Short Story Read-Aloud, Week 26

I did say I would take a break from audio short fiction, but on my drive to San Antonio for WorldCon, I had some time. I didn't have a lot of attention, so let's see what broke through.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Justin Howe, "Of Shifting Skins and Certainty": Something about shapechanging people and a king with a permanently fixed and terrible face.

Yoon Ha Lee, "The Pirate Captain's Daughter": Something about ships that are directed by poetry and the daughter who, inevitably, becomes a poet.

Sara M. Harvey, "Six Seeds": No memory.

Rachel Swirsky, "Great, Golden WIngs": No memory.

Sarah L. Edwards, "The Woman and the Mountain": No memory.

Dru Pagliassoti, "The Manufactory": No memory.

Aliette de Bodard, "In the Age of Iron and Ashes": No memory.

Paul Daly, "Shatterach Gates": No memory, beyond the rather boring title.

Rodello Santos, "To Slay with a Thousand Kisses": Some bad men use a woman with magical power, maybe?

Catherine Mintz, "A Skirt of Many Colors": A coming of age story involving a girl turning her pants in and getting her skirt.

Alys Sterling, "In Memoriam": Some sort of demon gets trapped in a haunted house and has to give up his precious memories to escape, I think.

Escape Artists (Escape Pod, Podcastle, Pseudopod) 

Wendy Wagner., "Secret of Calling Rabbits": One of the last little people helps a little girl and dies in the process, showing that he wasn't so bitter after all.

Claire Humphrey, "Nightfall in the Scent Garden": Beautifully told in parts, but I'm not sure I remember anything about it. The narrator loves another (but straight or at least more traditional) girl and there's some evil fairy queen, I think?

C.L. Moore, "The Tree of Life": Northwest Smith faces an evil god in a forgotten place. Standard Northwest Smith story, which I always like because of the weird genre mix.

Scott H. Andrews, "Excision": Magical healers try to figure out way to save people; naturally, one of them is obsessed with saving her own near-dead family.

Lightspeed and Nightmare 

Kristine Kathryn Rusch, "Purity Test": Dad has a sorcerer on retainer to test women's sexual purity before marriage, but the daughter learns about dad's and her husband-to-be's craziness.

Marly Youmans, "Prolegomenon to the Adventures of Childe Phoenix": No memory.

Robert Reed, "Eight Episodes": A boringly told meta-story about a mysterious tv series that might have been made by aliens.