Perspective Flip

These short stories feature explorers of the unknown who find themselves transforming, changing their species and even their sex. Meet a magic-using deserter from the imperial navy who changes bodies to save his neck; a woman who marries into a Mennonite family with a secret; the survivor of a starship crash on an ocean world; a man who's pulled into a wizard's dimension-hopping game by a vixen costume; and more. From fantasy to science fiction, dire to ridiculous, these tales show worlds where even your own identity can change, but where bravery and curiosity are always in demand.

Excerpt:

Dane now regretted jumping off JMS Seal. By day he'd sweltered under a blazing sun, fending off sharks and thirst with his water magic. By night he'd drifted in eerie silence on his stolen plank. The current was taking him back toward the islands on a stolen plank, but now he heard water churning and frothing ahead, miles from shore. He was approaching a cliff in the sea.

The Luskinsday Islands were famed for three things. Near-tropical weather, and the natives -- more otter than human! -- and the uncanny holes in the water. In several areas around the islands, part of the seabed was dry and a ship could fall in and crash on bare ground. The sun rose ahead, stinging his salt-caked eyes, and showed him a suspicious white line. A waterfall's edge. After his exhausting trip, he took a while to remember how he'd planned to get past it.

A well-equipped ship like the Seal could jump across the water-cliff, if the officers hadn't recently demoted, berated and flogged their magic-wielding "caskman" into deserting. Dane felt the sea dragging him closer, and the ever-present bite of saltwater in the wounds on his back. He muttered a prayer to Janya, patron of travelers, and cursed his former captain.

Dane was getting close to the top of the waterfall. He dived. He had to get deep enough that he'd be safe, falling from only partway up. His lungs burned and forced him to surface again. If only he'd mastered that air-bubble spell! Worse, only the near-surface part of the current pulled him down and inward. Below that it churned upward and away in a great circle because of how the seabed repelled the water. How was he supposed to get down safely? He resolved to study how the current worked later, if his skull was intact.

The white line ahead had become a writhing mass of ocean, seeking to break him. Dane took three quick breaths and plunged back into the dark water, aiming down and inward. He forced himself through the churning chaos. His left arm broke through the waterfall and pulled at nothing, and then the water forced him back and tried to bring him higher. No! He kicked down against the sea itself and against the instinct demanding that he rise and breathe. Then he crashed sideways into humid air, and tumbled onto the bare rocks. The world flashed white with pain.

He lay on his back, gasping for air, while the ocean roared at him. He was staring up from the bottom of a water-walled canyon. The waterfalls crashed down to either side without more than a few drops touching him. Between these walls was a path of sand and grey stone, stretching in a long arc that curved out of sight ahead and behind him. Dane climbed to his feet, looked around, and let out a pained laugh. After floating all this way and spending a whole day and night soaked, now he was walking fifty feet below sea level! He took a few minutes to rest in the chilly canyon. There was still a chance of surviving, though jumping off of an intact ship had been the simpler and saner part of his plan.

The rumor was that the otterfolk natives had a way to turn humans into their kind.