It was a great reading experience. A mix of fantasy, mythology, and science fiction. Each story is different from the others, but one can tell they have the same heart. My favourite was Sailing the Antarsa, about a woman sent to another star system to find a group of colonies who split from hers centuries before looking for new places to live. The woman uses the Antarsa current to propel her ship near half the speed of light. The science behind the Antarsa current and the alt matter is fantastic. But the whole story about her kind arriving on her planet and how their society works is great, too. Here a quote I particularly liked: " 'A kinship is a relationship that is based on the assumption that each person, human or otherwise, has a right to exist, and a right to agency,' she intoned. 'This means that to live truly in the world we must constantly adjust to other beings, as they adjust to us. We must minimise and repair any harm that we do. Kinship goes all the way from friendship to enmity - and if a particular being does not desire it, why, we must leave it alone, leave the area. Thus through constant practice throughout out lives we begin to be ready with the final kinship - the one we make with death.'"
Second favourite was Wake-rider. In a universe controlled by a galactic corporation that enslaves humans with some sort of drug, the ones who are not controlled fight back. The story follows a woman who wake-rides corporation vessels on colonisation missions, this time on a rescue mission of an old generation ship. She needs to get there first to see if she can rescue any survivors before they are enslaved.
