Book: Edward Bryant's Sphere of Influence

A collection of sci-fi/fantasy/horror short stories influenced by sci-fi author & impresario Ed Bryant. The book was recommended by Ted Chiang.

In one of them, a character who has been uploaded to an AI bemoans the loss of memories. "I discussed the problem with one of the MemCore technicians. She told me that clients typically experience a ten to thirty percent loss every time there's an upload or download through the system."

It strikes me we among the living experience that too. Our neurons are continually dying and rerouting, and we experience a loss every now and then that we notice. Probably even more that we don't.

Trey R. Barker wrote:

A man sat under the cross.  Next to him, a small, trembling dog coughed.

Some of the stories are better than others.  Reminds me of a Harlan Ellison collection I read several years ago.  Some of his stories were simply bonkers.

Just read a really good story by Van Aaron Hughes, about a generational starship headed to Mars where the crew, instead of suspended animation, is put into a state where time is slowed to 1/20th its normal speed.  

The physics of it aren't explained -- in the commentary Hughes says Ed Bryant told him it worked better if he left it unexplained -- but a lot of the implications of the differences in subjective time between the crew and the base station are described.  Fascinating.