Here we have two fantasy stories that are out of this world. The first one is set in a bar and it's not an upper class bar...

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The bartender is a Lupan and he's a bad ass. That's why people in his bar behave. The guards are on to him, though. They think he's the one killing slavers. So they bring a slaver in the bar with a young woman. His new help he hired is very interested in the slave. It turns out the young man who is a thief for a living and got hurt bad by the guard is her son and the slave is her daughter. This makes the bar situation even more dangerous. It seems there's no way out for him so before he dies he's going to take a few people with him...

The next story is even more interesting. There's a young girl who is trying to get classified as a woman. The best way to do that is to sleep with a man. But this is a planet of women, where do you find a man? When she finds one, she has competition. Good thing she has her friend Sam. Incidentally, he's a spider, a big one. Most of the planet is occupied by the Silkies. Come to find out, there's a huge conspiracy going on and they are trying to railroad her mother. She and Sam try to find the truth and then attempt to get the queen of the spiders to listen to them. She's ready to mate, she doesn't want to listen. This one has an even more exciting ending.

I've always enjoyed reading stories like this and I'm glad I've found this author. I'll be looking for more of her work.

I like classic science fiction and particularly enjoy a new world with a different set of rules (physical, biological or social) to understand but it only works if the rules are coherent. Bonnie Milani has the inventiveness and discipline to create such a world together with all the humour, action and strong characters you could wish for. This is a collection of just two such worlds and I enjoyed them so much I will now look out for more by this author.