Cristina Jurado

As with most anthologies, a mixed bag.
1. Vina Jie-Min Prasad "A Series of Steaks". 2 young women 3d print fake beef. 4/5
2. Daína Chaviano "Accursed Lineage - a family of dead people watch the living. 3/5
3. Darcie Little Badger "Nkásht íí"- indifferent ghost story. 2.5/5
4. T.L. Huchu "Ghostalker"- an interesting story about a girl who passes on messages for ghosts, but then it just stops,no proper ending nothing. Annoying. 3/5
5. Taiyo Fujii "Violation of the TrueNet Security Act” - geeky coder reactivates an old programme. Poor. 2/5
6. Vandana Singh "Ambiguity Machines: An Examination" - time travel. ok 3/5
7. Basma Abdel Aziz "Scenes from the Life of an Autocrat" - may be meant to be a satire on state control or mindless conformity? Poor. 2/5
8. Liliana Colanzi "Our Dead World" - melancholy tale of pioneers to Mars attempting to set up infrastructure for new colonists while succumbing to the effects of radiation and loneliness. 4/5
9. Bo-young Kim "An Evolutionary Myth" - long-winded fantasy. DNF 1/5
10. Israel Alonso "You Will See the Moon Rise" - war story. DNF 1/4
11. Sara Saab "The Barrette Girls" - very bizarre story about helium that somehow takes the form of young girls and must be vacuumed out of that shape to be used. Highly peculiar but interesting. 3/5
12. Chi Hui "The Calculations of Artificials" - who is a real human and who is an android? Feels a bit like an old Star Trek episode. 3/5
13. Ana Hurtado "El Cóndor del Machángara" – birds, an angry dad, and no story. DNF 1/5
14. Karla Schmidt "Alone, on the Wind" – more birdy imagery. DNF 1/5
15. Eliza Victoria "The Seventh" – strange horror story about a woman in a well. 2/5
16. Tochi Onyebuchi "Screamers" – the whole essence of a human – pain, joy, fear – packed into envelopes that can explode anyone who opens them. Very strange but good. 4/5
17. R.S.A. Garcia "The Bois" – a sentient forest. 3/5
18. Giovanni De Feo "Ugo" – is it time travel or schizophrenia? 4/5… (mer)

It’s always fascinating to read stories from other cultures and this series has always done a great job finding new and interesting stories from around the world, and from cultures you wouldn’t normally expect.
Collections like this are often a mixed bag with some stories appealing more than others though for me this was one of the few where even the stories I didn’t like as much still really interested me and I was glad to read all of them.
My favorites were the first three in the book, Nkasht ii by Darcie Little Badger which really makes me want to read more speculative fiction from Native American authors in general and this author (and characters) in particular. I look forward to finding more from her.
I also loved A Series of Steaks by Vina Jie-Min Prasad, it was one of the strongest science fiction stories in the collections.
And finally, accursed Lineage by Daina Chaviano, a strange little gem and a family I would love to spend more time with.
These three stood out, but most of the others were just as good, for me this was one of their strongest collections yet. Definitely one I will be rereading over time.… (mer)