The Baum Plan for Financial Independence (2008)

In The Baum Plan for Financial Independence, his first collection in a decade, John Kessel jumps from place to place like a jolty time machine. In ''Pride and Prometheus,'' Frankenstein and Jane Austen intersect in an uncanny Victorian tale of unrequited love, while ''A Lunar Quartet'' introduces a matriarchal, hypersexual moon colony in the future. But as a group, these stories offer a sustained exploration of the ways gender dynamics can both empower and enslave us. Kessel's wit sparkles throughout, peaking with the most uproariously weird phone-sex conversation you'll ever read (''The Red Phone''). A-