So far only listened to these three:

-- Bits by Naomi Kritzer - 4*
Finalist: 2014 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction
Free here: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_10_13/

A sex toy company needs to start making sex toys for aliens living on earth. They are coupling with humans but they don't match up exactly right.

-- The Ki-anna by Gwyneth Jones - 2*
I'm not fond of sitting in confusion throughout a story. SF heavy IMO. It has a different world inhabited by various species. Rules and etiquettes are to be followed which are a hindrance to solving the mystery.
A man is trying to figure out how his Scientist twin sister died. It has an "all will be revealed" ending but I struggled for the whole journey and the ending didn't make it any less confusing or enjoyable.

-- A Night at the Tarn House by George R. R. Martin - DNF
Previously published in Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance

Opens with "Through the purple gloom came Molloqos the Melancholy, borne upon an iron palanquin by four dead Deodands.

Above them hung a swollen sun where dark continents of black ash were daily spreading across dying seas of dim red fire. Behind and before the forest loomed, steeped in scarlet shadow. Seven feet tall and black as onyx, the Deodands wore ragged skirts and nothing else. The right front Deodand, fresher than the others, squished with every step."

For me that is too hard core fantasy for me to listen to. I need to see it and be able to back scan until it absorbs. I actually owned the book it was originally published in but passed it from my collection during the 1st year of COVID. I let it go because I have only read one Jack Vance story to date (Bad Ronald) and to have a huge anthology written in honor to him, in his style... I knew I was never going to read it. So I let this audio short story go also, in the 2nd year of COVID.

3.5/5 stars. A hilarious short story about neurologically connected sex toys and the human-alien pairings who love them. ( )

The Symphony of Ice and Dust by Julie Novakova - writing is on the clumsy side, which made it hard for me to get invested in it at all. I gave up when I hit a glaring grammatical error.

Bits by Naomi Kritzer - Given any new technology, people will find a way to 1) make money with it and 2) have sex with it. Welp, this one's both. In a rather optimistic, slightly sappy way. (Er. Romantically sappy.)

The Creature Recants by Dale Bailey - The monster is really the hero! Unattractive dude suffers from unrequited love! But wait -! Yeah, this is basically a boring Western in scifi clothing.

The Ki-anna by Gwyneth Jones - Cannibalism and an alien culture very deeply weird. I liked this one quite a lot, although it took me a while to sort out all the different characters.

A Night at the Tarn House by George R. R. Martin - Reads an awful lot like extruded 80s fantasy product. I couldn't get into it.

Also a nifty essay by Daniel Abraham on the point of writing. Overall, not a great issue, but it did remind me I need to read Gwyneth Jones's novels. ( )

Just an average issue this time. Nothing stood out for me, even the reprint of George R.R. Martin was just average. ( )