Leveling Up The World 7 by L. Eclaire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This one really stepped up to the plate. It started out about politics and impossible quests but it became a truly epic tale of ancient destruction, empathy reveals, familiars of gods, and not just one, but TWO showdowns with the Broken Star.

Damn.

Pretty damn amazing.

I kept thinking... where could it actually go from here? But no worries. Seven books, seven skills. Time to keep leveling.

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Uncanny Magazine Issue 65: July/August 2025 by Michael Damian Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For clarity, I'm reading this issue for Valente's When He Calls Your Name.

She always pulls through with some of the wildest stories I've ever read. Clever, weird, always creative, and twisty, twisty, twisty.

In this case, a woman always needs to cover all her angles when it comes to her man. :) Loved it.

Nommed for this year's Hugo for best short story. Right now, for me, it's a toss up between this and the Kaiju.

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Uncanny Magazine Issue 67: November/December 2025 by Michael Damian Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For clarity, I'm reading only Sarah Pinsker's The Millay Illusion from this issue. It's been nominated for the Hugo short this year.

It was refreshing to get a tribute to illusionists in this one. I felt it very appropriate in light of Christopher Priest's death the year prior. (The Prestige author.)

Now, that may or may not have had anything to do with this story, but it certainly felt right. All things considered. :)

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Uncanny Magazine Issue 62: January/February 2025 by Scott Lynch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

To clarify, I'm reading just Kaiju Agonistes by Scott Lynch in this collection.

Muahahahahahaha I LOVED this.

Sure, it's another Kaiju story, but it's damn clever. A good deal of it comes from the Kaiju's perspective, but what really makes this a stand-out is the full alternate history of the world after the first atomic bomb and the... interesting things that could very well have gone on with real public policies and national politics.

But that's not even the best part. It's who the Kaiju uses to take over this damnably wayward species. :)

Hugo nom for short story this year. So far, it's easily my top pick.

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Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy by Martha Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nommed for short Hugo this year.

I must be honest. As an in-betweener for the Murderbot series, it's short and sweet in only the way two machine intelligences can be when revealing their feelings.

But as a nom for the Hugo?

It's nothing groundbreaking. It's literally more of the same that we've always been getting with the series. No big ideas or imaginative sequences or a total alteration of perspective.

It's not a bad story, but it isn't a standout.

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The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For by Cameron Reed
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nommed for this year's Hugo.

It's a pretty interesting story as far as it goes, but I'll have to admit I've seen a lot almost exactly like it. Young love, identity focused, rebellion. Normal stuff that has corpos, clones, and that age old-desire to just live a life.

Decent, but not THAT stand-out as a Hugo-nom. Just a good read.

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Leveling Up The World 6 by L. Eclaire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed the trip down south. That's a bit of worldbuilding that was pretty damn fascinating and just added so many more questions than it answered.

And dragons? Hell yeah. :)

All told, really enjoying this series to the hilt. And if you know what's been happening, you'll know EXACTLY what I mean by that. Ah yes, those world-swords. :)

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