Every Tiny Tooth and Claw (or: Letters from the First Month of the New Directorate), by Marissa Lingen

[BCS]

★★★☆☆

(High Fantasy) Two lovers in academia exchange letters ostensibly about newly discovered rodents, but it quickly becomes clear there’s more than meets the eye. (3,508 words; Time: 11m)

Filaments of Hope, by Marissa Lingen

[Analog]

★★★☆☆

(SF Drama) With the space program cancelled, Lif returns to Iceland to decide what to do. They find local interest in their work on edible lichens. (2,647 words; Time: 08m)

Wrap Me in Oceans Wide, by Marissa Lingen

[Strange Horizons]

★★★☆☆

(Undersea Thriller) Something in the water near the undersea city is hurting people’s gills, and Murex suspects his boyfriend, a surface dweller, knows more than he’s letting on. (3,292 words; Time: 10m)

Painting the Massive Planet, by Marissa Lingen

[Analog]

★★★☆☆ Average

(SF Art) A team of artists wrestles with the problem of how to depict Jupiter in a realistic way. (952 words; Time: 03m)

The Deepest Notes of the Harp and Drum, by Marissa Lingen

[BCS]

★★★☆☆ Average

(Fantasy Adventure) Jane disposed of her sister’s body in the forest where the wild pigs ate it, but now she fears a talking harp made from pig bones may rat her out. (3,077 words; Time: 10m)

The Thing, With Feathers, by Marissa Lingen

[Uncanny]

★★★★☆ Vivid, Moving, Chilling

(Post-Apocalyptic Modern Fantasy) Val leads an almost solitary life keeping the lighthouse at an inland lake. A man needing help with his magic interrupts her routine and brings unwelcome reminders of the life she lost. (5,999 words; Time: 19m)

The Jagged Bones of Sea-Saw Town, by Marissa Lingen

[Analog]

★★★☆☆ Average

(Climate Change) Five hundred years after climate change, two women in a Swedish coastal town wrestle with recovery issues. One wants to move the town back to the sea and the other is obsessed with restoring caribou. (1,433 words; Time: 04m)

This Will Not Happen to You, by Marissa Lingen

[Uncanny]

★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended

(Medical SF) If you get sick (which you won’t) you probably won’t get infected with something hard to diagnose and hard to cure. Or get treatments worse than the disease. (857 words; Time: 02m)

Left to Take the Lead, by Marissa Lingen

[Analog]

★★★★☆ Great coming-of-age story

(SF Adventure; Oort Cloud Stories) After a disaster in the Oort Cloud left her family penniless, young Holly works on a farm on Earth to pay for her college education while waiting for her uncles to raise funds to put the family back in business. (11,492 words; Time: 38m)

Although this is one of many stories in this series, there’s no need to read earlier ones first. If you like this one, you should have a look at Blue Ribbon.

Finding Their Footing, by Marissa Lingen

[Analog]

★★★★☆ Tender and Touching

(SF Adventure; Oort Cloud Stories) In the wake of her husband’s death, Anke leaves the Oort cloud for a job on Callisto, bringing her kids with her. A planned side-trip to Triton goes awry, and they made a hard decision. (4,974 words; Time: 16m)

There's no need to read the earlier stories in order to appreciate this one.

Lines of Growth, Lines of Passage, by Marissa Lingen

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(Fantasy Adventure) A wizard merges with a cherry tree and finds that that gives her a whole new perspective on things—a perspective that might hold the key to solving some age-old problems. (4,055 words; Time: 13m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

Two Point Three Children, by Marissa Lingen

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(Legal SF) Judge Diane Bui hears a custody case involving a couple’s adopted child, but in this case, the “child” is an AI they were training together. (1,707 words; Time: 05m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

The Influence of the Iron Range, by Marissa Lingen

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(Alternate History Fantasy) Viola helps keep the 1888 election free of influence from Faery, which almost destroyed the country in 1876. In a little Minnesota town, she’s about to meet a stronger-than-expected adversary. (6,031 words; Time: 20m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

Across Pack Ice, a Fire, by Marissa Lingen

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(High Fantasy) Solveig seeks vengeance for the magical plague that took her beloved husband, but she can’t act openly or else she risks dragging her own country into a war. (5,567 words; Time: 18m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

An Unearned Death, by Marissa Lingen

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(High Fantasy) Osrith helps people near the end of life find a god who’ll take them, for in her world, no matter how old, worn, or broken you are, death must be earned. (4,259 words; Time: 14m)

Rating: ★★★★☆ Surprising, Effective, Touching

Vulture's Nest, by Marissa Lingen

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(Solar System SF; Oort Cloud Stories) A virus devastated the Oort Cloud communities, and many of the survivors hate the family businesses who salvage abandoned ships. (2,525 words; Time: 08m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

Out of the Woods, by Marissa Lingen

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(Historical Fantasy) Lovis uses her magic to help the resistance against the tyrannical brother of the king. When the king dies in battle, she has to make some hard decisions. (3,999 words; Time: 13m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

Drifting Like Leaves, Falling Like Acorns, by Marissa Lingen

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(Military SF) Bismuth is getting tired of the war--from the modified humans who glide like flying squirrels to the modified frogs whose secretions calm solders down. (3,102 words; Time: 10m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

Upside the Head, by Marissa Lingen

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(Hard SF) With money from their team, Catherine thinks she's close to a breakthrough treating the head injuries of hockey players. (4,582 words; Time: 15m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

Points of Origin, by Marissa K. Lingen

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(Planetary SF; Oort Cloud Stories) Heartwarming story of how Torulf and Judith, an elderly couple on Mars, unexpectedly find themselves given custody of three preteen grandchildren they didn't know they had. (5,849 words; Time: 19m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average