pickWell ya‘ll, I finished it. There were a couple of duds, a couple of stories that blew me out of the water (see what I did there?), and most stories fell between the realm of “fine” and “interesting.” Overall, I appreciated getting to spend some time in a cli-fi anthology that‘s somewhat hopeful. It‘s also worth just checking out the artwork created for each story. This is an online-only anthology - available at https://go.xprize.org/oceanstories
Dr. Julie Pol has just opened the Ocean Research Institute & Spa (ORIAS). There are plenty of critics - those who don‘t think saving less than 100 whales is worth millions of dollars when so many humans are suffering. Julie has to convince them that saving the whales means saving the ocean & saving the ocean means saving us. A well-written, fitting end to this anthology. Art by Alyssa Winans. https://go.xprize.org/oceanstories/southern-residents/
Gabriela works with her parents on their disaster tourist cruise ship. She has just learned that her parents are divorcing, and this story holds her anger and also her reflections on how holding/possessing the things and people you love can often destroy them. Some may find it a bit heavy-handed, but there are some things that just need to be said explicitly. ⤵️⤵️⤵️
I don‘t love reading on my laptop (and I‘ve additionally been trying to buy my ebooks from not-Amazon), so I‘ve learned a few tricks for reading various file formats on my kindle. For this story, I copied/pasted the text into a google doc, saved as pdf, then emailed to my kindle using the auto-convert function. Sounds annoying, but it only took a sec .. and now I can read in the tub ;)
This story is from the perspective of Aamu a pregnant whale swimming the ocean (at times through underwater [previously inhabited by humans] cities), and singing the song of her pod to her unborn son. An interesting and strangely lyrical story. Art by Kaela Graham. https://go.xprize.org/oceanstories/the-seething-sea-sufficeth-us/
Meri wakes on the ship that she works on to her boss sounding the alarm; someone is diving in the dark, trying to steal the baby coral - the genetically spliced “hybrid” coral she works to protect. This was interesting if not super memorable. (I‘m really tired today, so excuse the lackluster descriptions. 🥱) Art by Andreea Dobrin Dinu. https://go.xprize.org/oceanstories/the-salt-dark/
This one I reviewed when I read The Year‘s Best Sci-Fi collection edited by Jonathan Strahan. Reposting my thoughts in the comment section. Art by Priscilla Kim. https://go.xprize.org/oceanstories/soft-edges/ (I love this art!) ⤵️⤵️
Chen Shiyuan unexpectedly receives a call from a former mentor/project manager & learns that perhaps their project from 20 yrs ago (to create an underwater AI for cleaning up crude oil & plastic from the ocean) wasn‘t quite the failure they thought - but it‘s also become something else entirely. An interesting read w/ fun imagery. Art by Kirsten Zirngibi (go check out the full image!). https://go.xprize.org/oceanstories/poems-and-distant-lands/
12. Diti, a graduate student researcher, is working on a species survey for a deep sea mining project. Watching the oceanic life forms, she begins to rethink the current mining methods. This story was interesting, but the tonal shift at the end - wrapping the story up in a tidy bow - threw me off a bit. Art by Rosanna Tasker. https://go.xprize.org/oceanstories/the-little-shepherdess/
CW: graphic depictions of war & PTSD. Nieve, a veteran of The Water Wars, is sent to a facility to try a new PTSD treatment - but it might get worse before it gets better. This felt like a story the author wrote after reading “The Body Keeps the Score” (a hugely influential work on trauma treatment). Good story but also a hard read. Art by Robin Eisenberg. https://go.xprize.org/oceanstories/the-body-remembers/
2040 is “a time of rising sea levels and lethal hurricanes” in which “creative solutions are called for.” This had a lot going on for a 15 minute read, and I‘m mostly just confused. I read it in full, skimmed it again, googled it, skimmed some more. Nope, I‘m just confused. Oh well. Art by Michela Buttignol. https://go.xprize.org/oceanstories/haven/
CW: fatphobia. An immersion expert makes a living demoing immersion technology that lets the participant feel the sensory (touch) experience of a nearby seal. She loves immersion herself, but hates the tourists she has to serve. Then she gets an offer for a much more interesting immersion job. This was a well-written and really interesting read. Recommended. Art by Nancy Liang. https://go.xprize.org/oceanstories/her-seal-skin-coat/
This story is “about perfume, disinformation, and AI” (author description). This one was strange, but I like that it touched on how human technology can inadvertently impact others species. For instance - did you know that airplanes flying over nature preserves disrupts mating cycles of many species. (Not in the story, just a random sad fact.) Anyway, the story was okay. Art by Daria Kirpach. https://go.xprize.org/oceanstories/blue-lotus/
This was one of my faves in the Best SF of the Year collection that I read. It‘s another story that‘s hard to describe without spoilers, but it begins with a marine behavioral researcher and an octopus. What if we could see the world through the eyes of another intelligent creature? What will we see that we‘d never understood before? Highly recommended reading. Art by Chiara Zarmati. https://go.xprize.org/oceanstories/sturdy-lanterns-and-ladders/
With some short stories, it‘s hard to write a brief summary without spoilers, and this is one of those. Our main character discovered an underwater forest of giant coral (a new species); the story begins as she shows her 8-year-old sister her discovery using VR tech, and .. I have to leave it at that. It‘s a beautifully written, thoughtful, & moving character-driven story. Art by Jazmen Richardson. https://go.xprize.org/oceanstories/sea-maple/
Ella lives in an underwater community, watching whales swim past her window; she and her neighbors strive to sustain their environment by engaging in conservation work. But when a journalist from National Geographic arrives to write about their lifestyle, everything feels threatened. “I didn‘t want someone writing about us like we were some ‘lost conservation tribe.‘ We are so much more than that.” ⤵️⤵️
In the near future, Jamaica‘s coast is underwater. “Global warning brought supertornados which had eroded the sand away. Polar ice cap melts had raised water levels enough to permanently flood so many of our coastal cities.” Our main character watched throughout his childhood as cruise ships contributed to oceanic pollution and climate change - and he hates them for this; he hates that he has had to immigrate to America.⤵️⤵️⤵️
Ys lives as a human, but she is also.. different from others. She knows of the music of the sea. “Humpbacks and sperm whale will cross paths with orca, baleen whales and bottlenose dolphins between late autumn and early winter and these meetings often turn into full concerts including cavorting and dance.” And Ys is inviting others to share this concert. ⤵️⤵️
An interspecies communication researcher visits the ocean to experiment with using her neural implant to communicate with dolphins. Much like the researcher‘s work, this story felt like the seed of an idea that hadn‘t been fleshed out. It also ended rather abruptly. The art (by Christina Dill) is lovely though.
https://go.xprize.org/oceanstories/talking-in-pictures/
Paro knows she has a connection to the ocean, despite her mother‘s insistence that she avoid the sea at all costs. As she & a blue whale learn to trust each other deeply, she begins to remember. This beautifully written story touches on the interconnectedness of humans & (the rest of) nature, the devastating consequences of colonialism, generational trauma, vulnerability, & - of course - climate change. Highly recommended. (Art by Jing Jing Tsong)
The next anthology I‘m planning to read a story a day from is only available online (for free!); maybe there‘s a story you‘d enjoy too :). I‘ve already read the 1st one which I‘ll post about tomorrow. It‘s written by Vandana Singh who wrote one of my favorites from The Year‘s Best anthology, and it did not disappoint. The stories can be found at: https://go.xprize.org/oceanstories
Current Futures: A Sci-Fi Ocean Anthology | 
