Still You Linger, Like Soot in the Air, by Matthew Kressel

[Lightspeed]

★★★☆☆

(Far-Future SF) Gil teaches students how to communicate with the Numens, vast, star-spanning alien intelligences indistinguishable from gods. (5,664 words; Time: 18m)

Your Future Is Pending, by Matthew Kressel

[Clarkesworld]

★★★☆☆

(Cyberpunk) In a future where successful people spend most of their time in cyberspace, Martha struggles to make ends meet servicing the systems that take care of them. (5,178 words; Time: 17m)

Truth Is Like the Sun, by Matthew Kressel

[Lightspeed]

★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended

(SF Music) Jaim’s live concert in space is the big musical event of the decade, if not the century, and it changes the world. (4,491 words; Time: 14m)

The Walk to Distant Suns, by Matthew Kressel and Mercurio D. Rivera

[Analog]

★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended

(SF Adventure) Shandi works at the L5 point helping rich people emigrate from a dying Earth to a distant paradise planet. She’s determined to make the trip herself, though, and bring her family with her—rules or no rules. (8,587 words; Time: 28m)

The Garden Beyond Her Infinite Skies, by Matthew Kressel

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Aya is a farmer who grows realms of galaxies, skilled in finding and pruning the sick and malignant. (6,434 words; Time: 21m)

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended

Love Engine Optimization, by Matthew Kressel

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(Near-Future SF) Sam is a talented hacker who extracts Jane’s personal info in order to seduce her. (5,294 words; Time: 17m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

The Last Novelist (or A Dead Lizard in the Yard), by Matthew Kressel

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(SF) Reuth has come to a beach resort on Ardabaab to try to finish his last novel before he dies. A young girl distracts him, then inspires him. (5,809 words; Time: 19m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

The Singularity Is in Your Hair, by Matthew Kressel

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(Cyber SF) Stricken with muscular dystrophy, the teenage narrator lives almost entirely in VR, where she hopes a rogue AI can save her. (2,773 words; Time: 09m)

Rating: ★★★★☆ Clever use of VR and AI