1 novella, 4 novelettes, 7 short stories and the usual articles and reviews make up for a pretty big magazine.

"The Art of Victory When the Game Is All the World" by Eugie Foster is one of those discovered stories which are published after the author's death and as such it is unclear how much it may have changed had the author lived. These can be hit or miss - depending on where the story was when the author died and who got to work on it after that. In a world which does not seem to have any correlation to our own, a caste of technicians creates "champions" - constructs who are formed by careful combination of aptitudes and impediments. Another cast sponsors the creations which are considered viable - and play a game, seeing how their lives evolve. That game is the pinnacle of the society - that's what everyone else exists for. People belong to a caste based on their own aptitudes - they get assigned into them, they make their vows and they are usually stuck in them. Until one of the best technician is asked to step up and attempt a promotion. We never learn who is who in that society - is that gods and humans or humans and a different form or something totally different. But it does not really matter. We get to live the life of one of the constructs, to be part of the game - and almost as a sideline, to be part of the life of the society that plays the game. In a centuries old way, life imitates art (and vice versa) and love ends up the ingredient that noone adds but that matters the most. The whole story is a play on the choice and destiny duality - and one can make their own decision if they want to fall on either side or find their own way.

The 4 novelettes are only comparable by their length.
"Animale Dei Morti" by Nick Dichario is a modern Italian fairy tale, set nowadays but using the conventions of the old time - complete with a witch, animated corpses and misunderstandings. It is one of my favorite stories in this issue - it should sound derivative but it does not and you cannot stop laughing at how anything the main character Marco tries makes things worse - trying not to break one tradition ends up messing up others; not thinking through the witch's conditions ends up costing him everything. And for all that, the tale never gets dark (and one wonders if some of the bad things were really that bad - that bride of his was not really someone you would wish to your worst enemy).

In "Bone Broth" by Karen Heuler, a secret society believes themselves to be connected to the giants who roamed the Earth in the olden days (tying aliens into the mix as well). Then a waitress somehow stumbles into it and seems to fall for all of it. The scary part is that I am pretty sure that there are people who may really believe in this kind of things - and not just inside of this story.

The third novelette, "Prison Colony Optimization Protocols" by Auston Habershaw leaves Earth and transports us to a penal colony on a station somewhere in the galaxy. An AI had really messed up but due to UN rules, it cannot be just disabled or killed so it is sent to try to optimize the systems of the penal colony. So what happens when an AI is punished? It finds a way around its punishment of course - in the most unexpected way. I really enjoyed this story - it found that path between humor and seriousness that is hard to stay on.

And the last of the novelettes, "The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love" by J. A. Pak is the kind of tale that does not hide anything - its title tells you what you are getting. An old dragon finds love for the last time and tells us the tale. Except the gentle maiden he finds is neither a maiden, nor gentle. And yet - love conquers all and the two broken souls find happiness. I hope the authors plans to add more stories to this world - there are so many more tales to be told - both about our dragon and about everything else.

The short stories were the usual mixed bag of stories that work and ones that have some ideas but somehow do not really manage to reach me.
"Ennead in Retrospect" by Christopher Mark Rose is a far future tale of a broken space craft and a knife which can split a person in two - their dark and light side. Except that this does not really make two complete people, especially for the ones who live with them. Add a child and a secret or three (which are obvious from the beginning) and the story makes sense but something just did not click for me.
In "Full Worm Moon" by Paul Lorello, a clan of people live at the outside of society and feeds with the memories of the departed - by eating the worms that eat their remains. What they get it return is not just memories though - they almost become the other people. And when a young man eats too many too early, he starts questioning his own life. It is a tale about belonging but you better not have your lunch when you are reading it.
"Proximity Games" by M. L. Clark returns us back to space - although a very different one. Families get selected to leave Earth, to go live among the stars, to conquer new worlds. It all sounds noble and nice but things are not as green as they look and one may wonder what really is better - to be left behind or to be selected. As for the stars - we are really not a very intelligent species sometimes. It is a nice tale of exploration and choices - not all of which are what they seem to be.
In "Salt Calls to Salt" by Maiga Doocy, Zelda is not allowed any real feelings or excitement - if she ever has them, her feet get covered in scales and she turns into a mermaid. So her aunt does anything she can to make sure that she is protected, with Zelda cooperating fully, knowing her own mother's fate. At least for the time being anyway. It is a sweet tale of growing up and deciding what is important in one's life.
The next story, "doe_haven.vr" by Cara Mast, throws us into the life of a young woman who finds solace into a virtual reality - until someone disturbs her there. It is a quiet tale about being able to connect with other people.
"The City and the Thing Beneath It" by Innocent Chizaram Ilo is written by a Nigerian (Igbo) writer and is set in Lagos where the week does not go exactly as the rulers of the country want it to - something falls from the sky and they are not happy about it (and despite everyone seeing it, they still try to claim it never happened). There are soldiers and violence and a Lagos which seem to be in our times but you hope it is not. It is a confusing tale - both the way it is told and what it tries to achieve.
The last story in the issue, "There Won't Be Questions" by Joe Baumann, gets us back to the magical - a boy finds out that if he wishes something very much, it can appear - even if there is a price to pay. Noone knows how or why, noone knows if these things get transported in space or if they get recreated or come from elsewhere. Mix up some young love which appears to be one-sided and the whole mess gets even messier. It is clear where the tale is going and it does get to its logical end. Ending it where it did end may leave someone unhappy but it works - because if it was continued, it would be a different story.

The three poems were way too modern for my taste (two by Bogi Takacs and one by Gretchen Tessmer). The cartoons were mildly entertaining - none really jumped at me as hilarious.

The usual columns:
- In the science section, Jerry Oltion explains how old things are dated (a bit simplified but not a bad explanation)
- The film review section is about a series I had not watched ("Raised by Wolves"
- Paul di Filippo's "Plumage from Pegasus" imagines a writing award in 2030 unlike any other (which as usual is a commentary on our reality).

And then there are the reviews:
- The Curiosities section goes back to 1976 (which is pretty modern for that column) to take a look at Leonora Carrington's "The Hearing Trumpet". Charles de Lint manages to mention 4 books I had not read (and now I want to) - I own one, already read another ("Wayward Souls")) and Michelle West adds 4 more to my ever growing list (at least I actually had heard of 3 of these before - one of them is even home from the library). I have a suspicion that the 9 books will feature in my very near future... that's what happens when one finally get around to reading a full magazine.

Not a perfect issue and not all stories worked for me and even the ones that did work did not sparkle really but not a bad issue either. And no stories from long-running series which I had not read (no series stories at all as best as I can tell actually). ( )