Jenny returns to her home planet in the midst of civil unrest. A stay-at-home order has been issued in the wake of anti-alien protests, and only she can escort her neighbor Katika, a Razuli girl, home safely.
Exile's End is a complex, sometimes uncomfortable examination of artifact repatriation and cultural appropriation. An artifact of indescribable and irreplaceable beauty created by an "extinct" culture has been the basis of another culture's origin stories. The race who created the artifact has survived on a distant world and has sent a representative to reclaim it, throwing everything into question.
Inspired by the SF camp in Danzhai, China, which is co-hosted by the Future Administration Authority (FAA) and Wanda Group.
"Yellow and the Perception of Reality" by Maureen McHugh is a science fiction story about a woman who delves into the mystery of why and how her twin sister, a physicist, has been brain damaged in a lab accident in which two of her colleagues died.
The planet of Quányuán is arid to the point of being uninhabitable. Wetness is a concept left back on Earth. That doesn’t stop one elderly woman from stepping outside the safety of the colony whenever she can for the brief opportunity to fully experience the outside world.
Magical Realism || When Vivian and her daughter witness the family matriarch die without leaving a corpse, Vivian can no longer ignore the family "gift" or the choice that lies before her.
Science Fiction || A powerful near future story about two people on a whale-processing rig: one a researcher, the other a worker—and the discovery they make by listening to whale song.
Love has no time limits, but life does. Elizabeth Bear gives us a future where life and love and identity have so many more options than they do today.
Science Fiction || A provocative story about the relationship between the humans on a British airbase and the AI security system that guards that base. When a group of humans are killed, the question is who is responsible and why.
Science Fiction || A mother. A son. A virtual world they both share where each could live forever and achieve their fullest potential. Until one of them decides that isn't enough for life.
