Under Amber Skies by Maria V. Snyder (4 stars)
"Under Amber Skies" has been the most enjoyable story in this collection so far. It is situated in an alternative World War II Poland in a village on the Baltic coast.
The heroine's father is an inventor whose wondrous machines (like kitchen tools and agricultural vehicles) are secretly powered by amber stones. The heroine's mother is a tough patriot who wishes her husband would concentrate on designing new weapons able to destroy the Nazis, who employ metal owls to spy out the enemy.
When her father disappears and her mother grows more and more fanatic, the heroine and the boy she is not allowed to love become a target and have to use their wit ... and a special wrist-watch ... to survive.
