Another week, another batch of short stories and flash fiction! I read more than one story several days, since they were either flash pieces or simply shorter than average.
I know I should probably comment on the stories or review them in some fashion, but, well, I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. We’ll just say that not all of the stories were to my taste and leave it at that. But I am going to single out the stories that I thoroughly enjoyed, so at least you’ll know the ones that really hit the mark.
Here are the stories from this week:
- Salvage, by Margaret Ronald (from the anthology Ceaseless Steam, edited by Scott H. Andrews)
- Help Fund My Robot Army!!!, by Keffy R.M. Kehrli; and For Entertainment Purposes Only, by Jeremiah Tolbert (both from the anthology Help Fund My Robot Army!!!, edited by John Joseph Adams)
- Zero G R&J, by Mary Robinette Kowal; and A Memorial to the Patriots, by Jake Kerr (both from Help Fund My Robot Army!!!)
- Practical College Majors in a Robot-Dominated Society, by Nicky Drayden; Kitty Is Alive, Kitty Is Dead,
by Jennifer Campbell-Hicks; and Investment Strategies in a Post-Apocalyptic World, by Nicky Drayden (all online at Daily Science Fiction)
- When the Lady Speaks, by Damien Angelica Walters (from the anthology What Fates Impose, edited by Nayad Monroe)
- Power Steering, by Wendy N. Wagner (from the anthology What Fates Impose, edited by Nayad Monroe)
- Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (the Successful Kind), by Holly Black (online at Lightspeed Magazine)
My clear favorite this week is Zero G R&J, by Mary Robinette Kowal — and not just because it includes mentions of David Tennant, Nathan Fillion, Tom Hiddleston, and Benedict Cumberbatch. This story was laugh-out-loud funny on a day when I really needed it. (Thank you, Ms. Kowal.) I also thoroughly enjoyed Keffy R.M. Kehrli’s Help Fund My Robot Army!!!, which inspired the anthology of the same name, and I highly recommend Holly Black’s Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (the Successful Kind), which reminded me a bit of Firefly.
Will there be more stories next week? Of course there will! I still have some anthologies to finish…
(Missed week one’s list, which includes the origins of this experiment? Here you go.)