Don't Touch That!: A Sci-Fi & Fantasy Parenting Anthology, by Jaymee Goh (editor)

Mike Chen, K.A. Doore, Keena C. Roberts, publishers, September 2022

This is an anthology of stories about parenting, in diverse and strange settings, by diverse authors, and with quite varied takes on the subject.

Brit E.B. Hvide gives us a story of mysterious visitors to a village who recruit children to leave their homes and families and go off on an adventure, from which they might or might not return. When this particular village receives its third mysterious visitor in a year, a visitor looking for that particular child of portent, one mother knows that this time he's going to take her son. And her son is really all she has left that matters to her. She decides this story of adventure will start a little differently.

The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times, by Adrienne Mayor (author), Donna Postel (narrator)

Tantor Media, ISBN 9781705276761, February 2021 (original publication April 2000)

I'm not sure it should really surprise me, but the Greeks, Romans, and other ancient cultures did a fair amount of paleontology.

Now, they didn't have our dating techniques, so while they had a good sense that Earth was old, and that the bones they found were from creatures that existed before us and were now gone, they had no idea how old, and didn't necessarily have a good sense of what came before what.

They also couldn't reliably tell what bones belonged with which other bones in the more jumbled and confused fossil sites. Earthquakes exposed a lot of fossils, but also jumbled them together.

Constituent Service: A Third District Story, by John Scalzi (author), Amber Benson (narrator)

Audible Audio, October 2024

Ashley Perrin is the fresh out of college new hire as the community services liaison for the city's Third District--the only district where the human citizens are the minority. The majority are aliens from a wide variety of alien worlds.

This includes all her coworkers in the Third District office, one of whom is a potted plant, whose assistant is very froglike in appearance. Oh, and she and her coworkers will go out for karaoke night. She'll have to sing. It's the traditional initiation.

But first, there's her first round of complaints and service requests.

Ecdysis (Orville Nesbit Mysteries #1), by Debra Doyle & James D. Macdonald

 

James D. Macdonald, Smashwords, ISBN 2940011288968, May 2011

Phil Paran is a police detective, investigating the latest in a string of serial killings. It's especially nasty, with the victims, always young women working as strippers, found dead and completely stripped of their skin. Remarkably neatly, too; very little blood found.

Penric and the Bandit (Penric and Desdemona (Chronological) #13), by Lois McMaster Bujold

Spectrum Literary Agency, June 2024

Penric is traveling, this time on what, for him, almost qualifies as a vacation. He's seeking a former saint's hermitage, and the temple that grew up around it, and later was abandoned. In the town of Berbak, at an inn, he meets a friendly and helpful young man, and they agree to travel together.

Except the young man, Rozak, is not honest, and does not have altogether friendly intentions. Penric, and his demon, Desdemona, are aware of that, and confident of their ability to handle him, and even a few fellow thieves. And Penric, would like, if possible, to save the young man's soul.

The Queen's Mirror, by Debra Doyle & James D. Macdonald

 

James D. Macdonald, Smashwords, ISBN 2940011282928, April 2011

This is a retelling of the story of Snow White, this time from the viewpoint of the Huntsman, who is completely loyal to the Queen, but also a good and decent man. This is the Queen Regnant, not Queen Consort, and he owes her obedience.