SHORT STORIES
Karantha Fish - Amal Singh
What is the value of religion and tradition if it prevents us from helping those we love? Perhaps the consequences of transgression shall be enlightening.
Ok

Longevity - Anya Ow
If a person's life doesn't have freedom or meaning, then why continue living? Quality of life is more important than quantity. Changes in the short term are possible and must be balanced against the long term.
Ok

All That We Leave Behind - Charlie Hughes
A book club meets to go over their latest read, which none of them remember suggesting, let alone how they got the book. They read it, mournfully, but now none of them want to discuss it, but they must. They must.
Meh

Twelve Aspects of the Dragon - Rachael K. Jones
Teases a relationship with a fantastic creature.
Blah

Meeting in Greenwood - R. K. Duncan
A secret British agency composed of mystics travels through time and location using mythological means in order to stop the opposition. For this story it's American Lost Cause Goldwater Republicans who want to use Nixon to advance their hatred.
Blah

The Pigeon Wife - Samantha H. Chung
My first thought about this was whether it had any relation to the videogame Hatoful Boyfriend. Apparently it's based off of a Korean folktale. I don't dislike it, but I really don't understand the metaphor that is their social arrangement. Specifically, a woman buys/captures a pigeon that turns into a man that resentfully provides for her, often receiving nothing in return. Assumedly that has something to say about modern Korean relationships, but apparently the other Korean media I've seen didn't have anything I can relate to this to. When I tried to look up the original folktale, which seems to be the Snail Bride, I came across the concept of Gireogi Appa (goose dad), which was something I didn't know happened and was interesting.
Meh

Los Pajaritos - Sam W. Pisciotta
The Little Birds is about the protagonist creating an artificial sparrow, which are extinct, between remembering the decline and death of the love of their life, whose spirit animal was a sparrow, in a collapsed world.
Meh

Pluto and Tavis D Work the Door - Brooke Brannon
Yet another story where I don't know whether I understand what I'm reading or not. I assume this is meant to be magical realism with horror elements. Two young Hispanic males in Miami are accosted by a white woman in what they believed to be a safe space who wants to appropriate their life story. I don't know whether I understand the relevance of the ending or what it's meant to represent. I'm just left confused and unable to enjoy.
Blah

Indigena - Jennifer Maloney
A body horror story about humans and alien plant life.
Blah

New Stars - Christopher Crews
A father and his sons watch racing space ships controlled by AI, one of which is based upon his father, their grandfather, the last of the human pilots. Will AI be able to become heroes and inspirations to the next generation as humans once were?
Meh

High Tide at the Olduvai Gorge - Kedrick Brown
Alien humans conqueror Earth very easily. They proclaim equality through meritocracy for anyone Respectable, which in practice only means them.
Meh

Prisoner 121 is Guilty - Renee Pillai
A forbidden romance because of social caste leads to her lover's death. She awaits her own sentencing and out of guilt immediately pleads guilty and tells her story. The ending is a punchline to a dark joke.
Ok

NOVELETS
Portrait of a Dragon as a Young Man - J. A. Pak
After losing a battle against far more experienced dragons, Faine, still in early childhood, finds himself being nursed back to health by a woman and his first love. He takes on human form and so begins the tale of his childhood, by which he means several centuries, among the local humans.
Enjoyable

Fools and Their Money - Meighan Hogate
An avian scavenger with perfect memory has severe problems with orienting himself in time. This makes for a rather fun framing device. The scavenger makes their money by guiding would-be heroes, but all often they're entirely disrespectful to him so he leads them to their demise, and loots their corpses.
Enjoyable

NOVELLAS
The Many Different Kinds of Love - Geoff Ryman with David Jeffrey
On Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, an abiotic intelligence in the form of a research station has been tasked with finding life and prospecting for minerals. On its own, it would not be able to carry out its missions, so it has a vast sample of biotic memories to give it direction and meaning. Permissions however can only be granted from the biotics on Earth. The biotic memories have an exploration vessel named dolphin that travels around the moon mapping and investigating, which creates post-biotic memories.
The story is narrated through the perspective of the research station, though biotic memories are also interspersed as well. This serves at least two purposes. One is to show how biotic and abiotic intelligences can complement and co-exist. The other is an interweaving of hard science fiction and emotional storytelling, showing that they don't have to be mutually exclusive and can co-exist within the same story. Maybe it shouldn't be, but I find this to be a great accomplishment. I don't know how well it will work for others, perhaps I was easily impressed by it, though that doesn't make it any less impressive for me.
Highly Enjoyable