You can take a red pen to the world and point out its flaws, but you can't force every change. [loc. 1379: 'Four', by Freya Marske]
Subtitled 'Optimistic Speculative Fiction for a Time of Pandemic': all proceeds from this anthology were donated to the COVID-19 appeal run by University College London Hospitals NHS Trust. I bought it because I could do with some consolation, and also because most of the stories are by women, thus fulfilling the 'anthology by multiple authors' rubric of the Reading Women Challenge 2020. Plus, though I didn't recognise all the authors' names, those I recognised had good associations.
And it was so good to read positive and uplifting fiction! Twelve short stories, twelve very different voices, twelve happy endings. (Also a lot of loving queerness: about a third of the stories feature same-sex romantic relationships, and several more have significant relationships that aren't romantic or sexual.)
There isn't a weak story in here, though some are shorter and less weighty than others. My favourite three, in no particular order, were 'Four' by Freya Marske (in which the four horsemen of the apocalypse are neighbours in suburban New Zealand); 'St Anselm-by-the-Riverside', by editor Iona Datt Sharma (in which a middle-aged ward sister in an alternate, frozen London finds love and hope); and 'Love, Your Flatmate' by Stephanie Burgis Samphire (in which a fey composer and a human editor are forced to share a flat during lockdown). Those are my favourite three right now, but ask me again in a week and I might give you a different answer.
Not just consolation here, but comfort and hope and joy and love -- and surprisingly little sentimentality.
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