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A fascinating story, mainly based on the fairy tale "The Wild Swans" but its own added elements, about a princess, her enchanted brothers and a stepmother. But the tale gets twisty towards the end as the author throws in her own variations.

Princess Shiori possesses magic, which she hides, in a kingdom where magic has been banned by the gods. But on the day she is meant to be betrothed to a prince, she runs away, setting in motion events that would cause her stepmother to curse her brothers to be turned into cranes. As for her, she is cursed to remain silent or cause the death of her brothers with every word she says and cast out of the kingdom. As she finds her brothers and struggles to return to the castle, she discovers the way to break the curse. But doing so would cause her much pain, and the journey leads through the fortress of the prince she was meant to marry.

It is here that things start to change, when she discovers the prince is not as 'barbaric' as she initially though. But conspiracies in the fortress thwart her as she struggles to complete her painful task, and she begins to get second thoughts on her stepmother, and the reasons she and her brothers were cursed. It would all come to a climax at the end as plot twists make her to realise the dangers she and her kingdom are in and what she would have to do to save it.

A better than average issue, with an interesting novella-length story by Wole Talabi, and other interesting stories by Rati Mehrotra and Alex T. Singer.

• "Brainstem Disco, 2191" by Angela Liu: on music and dancing that apparently takes place in the head of a person.

• "The Library of the Apocalypse" by Rati Mehrotra: survivors of a war rummage through a ruined city, waiting for the time when a strange library gives them access to imaginary other worlds. Only some survivors return from the visit. And when only one is left, he has to find another purpose to staying in the city.

• "We, the Fleet" by Alex T. Singer: a fascinating story of a machine intelligence 'mother' that is terraforming and mining a solar system to make more versions of itself. But it gets interrupted when an unknown ship, bearing an organic being, crashes. The rest of the story tells of the being's recovery, and the two of them coming to an understanding of what it means to be a mother that wants the best for their children.

• "Descent" by Wole Talabi: a fascinating tale set in a world where people live on mountains, high above the air that gets thicker and thicker at lower latitudes. Nothing is known about what is below, not even if there is a solid surface. But one man wants to know, and he gets a chance to find out, even if it may end up killing him.

• "Oh Time Thy Pyramids" by Ann LeBlanc: a strange story of a 'sculpture' who has spent ages motionless; until one day it decides to move. That would lead to a journey through time and space, and perhaps the multiple lifetime of universes.

• "Proxima One" by Caryanna Reuven, translated by Sue Burke: various automated space probes, each known as Proxima One, explore space looking for signs of life. Many never see them; but others, by reprogramming themselves, see it in many different ways.

• "Yarn Theory" by Marie Vibbert: a mathematician who knits listens to an alien message and starts knitting out the message. What she learns may, or may not, be able to decode the message.

A fun book about a home computer that appears to have been largely forgotten by people, especially those who want to make it seem like the home computer revolution only happened in Silicon Valley: the Commodore 64. It would go on to become one of the most popular home computers of its era, based on sale numbers. According to the author, the Commodore 64 would go through five lives: as a family computer, a computer for games, used to give striking demos, to keep up with more advanced computers and, finally, celebrated as a retro computer.

The first part of the book looks at the Commodore 64 (C64) as a computer for the family, education and business. The C64 was released at a time when the public didn't know much about computers or what it can do for them. At this time, Commodore targeted different segments of the public with advertisements and software showing off what the computer could do for the family in areas like education, learning programming through BASIC and productivity. They did not emphasise on graphics and sound capabilities of the computer or the ability to play games.

Part two looks at the C64 as it was mainly used for once people became familiar with it: playing games. Initially, games for the C64 were ports of arcade games, as programmers were still getting familiar with the capabilities of the computer. As new (non-arcade) games appeared, a split in the type of games popular for the C64 appeared between the US and Europe (and UK). US games were usually hero based games (where the player wins by achieving a target through challenges), while European and UK games became more experimental, featuring anti-heroes characters or open-ended worlds. As programmers mastered the C64 hardware features (smooth scrolling, hardware sprites, music synthesis), higher quality games appeared. Games also diversified away from arcade style games: adventure-type or exploration games that feature large, scrolling areas. It was also a time of piracy of games and the passing around of ways to cheat at the games (by POKEing and PEEKing at memory in the computer to gain more lives or bypass anti-cheat operations).

