So boring. Read four of the nine stories, and it was a struggle even to get that far. I wasn't interested. Sometimes the premise and world-building was interesting, and some of the descriptions nicely vivid, but it was like... no point, and the endings felt rushed usually? I usually finished the chapter with 'why do that,' on my mind. "Proving up" was my favorite, and I tried to keep going but, no dice. Abandoned it, then finished another book in two days. I thought I had no motivation to read at all, but I just didn't like this book. Hard to get through.