Reviews and Comments

A lovely tale of an orc woman who, in the prelude, does one last adventure and, with the treasure she obtained, now goes to lead a totally different life: running a coffee shop in a city that has no idea what coffee is.

With the aid of people she discovers as she sets up shop and runs it, her business grows and expands. But it attracts the wrong kind of attention from a local group of extortionists and from a former acquaintance who also has his eye on her treasure. Against them, she only has the new people she has met and some former members of her adventuring group. When a major crisis happens, she has no choice but to re-evaluate what is important to her and to decide what she wants to do with her life and who she wants to live the life with.

A light, entertaining fantasy and an easy read. I might also consider it as an urban fantasy as some modern trappings, like a coffee making machine, ice, an 'electric' guitar and (later) amplifier makes an appearance, presented as advanced technology or thaumaturgy.

A better than average issue, with interesting stories by Dominica Phetteplace and Carrie Vaughn, with two emotional pieces, one humorous, one saddening, by David Ebenbach and Jana Bianchi.

• "The Officiant" by Dominica Phetteplace: an official is asked to officiate at a wedding on an alien planet. But her requests for more information to perform the task are blocked until she grants them a 'vision'. That, she would not do, until she learns more about the nature of the visions, which she has been getting since childhood, and has affected society on her original planet and may be connected to the wedding of the aliens.

• "Vast and Trunkless Legs of Stone" by Carrie Vaughn: Aliens request a first contact with humans, but only involving one individual. What takes place would be unexpected and involve what would represent humanity to the aliens.

• "Day Ten Thousand" by Isabel J. Kim: various tales about the death of a person who died thousands of years ago, followed by his present day cloning and the repercussions to the cloned person.

• "Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down the Moon" by Angela Liu: starting what a prompt for AI image generator, the story follows the down-and-out life of a girl who paints images for 'orb' that can change a person's character for a living and who also 'services' men at a house. Both converge when a customer requests a special painting that would change her life in a way she would not like.

• "The Moon Rabbi" by David Ebenbach: the entertaining tale of a Rabbi who, emotionally disgusted with the state of the world, goes to the moon, where he is to do the first Passover on the moon. But a special moment with the world he wants to run away from would change him emotionally just before the ceremony.

• ". . . Your Little Light" by Jana Bianchi: an incident on a spaceship leaves only two survivors, a pregnant woman and an alien, who now have to struggle to survive. Things get even more critical when the woman gives birth and life support on the ship starts to fail. In the end, the woman and alien comfort each other in this rather emotional story about facing the end with the baby you love.

• "To Helen" by Bella Han: two women meet to discuss their lives, in a world where people can now 'freeze' their ages but at huge financial and social costs.

• "Mirror View" by Rajeev Prasad: an alien entity arrives at Earth and takes the form of a mirror that can subtlety change the reflections of people. It is looking for a reason for why it is 'wasting' away, but learns more about life from a pregnant girl who takes an interest in the entity.