I have stated the LeVar Burton is the celebrity I most want to meet, and perhaps I will, as Burton now travels around sharing short stories with a live audience. These eight stories appeared between season three and four on Burton’s podcast and included interviews with the authors afterward.

Playing Nice with God’s Bowling Ball by N.K. Jemisin

Playing Nice with God’s Bowling Ball was an enjoyable short story that juxtaposed a police procedural with a fantastical crime. When Jeffy, a young boy, confesses to a detective that he is responsible for a playmate’s disappearance, she needs to investigate. What Grace, the detective, finds out about Jeffy defies logic, with an explanation that points to a black hole, aliens and a possible world collapse. Still not entirely sure of what truly happened, Grace takes precautions to safeguard the future by helping Jeffy come to terms with his power. This was a fun story that had elements of the X-Files, Guardians of the Galaxy and Law and Order in it.

Asymmetry by Kendra Fortmeyer

Asymmetry was an interesting short story that kept you off-kilter, as the reader isn’t sure if the story is supposed to be fantasy or a metaphor. The story begins with a fantasy element-two women both show up for a date and it turns out they are clones of one another. Reeling from a recent divorce the women go home together and take turns going into work while the other stays home. Although they are the same person, one of the women begins to recover faster from her heartbreak while the other holds onto her grief, but then begins to shrink in size. The ending makes it seem as if the story is a metaphor for getting over sorrow, but no matter, it was an enjoyable story.

The Vishakanya’s Choice by Roshani Chokshi

Sudha is a Vishakanya, a poison maiden who is utilized as an assassin in the Middle East. She is forced into this role, for her fates said she would be a young widow, so Sudha is told she will serve her king better in this role. Assigned to kill a rival king, Sudha reluctantly heads to his kingdom to do so, but finds him ill and almost at death’s door. He recognizes her purpose and the two come to an agreement of how they both can help one another. I found this story a perfect length, as Chokshi is a lyrical writer who brings her culture’s folklore to life but can tend towards purple prose in a full-length novel.

Four Stations in His Circle by Austin Clarke

At first, I hated the story- as a Barbados immigrant tries to social climb in Toronto and loses his cultural identity in the process. This man was so goal-orientated on buying a particular house in a tony neighborhood that he rejects his mother dying back home on the island and all his former friends, so he can save money and be accepted by his neighbors when he finally is able to move there. But by the end of the story, my opinion had changed for while I still hated the main character, his empty life of not fitting in either world made me reflect on losing oneself for the sake of appearances.

In The City of Martyrs by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam

This short story reminded me of the novel 1984 with a dash of The Hunger Games. A young man sees a woman on a crowded city street whose face gives him déjà vu and gives him a memory that tickles his thoughts without him being able to fully realize it. He searches her out at the city palace and finds out his connection to her plus how the corrupt regime has been able to send so many young soldiers to war. This fantasy tale was solid, with some parallels to real-world kidnapings by authoritarian governments.

A Dark Night by Edward P. Jones

The story description is “a stormy evening leads to a dark night of the soul,” and while part of that was true, it felt disjointed and cobbled together. The story begins with several senior citizen women gossiping and reminiscing about their past and ends with two women fearfully waiting out a storm. The characters were written with precision, but the beginning, middle and end of the story didn’t mesh together well.

Driftglass by Samuel R. Delany

In this particular story, an amphiman (surgery has been developed that gives humans gills) who was hurt in a deep-sea explosion in his youth now lives by the seaside in a village of fisherman. Life goes on around him, and he is an integral part of village life, as dangerous work continues in the ocean trenches and he is worried about how it will affect his loved ones. I view this story as speculative fiction, for although it reads like magical realism now, it was written in 1967 so the author was speculating on what he thought might happen in the future, yet it has a timeless feel.

Mono No Aware by Ken Liu

In this sci-fi/dystopian story, a meteor is headed on a collision course with Earth, and countries are scrambling to build space ships to escape. A Japenese boy, Hiroto, is able to board a US ship that is the only ship that was able to leave orbit in enough time, and thus he tries to represent his home country nobly as the years go by and the ship looks for a welcoming planet to make a home on. When a malfunction occurs and he is the only one that can repair it, he makes the ultimate sacrifice to make sure everyone on board gets back on course to safety. The title refers to a Japanese term for the awareness of impermanence, or transience of things, and both a transient gentle sadness at their passing as well as a longer, deeper gentle sadness about this state being the reality of life (translation from Wikipedia).

All eight live readings were delightful, and I enjoyed hearing the interview with the writers afterward. Hearing the authors share what they were thinking as they wrote their stories was illuminating and gave more insight to the story. Make sure you tune in to this podcast,  “but you don’t have to take my word for it.”