What do you think?
Rate this book
Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2020 edition
A collection of some of the best original science fiction and fantasy short fiction published on Tor in 2020.
- If You Take My Meaning (2020) by Charlie Jane Anders
- Hearts in the Hard Ground (2020) by G.V. Anderson
- The Night Soil Salvagers (2020) by Gregory Norman Bossert
- The Ashes of Around Twenty-Three Strangers (2020) by Jeremy Packert Burke
- The Ones Who Look (2020) by Katharine Duckett
- Solution (2020) by Brian Evenson
- Exile’s End (2020) by Carolyn Ives Gilman
- The Girlfriend’s Guide to Gods (2020) by Maria Dahvana Headley
- Wait for Night (2020) by Stephen Graham Jones
- The Perfection of Theresa Watkins (2020) by Justin C. Key
- Little Free Library (2020) by Naomi Kritzer
- How Quini the Squid Misplaced his Klobučar (2020) by Rich Larson
- Beyond the Dragon’s Gate (2020) by Yoon Ha Lee
- Anything Resembling Love (2020) by S. Qiouyi Lu
- City of Red A Hikayat (2020) by Usman T. Malik
- Of Roses and Kings (2020) by Melissa Marr
- Yellow and the Perception of Reality (2020) by Maureen McHugh
- The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex (2020) by Tamsyn Muir
- Two Truths and a Lie (2020) by Sarah Pinsker
- St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid (2020) by C.L. Polk
- Everything’s Fine (2020) by Matthew Pridham
- The Little Witch (2020) by M. Rickert
- The Night Sun (2020) by Zin E. Rocklyn
- Placed into Abyss (Mise en Abyse) (2020) by Rachel Swirsky
- We’re Here, We’re Here (2020) by K.M. Szpara
- Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law (2020) by Lavie Tidhar
- Sinew and Steel and What They Told (2020) by Carrie Vaughn
- An Explorer’s Cartography of Already Settled Lands (2020) by Fran Wilde
- Flight (2020) by Claire Wrenwood
- If You Take My Meaning (2020) by Charlie Jane Anders
- Hearts in the Hard Ground (2020) by G.V. Anderson
- The Night Soil Salvagers (2020) by Gregory Norman Bossert
- The Ashes of Around Twenty-Three Strangers (2020) by Jeremy Packert Burke
- The Ones Who Look (2020) by Katharine Duckett
- Solution (2020) by Brian Evenson
- Exile’s End (2020) by Carolyn Ives Gilman
- The Girlfriend’s Guide to Gods (2020) by Maria Dahvana Headley
- Wait for Night (2020) by Stephen Graham Jones
- The Perfection of Theresa Watkins (2020) by Justin C. Key
- Little Free Library (2020) by Naomi Kritzer
- How Quini the Squid Misplaced his Klobučar (2020) by Rich Larson
- Beyond the Dragon’s Gate (2020) by Yoon Ha Lee
- Anything Resembling Love (2020) by S. Qiouyi Lu
- City of Red A Hikayat (2020) by Usman T. Malik
- Of Roses and Kings (2020) by Melissa Marr
- Yellow and the Perception of Reality (2020) by Maureen McHugh
- The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex (2020) by Tamsyn Muir
- Two Truths and a Lie (2020) by Sarah Pinsker
- St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid (2020) by C.L. Polk
- Everything’s Fine (2020) by Matthew Pridham
- The Little Witch (2020) by M. Rickert
- The Night Sun (2020) by Zin E. Rocklyn
- Placed into Abyss (Mise en Abyse) (2020) by Rachel Swirsky
- We’re Here, We’re Here (2020) by K.M. Szpara
- Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law (2020) by Lavie Tidhar
- Sinew and Steel and What They Told (2020) by Carrie Vaughn
- An Explorer’s Cartography of Already Settled Lands (2020) by Fran Wilde
- Flight (2020) by Claire Wrenwood
714 pages, ebook
First published January 5, 2021
280 people are currently reading
526 people want to read
About the author
Charlie Jane Anders
170 books4,031 followersMy latest book is Victories Greater Than Death. Coming in August: Never Say You Can't Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times By Making Up Stories.
Previously: All the Birds in the Sky, The City in the Middle of the Night, and a short story collection, Six Months, Three Days, Five Others.
Coming soon: An adult novel, and a short story collection called Even Greater Mistakes.
