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A collection of fantastic stories (of short, medium and long length) that shows how broad the author's writings can be. Stories that invite the reader to become part of the story, flash fiction and 'traditional' forms of writing can all be found here. Stories that I really enjoyed include a trickster Coyote's journey into the land of the dead, one involving Toad and other characters by Kenneth Grahame, a magnificent journey through a dreamland created by H.P. Lovecraft, and a story that asks the reader whether the characters should have the privilage of a happy ending.

• "Tool-Using Mimics": an unusual picture of a little girl wearing a squid or octopus-like costume triggers a speculative story about what the girl really is: just a girl in a costume, or perhaps an octopus mimicking a girl as a disguise, or something else.

• "Mantis Wives": the various ways female mantis deal with the fact that they eat the males.

• "Butterflies of Eastern Texas": a train conductor on an unusual train meets a girl on the train that constantly releases butterflies.

• "Five Sphinxes and 56 Answers": a retelling of the story of Oedipus Rex, as seen from the viewpoint of the Sphinx, who wonders whether her task was worth all the trouble. Interspersed is another story about a girl who has her own Sphinx-like troubles with her mother.

• "Ratatoskr": a young girl is terrified one night when she sees an image of a giant squirrel in a storm, which she later decides is Ratatoskr, who in old Norse mythology is a squirrel who runs up and down the world tree Yggdrasil to carry messages between the eagles perched atop Yggdrasil, and the serpent Níðhöggr. This would lead her to a 'spiritual' connection with squirrels that she would later encounter.

• "Coyote Invents the Land of the Dead": the trickster, Coyote, and her friends, enter the Land of the Dead to search for her dead lover. But the search may be futile, for the lover may not be easily found during the strange and unusual dead world that they journey into; and possibly beyond.

• "The Ghastly Spectre of Toad Hall": a tale based on the characters by Kenneth Grahame, this one has Toad telling a story to his friends of how a ghost haunts Toad Hall and possibly caused the death of his predecessors. Of course, the spectre turns up, and the friends look for a 'loophole' to prevent Toad's death. In the end, Toad prepares to meet his doom, but he may yet be saved by an unexpected loophole.

• "The Apartment Dweller's Bestiary": on the various beasts an apartment dweller can get or encounter and how they can fill your time or missing relationships with people.

• "The Apartment Dweller's Stavebook": on the various symbols you can draw on objects or yourself to encourage or discourage events.

• "The Apartment Dweller's Alphabetical Dreambook": on the meaning of various symbols or desires you see in your dream, and how to, maybe, interpret them.

• "The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe": a long and fascinating story set in the Dream World that may be familiar to those who have read Lovecraft. One day, a student from a women's college in the Dream World is enchanted by a man from our world (known as the Waking World) and runs away with him. Now, it is up to the Professor, Vellitt Boe, to track her down and bring her back. As the story develops, we learn more about this Dream World, where mad old gods rule and can bring death and destruction on a whim. And it is such destruction that Boe hopes to prevent when it is revealed to her how important the runaway girl is. She will have to travel through an underworld full of ghouls and other beasties, before she will meet the girl that, in a twist, may well change the nature of the Dream World.

• "Noah’s Raven": a raven on Noah's Ark laments the extinct birds that are lost as the ark struggles through the flood, until it is at last set free by Noah to find land.

• "Crows Attempt Human-Style Riddles, and One Joke": viginettes of jokes that may be told be crows.

• "The Privilege of the Happy Ending": a story of a girl and her old hen who set out on a journey to find a new home when their old one, and the surrounding land, are ravaged by marauding wastoures, hordes of devouring creatures. Their journey seems hopeless as they wander from place to place looking for a home, until an unexpected event makes them realise that the only way is to stop the wastoures. And the hen, who has special abilities for a hen, would have an unexpected role in this. But is the journey of the girl and the hen meant to have a happy ending? That depends on the author's whims and the reader's decision on when to stop the story; or not to end it.

A wonderful addition to the series that makes me love Murderbot even more, which I didn’t think was possible.

I don’t think one needs to re-read Network Effect to be able to enjoy this, as the redacted parts in the first parts of the book only lightly refer to the previous, but mostly consist of things happening within the timeframe of System Collapse. Now if it’s been years and you don’t remember why Murderbot had a bad time planetside, then sure, re-read it. The redacted parts, while maybe a little disorientating, are showing the effects of trauma in a way that’s true to my own experiences, which added a richness to the story that just telling me Murderbot’s traumatized couldn’t.

