John Kulka

Overall, this is one of the stronger anthologies I have read in a while. Most of the stories are quite good and there were only a couple of duds. I felt "Surfacing" by Lauren Groff was a standout and close seconds go to Sharon May's "The Wizard of Khao-I-Dang" and Raza Sultana Khan's "Alms." As usual in this kind of anthology, lots of unhappy American people treating each other horribly and for whatever reason, there was a disturbing amount of women allowing themselves to be treated like dirt by really gross men (one has to wonder, do we really hate each other, and ourselves, that much?). I think that is why I liked the stories by Groff, May and Khan as they took me outside of that tired realm, and did it extremely well. On a whole, the writing skill in this collection was outstanding, but some of these authors just have to create better stories and characters readers can actually care about. But I recognize these are pieces created in academia and evaluated in that light, many are awesome beginnings - and I'm sure I will see some of these talented folks again soon.… (mere)