I used to write for a site called io9.com, and now I write for various places here and there.
I won the Emperor Norton Award, for “extraordinary invention and creativity unhindered by the constraints of paltry reason.” I've also won a Hugo Award, a Nebula Award, a William H. Crawford Award, a Theodore Sturgeon Award, a Locus Award and a Lambda Literary Award.
My stories, essays and journalism have appeared in Wired Magazine, the Boston Review, Conjunctions, Tin House, Slate, MIT Technology Review, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, Tor.com, Lightspeed Magazine, McSweeney’s, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, ZYZZYVA, Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, 3 AM Magazine, Flurb.net, Monkey Bicycle, Pindeldyboz, Instant City, Broken Pencil, and in tons and tons of anthologies.
I organize Writers With Drinks, which is a monthly reading series here in San Francisco that mashes up a ton of different genres. I co-host a Hugo Award-winning podcast, Our Opinions Are Correct, with Annalee Newitz.
Back in 2007, Annalee and I put out a book of first-person stories by female geeks called She’s Such a Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology and Other Nerdy Stuff. There was a lot of resistance to doing this book, because nobody believed there was a market for writing about female geeks. Also, Annalee and I put out a print magazine called other, which was about pop culture, politics and general weirdness, aimed at people who don’t fit into other categories. To raise money for other magazine, we put on events like a Ballerina Pie Fight – which is just what it sounds like – and a sexy show in a hair salon where people took off their clothes while getting their hair cut.
I used to live in a Buddhist nunnery, when I was a teenager. I love to do karaoke. I eat way too much spicy food. I hug trees and pat stone lions for luck. I talk to myself way too much when I’m working on a story.
Previously: All the Birds in the Sky, The City in the Middle of the Night, and a short story collection, Six Months, Three Days, Five Others.
Coming soon: An adult novel, and a short story collection called Even Greater Mistakes.
I used to write for a site called io9.com, and now I write for various places here and there.
I won the Emperor Norton Award, for “extraordinary invention and creativity unhindered by the constraints of paltry reason.” I've also won a Hugo Award, a Nebula Award, a William H. Crawford Award, a Theodore Sturgeon Award, a Locus Award and a Lambda Literary Award.
My stories, essays and journalism have appeared in Wired Magazine, the Boston Review, Conjunctions, Tin House, Slate, MIT Technology Review, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, Tor.com, Lightspeed Magazine, McSweeney’s, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, ZYZZYVA, Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, 3 AM Magazine, Flurb.net, Monkey Bicycle, Pindeldyboz, Instant City, Broken Pencil, and in tons and tons of anthologies.
I organize Writers With Drinks, which is a monthly reading series here in San Francisco that mashes up a ton of different genres. I co-host a Hugo Award-winning podcast, Our Opinions Are Correct, with Annalee Newitz.
Back in 2007, Annalee and I put out a book of first-person stories by female geeks called She’s Such a Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology and Other Nerdy Stuff. There was a lot of resistance to doing this book, because nobody believed there was a market for writing about female geeks. Also, Annalee and I put out a print magazine called other, which was about pop culture, politics and general weirdness, aimed at people who don’t fit into other categories. To raise money for other magazine, we put on events like a Ballerina Pie Fight – which is just what it sounds like – and a sexy show in a hair salon where people took off their clothes while getting their hair cut.
I used to live in a Buddhist nunnery, when I was a teenager. I love to do karaoke. I eat way too much spicy food. I hug trees and pat stone lions for luck. I talk to myself way too much when I’m working on a story.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
December 20, 2022
This is a repackaging of 29 Tor.com short story releases, as a single kindle download offered for free recently through Amazon.com. There is no editor per se, no front or back matter, and it is not obvious what the selection criteria were, so this is not truly an anthology. I read them individually over the course of about a half a year. Here are my thoughts on each story included, and my overall rating is a simple arithmetic average (2.4 stars) of my individual ratings. However, there are two award winning works in here, one of which I highly recommend – “Two Truths and a Lie”, by Sarah Pinsker.
How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobučar, by Rich Larson, *****. A fresh feeling cyberpunk heist, fully populated with creative word candy and Barcelonan cultural references. Maybe it’s because I was in Spain when I read it, near Gaudí’s Palacio Episcopal in Astorga, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Aurora Awards 2021 – novelette/novella – nomination.
