I just listened to “My She” (ace title) by Mary Rosenblum at the Lightspeed Magazine podcast. It’s a beautifully written story about loneliness, friendship, obligation and loyalty. So nice to be totally transported by a story — this is my kind of SF.
Mary Rosenblum slowly reveals the world and the characters’ situation without ever over-explaining or giving away any more than necessary. Each detail reveals just enough but still allows the readers to figure out the situation for themselves. It’s all narrated from the first-person perspective of an “other” (I’ll let you enjoy discovering exactly what they are) who experiences the world in a different way than we’re used to.
The text is available at Lightspeed, but I recommend listening to their audio version; the narrator Kathe Mazur did an awesome job on the reading and she gives the piece a beautiful melancholy feel. This is one I’ll definitely listen to again.