Free fiction: Rich Horton's selections of "best of 2009" from Abyss & Apex magazine

Note: His post doesn't include download links, but includes one line summaries & some statistical data about the magazine.

List below is ordered on my preference - best first.

1. [ss] Paul Carlson's "Mirror Girl" (A); download; #31 (Q4 2009); electronic consciousness: A little girl gets to grow up in a hurry...
   
   Added to my "best of the year 2009" list.
2. [ss] Marie Brennan's "Letter Found In A Chest Belonging To The Marquis de Montseraille Following The Death Of That Worthy Individual" (B); download; #29 (Q1 2009); time travel: A variation on one of the stories of (I think) H Beam Piper I read in one of the volumes of "Isaac Asimov Presents Great SF Stories" series - probably "Time & Time Again", or may be something else - I'm not sure of title.
   
   In Piper's version, a US soldier near the site of a nuclear attack is mysteriously transported back in time to his teenage years - but with his later memories intact. There he conspires with his father towards eventually making the dad the President of US so he could work towards avoiding the war that sent the young man back in time!
   
   In Brennan's version, a man has to order the killing of his own young wife as part of a war manoeuvre. Grief stricken, he later chooses to travel back in time where he first met his wife - with his own later memories intact - & consciously chooses to stay away from her, so she will live even if not with him.
3. [coll] Richard A Lovett's "Carpe Mañana"; download; #31 (Q3 2009); stasis field: A collection of 4 independent stories that explore the implications of: "what if stasis closets were common consumer durables"?
4. [ss] Richard Foss's "Incarnation in the Delta" (B); download; #29 (Q1 2009); racism: White man/black man issues looked at in the background of generally a pleasant story of two black teenage musicians in the US, one of whom is a reincarnation of the "twin brother" of Gautama Buddha!
5. [ss] Lisa A Koosis' "The Midnight Girls" (C); download; #30 (Q2 2009); fantasy: A girl discovers a fantasyland with the help of a man - a land where girls who find this world unbearable can escape & be free from their misery. But she's strong, & won't choose this cowardly form of escape.
   
   Someone into fantasy & women's issues might see more here than I could.

Related.

1. "best of" lists.
2. my "best of 2009" list (includes links to others' "best of 2009" lists at bottom).
3. Horton's "yearly summaries" 2009.

Legend: ss = short story; coll = collection.