stars, A Rabbit Egg for Flora, Abso

Crew by E.-H. Nießler 4,5⭐
I'm very easy for the marine stories apparently, especially if they have grouchy whales.

The Songs That Humanity Lost Reluctantly to Dolphins by Shweta Taneja 3⭐
Very metaphorical, very literary, not my cuppa, but there was objectively nothing wrong with this one.


The last one to go!

Wandjina by Amin Chehelnabi 3,5⭐
Story about rescuing animals set in Australia gone extreme thanks to climate change.

The Streams Are Paved With Fish Traps by Octavia Cade 4⭐
There are eels under the city... This story kind of reminded me of No Man's Land which is definitely because of the eels. There is also marriage in crisis. It was good, but didn't really resonate with me personally.

Arfabad by Rimi B. Chatterjee ⭐⭐
Didn't enjoy this one. Not entirely sure why.

The Mammoth Steps by Andrew Dana Hudson ⭐⭐⭐
I wanted more from this one. It was really short and... yeah, it felt more like a snippet.


Five last short-stories to go!

In Two Minds by Joel R. Hunt 4,5⭐
Oh my god, this one was good! And so tense... The ending was a bit abrupt, could have been a bit longer probably, but this was good. Made me think of Feed Them Silence, again...

Abso by Sarah E. Stevens 3,5⭐
Very sweet story about a Martian hermit and his mechanical dog. A bit of a cliché, but... whatever...

"I tell my children, imagine the river is a person." Aster Magat tells me. "Would you throw garbage at a person just because you're too lazy to find a bin?"

Children of Asphalt by Phoebe Wagner 4,5⭐
Made me cry...

When we asked our children why, they said the crying landrus had been asking for help. Hadn't we heard?

A Life With Cibi by Natsumi Tanaka 4⭐
!!! This story read like a cozy take on cannibalism. Kind of reminded me of Sayaka Murata just a little bit, would read more by this author...

Mariposa Awakening by Josep F. Nacino 3,5⭐
Mangroves against climate change induce floods! I quite enjoyed this one, although there wasn't much of a plot and since this story is supposed to be by a more experienced author (compared to others in this collection) I would have expect more polished prose.

Iron Fox in the Marble City by Vlad-Andrei Cucu ⭐⭐⭐
This was okay. I suspect that not reading it in one (or two, or three...) goes didn't really help the story much. I was confused by some bits but overall definitely solid and well written idea.

Posters with graphics are plastered all over the wall, warning of dire consequences. The birds are protected. So many species have died.

Thu's instincts told her not to follow this random stranger into the tiger-filed jungle, but the heat rising in her chest and cheeks obliterated any rational objections she might have come up with. "Sure, I'd love to go with you," she said before quickly adding, "to learn about the hunt."

Wartooth snapped his jaws. Not at her. Just a snap like he didn't like the taste of that. Which was fair. Efe wasn't fish and she wasn't, really, a land-dweller, either. She didn't fit. Anywhere. Kind of like Wartooth, not that she was going to say it out loud over the comms.

One afternoon as we lay together, I don't know why I spoke to him in snail tongue. "What did you say?" L asked. "That's what a snail told me one rainy day," I replied. "It was worried its slime trail would was away and its mate wouldn't be able to follow..." "Not likely,"L said. "This snail knows his way back home."


Mixed feelings about this one, but it has some beautiful bits.