Summary: A butterfly-like alien gets kidnapped for her valuable skills. **Content Warning: Implied Suicide in one of the short stories** There are twelve short stories in this collection about how humans could be unique and helpful and baffling to alien life.

Once Upon a Time There was a Zurit Named Xcanda by Alex Acks - Humans don't like to lose.Ī Second Zion by Amelia Kibbie - Humans remember.īrightened Star, Ascending Dawn by A. Human Engineering by Marie DesJardin - Humans procrastinate. (Another really, really clever 'super-power' of humans.) Through the Never by Eneasz Brodski - Humans can lie to themselves about reality. (Love the way our sarcasm works in this story. No Way This Could Go Wrong by Alex Pearl - Humans are sarcastic. The Sound of His Footsteps by Mariah Southworth - Humans are protective. New Union Requirement by Gwendolynn Thomas - Humans are inventive. Then There was Ginny by Sydney Seay - Humans are curious. Sidekick by Jody Lynn Nye - Humans are big. I liked the later stories better than the earlier stories, because the later stories get more unpredictable as they explore the more esoteric bits of being human - such as our ability to focus on unrelated minutia and procrastinate. I think reading one or two stories a night would be better than my swallowing the group whole. Some of the things humans do gets boring if you read these back-to-back - such as our obsession with touching. Nothing outstanding in the anthology but nothing dreadful either. The glorious, confusing, contradictory, loving, determined side of humanity in space and our relationships with other sentients. A pleasant group of science-fiction stories exploring the hope-filled side of humanity in space. I participated in the original Kickstarter to fund the anthology.

Humans Wanted by Vivian Caethe