Life Ever After by Carla Grauls ★★☆☆☆

No amount of production value could change the fact that this was just two people arguing for an hour.

Autonomous by Annalee Newitz ★★☆☆☆

Man: Hey Blue Bot, you’re looking good.

Blue Bot notices Man’s erection.

Blue Bot: Did you want to have sex?
Man: No! I’m not gay!

Blue Bot researches humans on the internet. Blue Bot replaces its blue carapace with a pink one.

Man: You’re pink?!?! Why are you pink?

Pink Bot: I decided this was me. Do you want to have sex?

Man: Yes!

After sex.
Man: Did you enjoy that?

Pink Bot: I enjoyed that you enjoyed it.

Man: I knew you were a woman.

Dreamcatcher by Stephen King ★★★☆☆

King wrote this scifi novel longhand with a fountain pen, sometimes by candlelight, while recovering from his car accident. Well, if you call a car hitting you while you are walking a car accident. 

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente ★★☆☆☆

This book is what comes from combining refined sugar, cocaine, and a word processor. The comma to period ratio was about 100:1. They were frenzied, rabid sentences.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1) by Becky Chambers ★★★☆☆

This was the Most Millennial Thing I’ve ever read. A sitcom in space strongly advocating a new normal.

Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson ★★★★☆

"Life is a planetary expression, and can only survive on its home planet."

A cautionary tale, a much needed message... and the wet blanket of science fiction.

What I enjoyed was that Aurora was in no way predictable, that alone kept me reading long into the night. 

A Plutonian Wife by Kenneth Buff★★★★☆

I love free super short scifi gender expectation swap stories! Kristoff is a rich Earth guy sick of being loved for his money but dismissed for his average looks. Where can a bloke go to be appreciated as a man and not a wallet? Why Pluto of course! 

X-Files: The Truth Is Out There

Dead Ringer by Kelley Armstrong ★★★★★ 

Oh that takes me back!  My favorite episodes were the one-off monster tales, the pit stops of strange.  Kelley Armstrong, urban fantasy fae mistress, has given us a treat!

The Future is Female! 25 Classic Science Stories by Women

Miracle of the Lily (1928) by Clare Winger Harris ★★★★★

“Man is not happy, unless he has some enemy to overcome, some difficulty to surmount.” 

Amazing first story!  Just as humans took over for the dinosaurs so the insects are fighting to take over from man in this near future drama.  

Told from multiple generations of the same family it is more about what drives us, physically and spiritually, as people.  It is not enough to merely exist.

This was layered, entertaining, and insightful.  Loved it!

Read it for yourself: 

https://ebooks.genesismachina.ca/harris-the-miracle-of-the-lily/

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018

Carnival Nine by Caroline M. Yoachim ★★★★★ 

In this mountain of mediocre I was completely unprepared for a tearjerker.  

From the first lines I saw this as a Tim Burton movie, animated like A Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s a story about family, and using the time you have to be with the ones you love.

And now I’m crying harder and I have to go call my mom for no reason.  

Read it for yourself: http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/carnival-nine/