Part 3 looks at a period of time when technical video tricks lead to the creation of 'demos'. One of the first techniques discovered (also technically explained in the chapter) was displays images in areas of the screen that are usually reserved for the border on the C64. Other technical video tricks would be discovered by various groups exploring the C64's video capabilities, leading to gatherings where they can show off what they have discovered (known as a Demoscene). Some groups emphasise more on video techniques, while others uses the techniques to showcase artwork in their demos.

In part 4, years have passed since the release of the C64, and newer computers (like the Commodore Amiga) are released that are technologically superior. This part looks at efforts to keep the C64 relevant. With GUIs on the rise, a GUI was produced for the C64 (GEOS). Amiga games, like Lemmings and Defender of the Crown, are also ported to the C64. While the C64 versions can't match the graphics and sound abilities of the Amiga, the ports are considered good enough.

Eventually, the C64 is considered obsolete in technological terms, and people move on to other computer. But as this part shows, the C64 still has a life. Computer artists and programmers now live with the limitations of the platform and use it to produce art and games that celebrate the C64. The original hardware continues to be used, even in new and fascinating ways (like the "Commodordion", an accordion made using two C64s). The original hardware can also be replaced by software (emulation) or recreated using with new hardware, which helps to keep the C64 alive in the minds of current day users.

A fascinating travelogue by the author as he goes around Southeast Asia looking for a remarkable group of plants: genus Rafflesia.

Rafflesia is a parasitic plant that only grows inside a group of vines, drawing nourishment from its host. But when it blooms, it produces the largest flower in the world, up to a metre across, and emits a smell of decay to attract its pollinators, mainly flies. The author has been fascinated by Rafflesia since childhood, and this journey will give him the opportunity to see various species of Rafflesia in the wild.

But the journey would not be easy. The author would journey through the Philippines and Indonesia with his local guides, consulting local tribes who know the forest. This knowledge is vital, for Rafflesia only blooms for a short while, and the author is initially frustrated, finding only unopened or already decaying flowers. But eventually the searches pay off, and they get to see (and smell) Rafflesia in full bloom.

In between the journeys, the author gives various biology lessons on Rafflesia and other plants he has searched for and seen. One part looks at efforts to try to propagate Rafflesia by human means (their seeds cannot be preserved and grown) by grafting them on to new vines. So far, only one person has managed to do this and the author visits him to try to learn how to do it.

During the journey, the author also describes various other plants seen during their journeys (some plant families mentioned in the book are familiar to me). But he also laments the destruction of the forests that he sees as he goes from place to place: at one point, he describes a whole group of brown hills in the Philippines, complete denuded of forests.

But he ends the book on a hopeful note as he talks to local people dedicated to protecting their forests and, possibly, help him keep Rafflesia and other plants alive.

Another fascinating book set in the author's Celestial Kingdom universe, involving a different cast of characters, but involving a romance between two characters originally at odds, until the plot twists show them to be intimately involved with one another.

Liyen is mortal, and becomes ruler of Tianxia (a kingdom cut off from the rest of the mortal world) when her grandfather dies during a confrontation with the Immortals. Her grandfather passed to her a gift that was meant for the Immortals; hiding it while trying to learn more from the Immortals in the hope of gaining freedom for her kingdom is the focus of the first part of the novel. But she is distracted by the Immortals' God of War, Zhangwei, whom she feels a strange attraction for.

An enemy attack during her trip to the palace of the Immortals' raises the stakes, as she feels betrayed by the Immortals by their actions prior to the attack. Yet she has no choice but to depend on the aid of the God of War to help her protect her kingdom until they discover more about the enemy's plans, or how they have escaped from the Netherworld, where they had been confined during a previous war that had involved Tianxia.

