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"'What do they want of us?' I asked again. She shrugged. 'All we know is what they don't want.' She looked away, and it was plain that the conversation was at an end."

Book club audiobook #3 this year. Our last book was a cozy fantasy. This is quite the opposite.

"Falling Bodies," by Rebecca Roanhorse; some exciting sci-fi world building around a narrative of revolution. "If Someone You Love Has Become a Vurdalak," by Sam J. Miller; the undead as a metaphor for co-dependence and addiction.

"Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont," by P. A. Cornell; a lovely time travel romance; previously read: "How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub" by P. Djèlí Clark

"Bruised-Eye Dusk," by Jonathan Louis Duckworth, a witch-hunt mystery with some serious local color made of gators and skeeters, an interesting take on good magic vs. evil, and a wandering gunslinger "spellbreaker" which I'd gladly follow across a whole anthology of more mysteries.

"Emotional Resonance" by V. M. Ayala; a love story between two corporate murder robots. It's cool to see another young, emerging writer featured in these anthologies.

"The Ankle Snatcher" by Grady Hendrix; legit a monster-under-the-bed story but with a sociological twist. This one was good.

"The Four Last Things" by Christopher Rowe. Probably brilliant, but I found it almost insufferably pretentious. If your content is enigmatic, I think your prose should be clear. If your prose is enigmatic, I think your content should be clear. And if both your prose and your content are enigmatic, it better be worth it. Some really good stories were excluded so this one could be part of this volume.

"Resurrection Highway" by A. R. Capetta, introduced me to the word "automancy." Aka, bringing cars back from the dead. Very Mad Max, but with magic.

"Form 8774-D," by Alex Irvine. A workplace superhero romantic comedy that nails putting the mundane and the fantastic side by side. The phrases "office Slack channel" and "Armageddon Phalanx" appear within pages of each other. Good fun for anyone who loved that feature on the Incredibles bonus disc with the superhero interviews when they were growing up.

"The Blade and the Bloodwright" by Sloane Leong - a sinuous and terrifying pirate nightmare of body horror sorcerery

"Calypso's Guest" by Andrew Sean Greer, absolutely kicking myself that I missed the conceit here until the last few pages; brilliant.

"The Long Game" by Ann Leckie. A disorienting (and then all-too re-orienting) fable about colonization, exploitation, longevity, and The Way Things Are from the perspective of an alien slug.
Previously read: "John Hollowback and the Witch" by Amal El-Mohtar

"Disassembling Light," by Ken Coleman. Dark Fantasy about creation, about the passing on of ills, about anxiety over loss of purpose and surrender to a new generation - a dark shadow of the notion that, as Yoda once said, a teacher is what their students grow beyond.
Previously read: "Window Boy," by Thomas Ha

"Bari and the Resurrection Flower," by Hana Lee. Stunning imagery, a gorgeously rendered fairytale of life and death and light and dark.

"Zeta-Epsilon" by Isabel J. Kim. A powerful little puzzle box of a non-linear sci-fi epic. Short but sweet.

"Eye & Tooth" by Rebecca Roanhorse. A fun ghost story starring sibling monster hunters with some Texas local color and a casual voice that had me smiling by the second paragraph.

"How It Unfolds" by James S. A. Corey. A multi-generational, non-linear tale of settling the far reaches of space with an emotional core about beating the odds.

Ahhhhhhhhhh

I never thought this moment would come

Finally getting back to this. Over the halfway point.

first re-read

Just now discovered there's a glossary in the back. I retract the statement I was about to make over how belabored the introduction feels with exposition. I could have been educating myself this whole time. But fr though, the world building is insane. And the suspense just ticked up like a lit fuse.