STRANGE FLIGHT

What happens in a future in which people continue to live with disabilities, mental illnesses, and neurodivergences? That question lies at the heart of editor Skye's collection, comprised of six stories featuring protagonists who live with chronic illnesses and other disabilities. The standout, Yvette Franklin's "The Darkness of Goo," follows Nani, a Deaf protagonist on a gone-awry space mission, whose nonverbal-communication abilities prove key to saving a crewmate. Similarly strong, Victoria Feistner's "Music of the Spheres" traces a terminally ill astronaut's final hours, but the circumstances of the death may leave some readers feeling less than celebratory. David Preyde's "Twentieth Century, Go To Sleep," another uncomfortable story, sees its protagonist make friends with not one, but two infamous assassins from history. The collection's weakest moment arrives in Timothy Lamoureux's "The Reject," in which a group of sperm-donating smugglers make a series of intentional and accidental masturbatory jokes which feel out of sync among the more serious tales in the collection. These pieces range from stolidly cerebral to deeply emotional, and although the quality of the stories is uneven, the hits far outweigh the misses.

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