Little Free Library, by Naomi Kritzer

[Single]

★★★★☆ A delightful adventure in books and revolution.

(Uncanny Horror) When Megian sets out her homemade book exchange, a mysterious neighbor starts trading objects and art for the books, but some of the items don’t seem to come from this world at all. (2,518 words; Time: 08m)

Recommended By: 👍MHaskins+1 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

Monster, by Naomi Kritzer

[Clarkesworld]

★★★★★ Overwhelming

(SF Thriller) Cecily goes in search of her highschool best friend, who seems to have hidden in China where he’s using her research to try to create enhanced human beings. (10,936 words; Time: 36m)

The Thing About Ghost Stories, by Naomi Kritzer

[Uncanny]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(Ghosts) Leah studies stories people tell about their own experiences with ghosts. To her it’s all folklore—not real at all—until she gets hints her dead mother wants to talk to her about something. (8,113 words; Time: 27m)

Prophet of the Roads, by Naomi Kritzer

[Anthology]

★★★★★ Good Characters, Cool Setting, Nice Twist

(SF Thriller) The Engineer is an AI that used to rule humanity. Luca carries a working piece of it, and looks for ways to bring the Engineer back (4,721 words; Time: 15m)

Field Biology of the Wee Fairies, by Naomi Kritzer

[Apex]

★★★★★ Sweet, Funny, and Inspiring

(Modern Fantasy) When other girls catch fairies, they wish for beauty, but Amelia just wants to do well on her science project. (4,700 words; Time: 15m)

Evil Opposite, by Naomi Kritzer

Find this issue

(SF Multiverse) A Ph.D. student focusing on alternate universes builds a machine that lets him look at lives he might have lived. (4,894 words; Time: 16m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

Paradox, by Naomi Kritzer

Read this issue

(Time Travel) In which a chorus of time travelers give us advice, in the paradoxical way of time travelers. (1,637 words; Time: 05m)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average

Waiting Out the End of the World in Patty's Place Cafe, by Naomi Kritzer

[Clarkesworld]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(Apocalyptic) The narrator wants to spend the last hours before the asteroid strike with her parents, but she runs out of gas in the middle of South Dakota. (4,137 words; Time: 13m)

Recommended By: GDozois+2 Readers+0

Cat Pictures Please, by Naomi Kritzer

Read this issue

Entertaining tale of a modern search engine that achieves real artificial intelligence by accident and decides it wants to be helpful to people. (3,429 words; Time: 11m)

Rating: ★★★★☆, Recommended

Recommended By: RHorton:5

Cleanout, by Naomi Kritzer

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December 2015; 5,242 words
Rating: 3, Good, ordinary, story  Recommended By:   SFRevu:4

The narrator and her two sisters have come to clean out their comatose mother's house and select items they might want to remember her by.

Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)

Pro: The three sisters have very different personalities, and by the end of the story, we know them all very well. The hints that something wasn't quite normal accumulate, as do the hints that the mother needs some help before she can leave this world. The ending comes together as we might expect it to.

Con: Aliens that were similar enough to human to fool doctors but not enough to be fertile are hard to believe. It's disappointing that we don't learn any more than this about the mystery,

So Much Cooking, by Naomi Kritzer

Read this issue

During a flu epidemic, the narrator uses her cooking blog to tell the world about how she and her family make do on short rations. (8,196 words; Time: 27m)

Rating: ★★★★★, Award-Worthy

Jubilee: A Seastead Story, by Naomi Kritzer

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January/February 2015; 7,217 words
Rating: 3, Good, ordinary, story

Beck is a teen-age girl who lives on Seastead, a collection of offshore platforms claiming independence from the US. Their organization has collapsed, and do-gooders from the mainland are trying to help deal with a couple of epidemics.

Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)

Pro: Although this is part of a sequence of stories set in Seastead, this one can stand alone. Beck earns the right to be involved, and she manages to make a difference fixing the problems on Lib.

Con: Reading it in isolation you get the feeling that you've missed most of the story. Out of context of the rest of the series, it leaves loose ends everywhere.

The Silicon Curtain: A Seastead Story, by Naomi Kritzer

Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August 2015; 6,541 words
Rating: 2, Not recommended

Teen-age girl on libertarian-inspired floating city tries to help a boy before her mother takes her to California.

Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)

This series of stories is quite interesting, but this one is unable to stand by itself. Rebecca becomes a "Mary Sue" in this story: she meets no serious conflict whatsoever. The ending is no ending at all--it simply sets up the next installment.