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"Emergency Protocol" by Lettie Prell
This very short story is like a training document for the civilians in the Matrix to prepare them to be taken over by Agents. 4/5

"Extracurricular Activities" by Yoon Ha Lee
This story covers a relatively straightforward mission for Shuos Jedao. I think I liked it more than Ninefox Gambit, which is a many-layered and confusing game of a novel. 3.5/5

"The Music of a New Path" By A. T. Greenblatt
This story is about a sentient cargo ship that goes rogue, and the crew's attempts to listen to the ship and figure out what went wrong. 3.5/5

"The Ship Cat of the Suzaku Maru" By SL Huang
This story is about the vital service that cats provide starships from a cat's perspective. 4/5

"Silence in the Dark" by Alexandra Pitchford
This story is about the search for a dangerous mystery ship. I expect there to be more to this universe, too. 3/5

"Of Dreamers and Prophets — A “Chronicles of Nethra” Story By E.R. Donaldson"
This story is missing context. Several of the stories in this collection are part of existing universes, but so far only this one feels incomplete. I have many questions about the setting. I did not like the protagonist much. 2.5/5

"Planetary" By Zig Zag Claybourne
This story is about a biological construct built by AIs that gained independence from humans having an existential crisis in the face of death and first contact. It is emotional and reflective, leaving lots of room to breathe. 3.5/5

"Quantum Leap" By Justin C. Key
I would describe this story as cosmic horror completely independent of Lovecraft, but the ending seems more ambiguously hopeful than doomed. It features a mysterious and inexplicable object that inexorably alters all humans who encounter it. While the object is definitely creepy, it may be benevolent. 4/5

"The Planet Builders" By Peter Tieryas
This story is about gods making planets. Except they are students simulating worlds for the Diety Board. Yahweh is among the builders and of course Earth is a notorious failure. It's a fun premise, but I don't think it goes far enough in any direction. It raises so many questions that it does not substantively explore. DarkMatter2525 did a better job on YouTube. 3/5

"Team Building Exercise" by Valerie Valdes
This story shows a corporate-mandated team-building exercise for a starship crew. It seems just as empty and foolish as corporate nonsense in our day, but it may be more clever than it initially seems. I do really appreciate speculation about mundane aspects of life in the future. 4.5/5

"Whose Spaceship Is It Anyway?" By John Chu
This story describes an improv audition for about seven people. The scene is about a starship crew, but the actual story is not science fiction. I think it would work in a nongenre collection or anthology. 2/5

"Cumulative Ethical Guidelines for Mid-range Interstellar Storytellers" by Malka Older
This story speculates about an underexplored aspect of interstellar travel: the need for entertainment. It imagines more traditional storytelling as a core component of space travel. It reads like a dialogue between storytellers discussing a training document. I feel like it exaggerates the ethical concerns. 3.5/5

"The Trip" by Mari Kurisato
An intimate look into a cyberpunk dystopia. Corie is the best virtual data layer creator on a seed ship leaving the Sol system, but it's not enough to afford cancer treatment for her best friend Amy. Corie is forced into a desperate plan to save her friend's life. 4/5

"Seven Things I Learned Traveling Through Space with a Genetically Engineered Lesbian Peahen" by Jennifer Lee Rossman
"I went to space with a genetically engineered lesbian space peahen, and I
found the love love space love of my life again." I think that pretty much sums it up. 3/5

"Snowed In" by C. S. E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez
This is a great story. It uses a charity event to explore the history of a deep space colony ship. I have never seen quite this combination of sleeper ship, deep space colonization, corporate screw-up, evolution, and philanthropy. The story has a good sense of humor too. 5/5

"Meteorites" by Anjali Patel
This is an amazing story. It starts with a disaster in space and unfolds through the reflections that four extraordinary women make about their lives as they come to terms with their end. Devastatingly beautiful. 5/5

"Salvage Blossom" by L.X. Beckett
This story is about a corporate mission to retrieve a wayward executive. The entanglement between business and family seems vaguely Asian-inspired, like a zaibatsu in space. It feels like the middle chapter in an epic space opera. 3/5

"How to Win Friends and Influence Rebellion" by R.S.A. Garcia
I love multispecies galaxy-spanning civilizations. This one reminds me of my favorite aspects of the Wayfarers series and the Halo universe. I am eager to read more from this universe in Lex Talionis. 4/5

"Gort, Cinder, and Sphinx" by R J Theodore
I think this one will be a popular story, but I am confused. The premise is that the yowling of cats allows for FTL travel. However, it is written in the second person and obscures many details. What happened to the humans? How intelligent are these cats? I expect I will have to reread several times to get the hints. 3/5

"The Atrox Killboard" by CG Volars
I think this story is a little bit of a bait-and-switch. It seems like it's about Izo escaping his extraterrestrial abductors. However, it ends abruptly before his situation is resolved. Instead, it provides subtle political commentary about political moderates represented by Tearn. 3.5/5

I am not liking this book. It starts so abruptly and rushes so much it feels surreal and disorienting. I do not believe this country handyman would be so copacetic about an extraterrestrial taking over his garage and I do not believe this alien would be so cavalier about first contact. I hope it gets funnier - most of the humor is of the "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" school.

"Parakeets" by Kevin Brockmeier
An eerie short about a cold spot that means so much more. Poor birds. 4/5

"Visiting Hours" by Lilliam Rivera
Pregnancy as body horror. The crushing oppression of a bad marriage. A creepy unexplained old lady. A hospital. 3/5

"Joy, and Other Poisons" by Vajra Chandrasekera
"We will never stop coming. We know they think of us as the monsters." Body horror (undiscovered fangs, unhinged jaws) and an Invasion of the Body Snatchers type insidious takeover from the perspective of relentless, emotionless post-human monsters. 4.5/5

"Instrument of the Ancestors" by Troy L. Wiggins
This is a supernatural revenge story cum cautionary tale in the mode of an urban legend. I could see this in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. That said, these boys don't deserve this. 4/5

"Gabriel Metsu, Man Writing a Letter, c. 1664-66" by Helen McClory
Is this about a haunted painting? A mentally ill museum docent? I don't know, but I struggled to get through these five pages. 1.5/5

"Pictures of Heaven" by Ben Loory
This seems to be a surreal story of infernal punishment. It reminds me of Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey or "Hell is the Absence of God" by Ted Chiang with a stronger horror bent. 4/5

"Human Milk for Human Babies" by Lindsay King-Miller
This is a creepy story of stranger danger. The ending is no surprise, but the story effectively builds tension and dread until the other shoe drops. More Internet horror stories should be like this and less like Unfriended. 4/5

"Downpour" by Joseph Salvatore
This is a surreal story. I didn't know why people at a New York train station reacted so aggressively to a rat. I guess the ending attack explained the unsettling response. It truly is horrifying. 3.5/5

"Caravan" by Pedro Iniguez
This story follows a boy in a migrant caravan on its way to the US. It depicts a harrowing trip of danger and fear. It reminded me of The Queen of the Cicadas by V. Castro. 4/5