How Long Til Black Future Month by N.K. Jemisin
I've never really read short stories before, and I didn't care for it at first. Just about the time I'm getting into the story's world, getting to know the characters, getting interested in the plot and ... it's done. But the format grew on me throughout the book.
There are several stories I loved. A lot that I liked. There was one I didn't like. And there's one I didn't read.
Most of the stories have a heavy amount of social commentary present, I'm pretty well a fan of that. They all were scifi or fantasy and I love that. As usual, Jemisin's character development and overall story-telling is excellent. This book narrowly doesn't make it into my favorites and ... it's just because short-stories are inferior to long stories, at least for my taste.
Some of the stories were precursors to full books she wrote. If you've read her Broken Earth series, you would recognize one of the short stories from this book. It involves one of the characters from the series, and actually takes place several years AFTER the series, even though she wrote it beforehand, afaik. I loved that one.
Her City series was another favorite of mine, and one of the short stories was literally just the first chapter of that duology. Those two books were excellent, but the first chapter was not. And I did not really enjoy re-reading it. Partially that's because I had just already read it. Partially it's because it's just ... genuinely the least good part of the entire duology. I mean, I relatively enjoyed it the first time I read it, in the duology - just every other part was better.
There was a short story where people put their minds (souls, perhaps) into a virtual world. That was one of my favorites. It was SO GOOD and I hope she turns it into a series.
I did not read the Narcomancy short story. I was waiting on the first book of the Dreamblood duology to come in at my local library, and the Narcomancy short story was in the Dreamblood universe. I did not want to spoil it. So I'll have to return and read the Narcomancy short story later (and hoping it's not just a repeat of something I already read).
Generally, I think her Short stories got better as I got deeper into the book. Part of that was me getting used to the format, but also ... I just think she was telling better stories as we got farther into the book.
There were two restaurant/food related short stories in there which ... I wouldn't have expected to be favorites, but I think they are. The one with the chef had aspects that were so-so, but overall I really enjoyed it. The one with the two people dining, at the restaurant where they had the reservation, that one was really good.
Some of her stories just didn't have good endings. It's like ... she was building this full world, this full story, and then OPE IT'S TIME TO END IT. The City story was that way. A couple others were. But most of them wrapped up very well.
This is definitely a recommend from me, but if you're going to read Jemisin, you should start with one of these series: Dreamblood, Inheritance, Broken Earth.
Don't start with the short stories if you expect to try her series - they will, in a small way, spoil the series. You start a book, not knowing the world, the magic system, the major conflicts, etc. The shorts don't spoil big plot points. BUT they do spoil some of the development of your understanding of the world - they spoil some of the mystery that takes time to unfold in the longy.
The Great cities series is good too, but those three are better. It's hard to say which of those three is my favorite. They're all my favorite. I've listed them most-recently-read first. (oh but I haven't started dreamblood #2 yet, waiting on my library).