Read this week – various stories

Finished reading Writers of the Future XXII. Many good stories in this one, a few that stood out for me:

Broken Stones by Judith Tabron. The main character’s faith is challenged when she disagrees with how the aliens are being treated on a world that her people have colonized for generations. I thought the world well invented and the dilemma of the main character authentic.

Games on the Children’s Ward by Michail Velichansky. Creepy story about children dying in a hospital and the games they play to survive in the dismal, lonely place where too often one of them is wheeled away, dead. This story will be stuck in my head for some time.

The Red Envelope by David Sakmyster. Beautiful story of a man who married the ghost of a Chinese girl and how their relationship wrecked havoc on his life, but also brought into it something that wasn’t there before.