I saw some comments about this feeling like the missing half of Network Effect. I wholly disagree. It’s in the same system and planet, but the situation is entirely different and the themes and events present reflect that. If the series has the potential of going in the direction presented at the end of Network Effect, then I would expect more time spent within a place vs the episodic nature of the novellas. Plus as Murderbot gets more resources, things have to go that much more spectacularly wrong and that takes more time to resolve satisfactorily. YMMV, but I love it and think Network Effect and System collapse are the strongest entries yet. I hope for more novel length entries going forward.

An average issue, with interesting stories by Geoff Ryman and David Jeffrey, Amal Singh, Samantha E. Chung and Meighan Hogate.

• "The Many Different Kinds of Love" by Geoff Ryman and David Jeffrey: a long, interesting story about a sentient exploration rig on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn. It is buried in the water under the ice on the moon. The rig houses the memories and experiences of a group of selected people, who are tasked with giving permission to the rig to execute decisions. When communications with Earth are lost, the rig, with permission, decides to organize an expedition to explore the rest of the moon. When the expedition discovers would change the world that they know. But it may be threatened, for when the expedition returns to the rig, they discover that its priorities have been changed under its new masters.

• "Karantha Fish" by Amal Singh: a girl's uncle is dying, but a cure is possible. But it would involve eating an 'unclean' food. But the girl's desire to save her uncle, and her ability to influence people through sorcery, may work. The outcome would leave to priests demanding penitence from her, but it may be for the better.

• "Longevity" by Anya Ow: in a future Singapore grappling with climate change, a worker, modified to deal with the weather and can live longer, deals with a case of an unmodified and troublesome person. A request for a meeting would change their futures, and perhaps the future of people who are leaving to have both long and short term goals for solving the climate crisis.

• "All That We Leave Behind" by Charlie Hughes: an understated story that starts with a book club gathering to read an unusual book. As the story progresses, we learn that the book contains some unsaid horrible actions by the main character, which may have truly happened. The arrival of the author of the story would lead to a terrifying conclusion over what the readers did upon finishing the book.

• "Portrait of the Dragon as a Young Man" by J.A. Pak: a prequel story about a young dragon who is injured, and is healed by a woman. During the healing process, the dragon transforms into a human and is accepted in the woman's village as an unusual human. As time passes, the former dragon finds itself forming a close and intimate relationship with her.

• "Twelve Aspects of the Dragon" by Rachael Jones: a short short story about what the title says.

• "Meeting in Greenwood" by R. K. Duncan: an unusual agent of a secretive agency goes on a mission to get information on a political rival. Only, the meeting is with the dead, and he may have to deal with rivals, both living and dead, to bring back the information to the living.

• "The Pigeon Wife" by Samantha E. Chung: an interesting story based on a Korean folktale, it tells the story of a woman who captures a pigeon who has transformed into a human. Such transformed pigeons are apparently useful for work, which he does, bringing in much-needed money for her. But it comes to an end when the pigeon shows that it has the agency to break the bonds of work.

• "Los Pajaritos" by Sam W. Pisciotta: in a future where birds are gone, one person manufactures one in memory of his wife and lets it go.

• "Pluto And Tavis D Work the Door" by Brooke Brannon: two people who grew up with abusive fathers confronts a chilling 'auntie' who wants the knitted clothes one of them wears. For the history of their life after running away from their fathers is knitted on them, and the last thing they want is for her to possess it.

• "Indigena" by Jennifer Maloney: on a strange world, some human colonists are suddenly enveloped by a mist. What develops from that would show the planet knows what to do with colonists.

• "New Stars" by Christopher Crews: a father and son watch as a space race re-enactment, where one of the ships was the son's grandfather.

• "High Tide at the Olduvai Gorge" by Kedrick Brown: a look at a future that is both dystopic and utopic, when Earth has been reformed by other humans who lived on another world for thousands of years and have returned.

• "Prisoner 121 is Guilty" by Renee Pillai: in a highly stratified society, a high caste youth is on trial for a crime. But in her eyes, the crime was her relationship to a lower caste friend.

• "Fools and Their Money" by Meighan Hogate: in this fantasy world, a large, sentient bird reminisces over current events, while preparing to pick over the remains of a party of people that wandered in a swamp, possibly tricked into using that way by the bird. Later on, another trick gets the bird into trouble with a relative of the party. But perhaps the bird will get the last laugh, as long as it takes care to separate reality from its vivid reliving of past events.