As the author explains in the Introduction, these two short stories take place in the same furure world 50 years apart, but are not directly connected.For both stories the author has assuredly crafted a future world where technology rules, in which individuals’ agency has been lost, and holding on to principles, and even reality, is challenging.In the first story, Signal/Tracer, the protagonist wrestles with whether to investigate anomalies in key data points which could make or break her non-person status. I found how a non-person status could occur, and what that existence could be like, thought-provoking, as was the new types of “currencies” in this future world.In the second, Carrier, the protagonist seeks redemption both professionally and personally, for past tragedies for which she may or may not have been responsible.In Carrier, the mystery was deeper and the clues more intricately brought forward, with good use of flashbacks and their subtle reveals.It was the mystery aspect that drew me to this book, even though speculative science fiction is not my first choice of genre. It explains why Carrier was my favourite of the two stories. But the author so skillfully presented the future world as to draw in, rather than alienate, a novice to the genre, that the detail did not distract from the main thread of the stories.I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A cerebral pair of novellas with a great sense of place and timeliness. Interlinked but independent and smart as a whip. I'll be eagerly awaiting Boey's next work!

Author Eliane Boey is the best of two worlds. Like William Gibson, Boey plays science fiction songs on noir instruments. OTHER MINDS is as much Dashiell Hammett as it is Robert Heinlein. This is a brilliant debut.For fans of her short stories, OTHER MINDS is a promise fulfilled. The same great characterizations, the seemingly effortless lyricism of the language, the telling details that sell the premise are all here in abundance. Boey is a top-notch literary writer whose genre label happens to be science fiction.OTHER MINDS is a collection of two sibling novellas, same milieu, but set at different points in the near future. "SIGNAL/TRACER" is the more noir of the two, featuring a disaffected agent of an authoritarian government who is sent on an undercover mission to gather intelligence about a rebel group's latest plans. It's hard enough to tell who's lying in our time, but in this story the characters are living the bulk of their lives in a virtual reality simulation.The other novella, "CARRIER," is set farther in the future. Centered around a designer of spaceships, the story features artificial intelligence, space travel, and other hard sf tropes, but the focus is really on mothers and daughters and how hard it can be to reach out to the person who's closest to you. There's a lot of heart in this one.Final Word: An excellent debut from a writer with a bright future in the SF genre. I feel lucky to have gotten a front-row seat.