The Girlfriend's Guide to Gods, by Maria Dahvana Headley, *. No story other than that guys are shits. I’m reminded of one of Philip K. Dick’s misogynist rants disguised as a story – The Pre-Persons (1973). Locus Awards 2021 – short story – 7th place.
St Valentine, St Abigail, St Brigid, by C. L. Polk, **. A young girl grows up in a family of extreme privilege with a mother who practices witchcraft, only becoming aware of the difference between her and her peers. Not a bad story, just not my cup of tea, so to speak.
If You Get My Meaning, by Charlie Jane Anders, *. A story in which a stream of characters describes their feelings towards one other, and regarding the physical changes in their bodies as they are surgically morphed into aliens, adjusting their social circles. I’m sure there could be some takeaways regarding gender-affirming surgery, if any of the characters had been established as worth caring about. Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award 2021 – finalist. Locus Awards 2021 – Novelette – 5th place.
Sinew and Steel and What They Were Told, by Carrie Vaughn, ****. A space accident forces the reveal of an astronaut worker’s falsified medical scans. Romantic feelings are deftly woven into the injured astronaut’s perspective. C. L. Moore used to do this sort of thing for heterosexual relationships.
Little Free Library, by Naomi Kritzer, **. Free Little Libraries are all over the place, and we all know how they work. But when a woman puts one up and begins exchanging messages with a mysterious stranger, she gets more than she was expecting. A cute story, nothing more. Hugo Awards 2021 – short story – nomination. Locus Awards 2021 winner – short story.
An Explorer’s Cartography of Already Settled Lands, by Fran Wilde, *. A colony ship carries a people to their new land, only to find it is already inhabited. Excessively poetic language obscures any story about what happens there.
The Night Sun, by Zin E. Rocklyn, *. A woman is trapped in a weekend getaway with her abusive husband. But once there, she finds herself among the other werewolves of the region. I hate stories about zombies, vampires, werewolves, etc, and even so, this story is just not as spooky as it seems intended to be.
Anything Resembling Love, by S. Qiouyi Lu, **. A shy young girl finds that no one understands her embarrassment at her inability to control the centipedes that burst forth from her body when she is anxious, especially with boys - even though everyone experiences such phenomenon. It’s an original idea, but too weird. I mean, it emphasizes her teenage angst, but why does this happen?
Beyond the Dragon’s Gate, by Yoon Ha Lee, ***. Anna Kim is brought before the Marshal of the Harmonious Stars, the supreme commander of military forces, because she has survived a prior tragic experience in communication with AIs. Fascinating world building, but the ending is too abrupt and the Marshal should have been able to figure it out without Anna’s help.
Of Roses and Kings, by Melissa Marr, **. Alice in Wonderland with sex and murder.
We’re Here, We’re Here, by K.M. Szpara, **. Members of a boy band are unable to live in accord with their true gender/sexual identities, as they are held hostage by their manager’s control of their throat implants. Interesting characters, but barely speculative fiction.
Two Truths and a Lie, by Sarah Pinsker, *****. Stella finds that the brother of her childhood friend Marco had shaped his entire life around a story told when he was a guest on a forgotten local TV show. Not only him, but all of her childhood friends. Pushing through her own multi-layered dread she learns she was too. Hugo Awards 2021 winner - Novelette. Nebula Awards 2021 winner – Novelette. Bram Stoker Awards 2021 – long fiction – nomination. Locus Awards 2021 – novelette – 2nd place.
The Night Soil Salvagers, By Gregory Norman Bossert, *. This so-called story is written as a sequence of performance directions – Title (Nocturne for Midnight on the Full Moon), Find (items needed), Performance, Variation, Commentary. I found this structure oppressive, and the lack of a story arc through them to be boring. By the end, I was just skimming.
The Ones Who Look, by Katharine Duckett, *****. A story told in the workplace of Ethical Empire, a business built around the creation of a digital afterlife. Subscribers contract to have their life observed and judged, so that they might live on after death in the appropriate place. Zoe, an observer, begins dating Henri, a founding engineer, who eventually reveals some flaws in the system. Very original concept, with interesting complications.
Everything’s Fine, by Matthew Pridham, ***. Eric and a couple of co-workers obsess over the events of a TV show named Design of the Times, while the world they live in grows dangerously strange.
