Fierce Family

 Fierce Family, Bart R. Leib (ed.), Crossed Genres Publications, 2014

Families can come in many different shapes and sizes, and levels of dysfunction. That's what these speculative fiction stories are all about.

A same-sex couple learns that an interdimensional adoption, of a newborn baby with horns, involves more than just filling out some forms and hosting a home visit from a social worker. A struggling single mother takes her young daughter to a local carnival. There she finds a vendor whose ice cream has a very unique side effect. 

A family-run interstellar freighter/salvage ship is attacked by space pirates. There is a story or two set on worlds with human colonies. A young man in the hospital after a major auto accident is visited by the spirit of a dead uncle.

Individually, these stories are really good. They do a very good job at showing the many definitions of the word "family." Put together, this collection is very much recommended.

Subversion: Science Fiction and Fantasy Tales of Challenging the Norm

Subversion: Science Fiction and Fantasy Tales of Challenging the Norm, Bart R Leib (ed.), Crossed Genres Publications, 2011

This is a group of new science fiction and fantasy tales about challenging the status quo. It doesn't have to be political; the status quo can be social, religious or even personal.

In an interplanetary confederation that uses slavery (it's called "contract labor"), a young boy, son of the slave owner, becomes friends with a female slave of the same age. After learning exactly what contract labor is all about, he starts to plan the revolution that will bring down the system, once and for all.

A Jewish woman's grandmother was a pro-union activist in the Great Depression era. The woman's average teenage daughter suddenly decides to drop out of college and become a political activist. That wouldn't be so awful, except that the daughter suddenly starts speaking in Russian-accented Yiddish (just like grandma), a language to which she has had no exposure. Maybe the grandmother is not yet ready to "cross over."

A pair of brothers in the foster care system each have their own android Guardian. On a car trip, they stop at a seedy-looking house for some very illegal upgrades to the Guardians, without the Guardians catching on.

The only way to keep a powerful dragon from destroying a trio of kingdoms is to send heirs to those kingdoms to the dragon, as sacrifices. But one of the three takes the words Know Your Enemy more seriously than do the others.

As in most anthologies, some stories are better than others, but, overall, this group of stories is well worth the time. There is a good variety of times and places, and the writing is really good.

Crossed Genres: Year One

Crossed Genres: Year One, Bart R. Leib and K.T. Holt (ed.), Crossed Genres, 2010

Crossed Genres is a speculative fiction magazine based in Massachusetts. These stories come from the first year of its existence.

There is a tale about a pitched battle that takes place in a diner, after closing time, among the condiments. A superhero named The Sentinel is getting on in years, with a wife and daughter who don't want him to go out each night, fighting crime.

A story is narrated by the only AI on Mars. It was part of a group of 2 AI's and 300 robots that were to build shelters for human colonists to start terraforming the planet. They hold a burial service for an early human rover found on the surface, rusted into uselessness.

Earth has become a ghetto, with all the rich people living in orbit or on the Moon. A man, and his family, build a rocketship in a junkyard, intending to head for the Moon, where everyone is free. England has a new weapon in its war against germany; witches and warlocks who knock enemy airplanes out of the air.

My favorite story takes place in near-future America. The US Army upgrades it soldiers with things like artificial eyes, and titanium ribs. The soldiers are supposed to re-enlist for two years to help pay for the upgrades. If they don't, the Army no longer provides maintenance for the upgrades, leaving them vulnerable to gangs who kill just to get the upgrades.

There is a good variety of stories, and they are all well-done. The reader will not go wrong with this book.