I've got a story in this collection in the form of "Hanging By A Thread" just as a disclaimer before I go into my review. I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. It had a good variety of spins on the theme of innovation and a good mixture of animals represented from birds, mammals, fish, and more. That's a nice change of pace as furry fiction can be pretty mammal-centric and seeing other animals that aren't used often is always very cool. Here's a quick highlight of my favorites from the collection: Draught Horse for the use of explaining how a horse would be able to design complex systems and hold a drafting pencil. And also for the wonderful characters. I felt Magnus's struggle with wanting to help his parents out pretty keenly. Computer Literacy for Deities for how cute Edain is written and the interactions between them and Guy. As someone who works in IT, it was a good light-hearted take on tech support. And the way Linnea handles Guy and Edain's budding relationship feels very accurate for a god and a mortal feeling out their boundaries. Poyekhali! for being the story that kept me gripped during the whole runtime. I feel like there was just the right amount of research into the Russian space program blended with the fictional furry elements to make it stand out. I also enjoyed the aspect of focusing on the cosmonauts as pioneers for space travel and all the promise that could bring. Not All Mysteries might have my favorite crows I've seen written. Both curious and smart, their village's quest to figure out what a strange hole is really tickled me. It reminded me of old style fantasy tales with how it approached the anthropomorphism in its characters and gave me an almost nostalgic feel for the way it was written. Unity on the Divide because I'm a sucker for stories where two groups of people have to work together to defeat a common foe. There's a good bit of world-building in this story too that I appreciated. Palis and crew along with Lima and the humans had me cheering at the end, so I think there's something to be said of that.
- Michael Miele