Martian Cinema, by Gabriela Santiago

[Strange Horizons]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(SF Kids' Adventure) Three little girls look for Martian monsters in the empty lava tubes under the Mars Colony. It’s off-limits, but there can’t really be anything there, can there? (5,094 words; Time: 16m)

Have Your #Hugot Harvested at This Diwata-Owned Café, by Vida Cruz

[Strange Horizons]

★★☆☆☆

(Modern Fantasy) In Manila, a Diwata opens a cafe to cater to humans and to other mythic creatures. Humans usually can’t eat mythic food, though, and mythics often prefer to eat humans, so this is going to be interesting. (2,812 words; Time: 09m)

Our Souls to the Moon, by Tamara Jerée

[Strange Horizons]

★★☆☆☆

(Fantasy Dystopia) Rich people get high looking at the moons of Neptune, but poor people have to make due with dangerous drugs. Then Bimi’s friend learns you can send your soul to those moons, but at a price. (4,683 words; Time: 15m)

Recommended By: 👍GTognetti+1 (Q&A)

The Longest Season in the Garden of the Tea-Fish, by Jo Miles

[Strange Horizons]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(High Fantasy) When an accident kills most of the fish the tree-people depend on, everyone has to go dormant except one who has to watch over rebuilding the shoal and protecting the rest while they sleep. (5,181 words; Time: 17m)

The Pride of Salinkari, by Elizabeth Crowe

[Strange Horizons]

★★★☆☆

(Colony SF) In a culture that teaches that you should commit suicide when you’re at your peak, a young man kills himself after winning a prize and his parents prosecute his teacher. (6,745 words; Time: 22m)

Recommended By: 👍GTognetti+1 (Q&A)

Three Days with the Kid, by Tara Calaby

[Strange Horizons]

★★★☆☆

(Post-Apocalypse) In the ruins of a dry, blasted Australia, Edward looks after an abandoned nine-year old girl as they travel in search of an old reservoir. (3,202 words; Time: 10m)

Cairns, by Jason P. Burnham

[Strange Horizons]

★★★☆☆

(Ecological Dystopia) In a world dying from pollution by micro plastics, Ana struggles to protect her family, but even the food they eat is slowly killing them. (5,208 words; Time: 17m)

Dirty Wi-Fi, by Porpentine Charity Heartscape

[Strange Horizons]

★★☆☆☆

(Slipstream) The narrator connects to the internet by collecting Wi-Fi in a dish and pouring it into a combination router-humidifier. (2,756 words; Time: 09m)

The Touch Pool, by Lisa Nan Joo

[Strange Horizons]

★★☆☆☆

(Horror) A mermaid visits a woman whose house is about the be claimed by the rising seas and who mourns the loss of her daughter. (3,395 words; Time: 11m)

La Bête, by Leah Bobet

[Strange Horizons]

★★★☆☆

(Historical Fantasy) In post-World War II France, the young narrator acquires an old château, but she discovers the roses are going to present a difficult problem. (4,725 words; Time: 15m)

Rat and Finch Are Friends, by Innocent Chizaram Ilo

[Strange Horizons]

★★★☆☆

(Modern Fantasy) When he’s caught kissing another boy, one of Izuchukwu’s two big secrets comes out. But if they find out he can turn into a bird and fly, he’ll be in real trouble. (4,385 words; Time: 14m)

The Oldest Solution, by Priya Sridhar

[Strange Horizons]

★★★☆☆

(Slipstream) Nisha’s feeling lost about the future of her job and her relationship, so she visits a therapist who’s possessed by a cosmic being who’s highly recommended. (2,464 words; Time: 08m)

Recommended By: 👍MHaskins+1 (Q&A)

Company, by Shannon Sanders

[Strange Horizons]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(Horror) Fay lives in her family’s old house with no company but their ghosts until her estranged sister’s daughter comes for a visit. (8,308 words; Time: 27m)

Across the Ice, by Ada Hoffmann

[Strange Horizons]

★★★☆☆

(Vignette) When she’s not helping study a giant alien artifact, Neela enjoys ice skating on Europa’s endless ice plains. (999 words; Time: 03m)

One Hand in the Coffin, by Justin C. Key

[Strange Horizons]

★★★☆☆

(Horror) A child struggles with the loss of his big brother and his feelings that maybe things are better without him—and maybe he’s not really gone. (9,765 words; Time: 32m)

Recommended By: 👍MHaskins+1 (Q&A)

The Orientation, by Julianna Baggott

[Strange Horizons]

★★☆☆☆

(SF Adventure) The narrator wakes from suspended animation in a future she never expected to live to see. But it’s not clear what use that future has for returnees, nor what it’s doing with them. (3,466 words; Time: 11m)

The Marriage Book, by Mitchell Shanklin

[Strange Horizons]

★★★☆☆

(Allegory) Newlyweds try to get by in a world there there’s not enough reality to go around, and where the things you write in your marriage book become part of your reality. (1,529 words; Time: 05m)

Flags Flying Before a Fall, by Osahon Ize-Iyamu

[Strange Horizons]

★★☆☆☆

(High Fantasy) A very young man worships his absent older brother, who supports the whole family through his success as an athlete in illegal sporting events. (5,230 words; Time: 17m)

Into the Eye, by S.L. Harris

[Strange Horizons]

★★★☆☆

(Lovecraftian Pastiche) Unearthly creatures destroyed the Earth, but captain Moore aims to set things right through a mission that targets the maelstrom of Azathoth. (5,936 words; Time: 19m)

A deep familiarity with the works of H.P. Lovecraft is essential to appreciate this story.

The Garden's First Rule, by Sheldon Costa

[Strange Horizons]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(Horror) People come to stare at a teen boy partly turned into a tree and planted in a garden, but he’s actually cool with it. Unlike the other kids in the exhibit. (6,542 words; Time: 21m)