So far I only read/listened to two stories:

~ The Last Eagle by Natalia Theodoridou - 1.5* Available on Spotify
I loved her "The Birding" so I keep hunting for her stories but they are often misses for me. I think she is too academic, too poetic for me. I should let her go until I hear buzz about a story that shouldn't be skipped.

During this story I sat in confusion most of the time waiting for the "all will be revealed" moments. But they never really came.

My understanding is we have a transgender character searching for his clockwork friend. He picks up a guide and the last clue given is that the clockwork friend was searching for "The Last Eagle" who also turns out to be clockwork. Along the way the MC falls in love with the guide who prays to the "Great Welder in the sky". Claims that he/she is responsible for everything. Huh? humans and clockwork alike? I wish I could say more but none of it really makes sense to me. I assume this story is in the same "world": Shimmer 2017: Collected Stories https://www.librarything.com/work/21732645
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~ Confessions of a Con Girl by Nick Wolven DNF Available on Spotify

I got about 1/3 way through and decided to quit. I quit right after this which I think of as too much blah, blah, blah: "Now, the proper way to interpret praise," as my Test Prep Advisor says, "is as a challenge to do better, not a reward for what you've done." So I believe this is good advice, and see my above-average empathetic abilities, which my VACR so carefully documented, not as something I can take credit for myself, but as a responsibility unto which I have been given. Thus, I have always endeavored to use my empathetic and facial-reading talents, such as they may be, for the constructive support of others."

I'm sure it's just me but listening to that was hard to absorb. If I had the visual book, I could back read those sentences to fully understand. It was too much of the above for me, from the get-go, on audio. The hunt continues.