When the enemy attacks again, using magic to cut-off Tianxia from the Immortals, Liyen ends up in the Netherworld. And there, the plot twists begin, as she finds out more about her past relationship with the God of War and about the previous war. Now, she is offered two visions of a future where she emerges victorious; but in both, her kingdom ends up in ruins. Determined to avoid this, Liyen must find another path before the enemy breaks out of the Netherworld and rises again to challenge the Immortals.

Like the author's previous stories, this one features strong characters involved in a romantic relationship, while ending up in a conflict that both would rather resolve in peaceful ways. Liyen here is mortal with few of the magical powers of the Immortals, yet she feels a strong responsibility towards her kingdom and strives to find a way to protect her people and others, even if it would saddle her with hard decisions.

A book that starts somewhat slowly with the relationship between her and the God of War, but quickly picks up steam once that stakes for Liyen start to rise.

A clever story by the author that starts off like a fantasy (a rural setting with ghostly authoritatian figures) but turns out to be rooted in SF once the various elements of the tale fall into place. The story starts with Handry getting into an accident that causes him to become an Outcast. But being an outcast means more than just being expelled from the village he has lived all his life; it also means he has a lot of trouble eating food that he used to eat, and even the animals reject him for smelling different.

As he wanders from village to village, stealing clothes and the little food he can eat, he ends up in a 'city' (basically a large village) that has a job for outcasts like him and is willing to pay for it with food that he can eat. At the end of the task, he gets selected by a messianic-like outcast figure who leads him to a place that is literally from another world: a place where he can feel at home. He also learns about the history of how humans came to the planet and how they had to adapt themselves to live on what the world can provide. But in adapting, the humans have forgotten how to lead and now only follow the advice of computerised and ghostly Expert Systems (not a spoiler, as it's in the title).

A crisis develops when someone close to Handry is captured and the messianic figure reveals his plan that could devastate the villages but allow the outcasts to have their revenge. Now, Handry and the expert systems that are still running have to figure out a new way to work with the villages to give themselves a chance to improve their lives.

An interesting issue, with good stories by Samantha Murray, Gordon Li, Zhang Ran and Thomas Ha.

• "Through These Moments, Darkly" by Samantha Murray: the story of a man whose relationship with a woman turns dark when she vanishes. But how she vanished is a mystery; a mystery that may have to do with a dark matter universe that she, a physicist, thinks may be opening portals for animals (and people) to go through.

• "The Seed" by Sheri Singerling: on a watery world, an ancient device is discovered from the deep. Based on her grandmother's words, one woman thinks it is evil and tries to cast it back into the sea. But the device has other plans, and perhaps it can convince the woman to see the world differently.

• "Aegiopolis Testudo" by Gordon Li: on a world where country sized 'turtles' wander, one person, part of a research team on one of the turtles, wonders whether he is a 'parasite' on the turtle, using it for his and the company's business (research and tourism). Then an unexpected event makes him rethink his role on the turtle.

• "Still Water" by Zhang Ran, translated by Andy Dudak: a thoughtful story of a mother who wants to let her child live a life, after he is diagnosed with early onset ALS. Via two story threads, one on the mother, the other on the child, we see them live out their lives after he is apparently cured. But it is only at the end do the two threads merge, and we see the lives that they have both lived together.

• "Symbiotic" by Carolyn Zhao: a pair of explorers, neurally linked together, explore a sunken ship, only for one of them to encounter an underwater creature that also has a symbiotic link with another organism.

• "In My Country" by Thomas Ha: a man talks about how things are done in his country; how thoughts and words have to have clear meanings with no chance of re-interpretation. So how is he to deal with his son, whose stories invite reinterpretation and possible insinuations about the leader of his country?

• "An Even Greater Cold to Come" by Rich Larson: two young daughters hide in the woods with their mother from hunters. It is only towards the end, when the hunters close in, does the strange nature of their mother and her unborn son would have on the world is violently revealed.