I cannot remember the exact circumstances, but my friend and I found this short story collection at a book sale of some sort. It made its way from the Alameda Free Library in California to either Louisiana or Minnesota (depending on said exact circumstances . . . look, we drink a bit when we get together).

It was very difficult to take this picture without cat butts in the way.

We picked it up (and she gifted it to me) as a curiosity, based largely on some of the wild descriptions of the stories therein:

“Pogrom”: a “grim fable” that “presents a near-futuristic scenario in which internecine warfare has broken out between the aging boomer generation and a youthful dispossessed proletariat who must support them.”

That’s a little too real there, Mr. Kelly.

“Mr. Boy”: the “tale of a genetically stunted twelve year old who literally lives inside his mother, who has turned herself into a three-quarter-scale model of the Statue of Liberty.”

“Think Like a Dinosaur”: Recipient “of science fiction’s highest honor, the [1996] Hugo Award [for Best Novelette],” this story is “the tale of a transporter beam, maintained by aliens and through which humanity can visit the stars.”

Okay, I got distracted by actually reading “Think Like a Dinosaur,” and now it’s almost Day Thread time. Good news! “Think Like a Dinosaur” is a really interesting, creepy little story (not sure why it’s a “novelette” and not a short story, but I’ll leave that to the English teachers [hey, wait]). I won’t offer further details because it’s best read without spoilers, but I liked it. Up next: “Mr. Boy,” because I have got to see what that’s all about.

Anyway, if it’s true that, as Ursula K. Le Guin said, “science fiction is not predictive; it’s descriptive,” then James Patrick Kelly has seen some things.

Have a great Day Thread, Avocados! Take care out there!