Yellow and the Perception of Reality, by Maureen McHugh, ****. Wanda struggles as a social worker, while attempting to emotionally support her institutionalized sister, once a brilliant physicist whose mind has been destroyed in a novel way. She had been participating in an experiment intended to alter the perception and consciousness of a subject octopus. Wanda’s perspective is limited and she is not really able to understand what has happened, just how she feels about it. Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award 2021 – 3rd place.
Exile’s End, by Carolyn Ives Gilman, *****. The story follows a museum curator and her struggle to balance the arguments for and against indigenous rights to archeological artifacts. The author works at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. The story’s true topic is thinly veiled, having been recast into a somewhat contrived interplanetary scenario.
Flight, by Claire Wrenwood, *. The story is told in reverse chronological order, resulting in a somewhat incomprehensible sequence of events. If recast into forward chronological order, it is about a young woman fooled by her desire to be inducted into a magical lifestyle that features the growth of wings. I think it might be intended that the reader also be pulled initially by the romanticism of having wings, but that did not work for me.
Wait for Night, by Stephen Graham Jones, **. This is a gruesome story about nearly immortal beings existing on the fringe of society in the contemporary American West. Mostly it’s about the blood - yuck. Locus Awards 2021 – short story – 10th place.
Solution, by Brian Evenson, **. In a post-climate changed world, an aging researcher reflects on his role in developing biotechnology that enables survival through adaptation, while a rich group of investors back off-planet evacuation of their elite selves. The biotechnology seemed implausible to me.
Hearts in the Hard Ground, by G. V. Anderson, ***. A character study about a woman who buys a haunted house after her mother passes, and the elusive ghosts that inhabit it. Of little interest conceptually, but with interesting characters.
The Perfection of Theresa Watkins, by Justin C. Key, *****. Darius is a contemporary technology hot-shot, who unexpectedly confronted cancer with its aggressive treatments. While in chemotherapy, he met and eventually married another mortally ill cancer patient. He partners with his colleagues to enter her into a program of resurrection that he has been a co-developer of. Along the way, is significant speculation on brain and medical science, as well as commentary on race and ethics. I found it a powerful story.
The Ashes of Around Twenty-three Strangers, by Jeremy Packert Burke, **. In a post-apocalyptic world, rainstorms break out indoors and houses collapse, while human lives collapse amidst thre fatalistic religion that has developed. Plausibility is not as important to Burke as archetypal decline. This does not fascinate me.
Placed into Abyss, by Rachel Swirsky, ***. As a highly dysfunctional family cleans out the house of the recently passed matriarch, Chris relives traumatic episodes of his life and the lives of others. An unusual narrative technique involves saying what doesn’t happen, meaning what does happen in another existence. It is eventually explained as time travel through a quantum multiverse. The family was so dysfunctional that I could not really find anything to identify with.
City of Red Midnight, by Usman T. Malik, **. A compound set of multiple nested stories from Lahore, that explore a magical folk realm. The overall arc seemed to wander, with no particular consistency, and without a satisfactory conclusion. And then suddenly, it was over. Eugie Awards 2021 – finalist. Locus Awards 2021 – novelette – 10th place.
The Little Witch, by M. Rickert, *. An old woman and the ghost of her dead cat befriend a young trick-or-treater over the course of a few years, who seems to actually have some halloweenish witchcraft powers.
Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law, by Lavie Tidhar, **. A somewhat cute story about the political power of old world vampires, and how they interact with humans. Eugie Awards 2021 – finalist.
Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex, by Tamsyn Muir, *. A locked room magic mystery. There is a lot of presumed background necessary to understanding the investigation, that I simply do not have, or even care to figure out.
How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobučar, by Rich Larson, *****. A fresh feeling cyberpunk heist, fully populated with creative word candy and Barcelonan cultural references. Maybe it’s because I was in Spain when I read it, near Gaudí’s Palacio Episcopal in Astorga, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Aurora Awards 2021 – novelette/novella – nomination.
The Girlfriend's Guide to Gods, by Maria Dahvana Headley, *. No story other than that guys are shits. I’m reminded of one of Philip K. Dick’s misogynist rants disguised as a story – The Pre-Persons (1973). Locus Awards 2021 – short story – 7th place.
St Valentine, St Abigail, St Brigid, by C. L. Polk, **. A young girl grows up in a family of extreme privilege with a mother who practices witchcraft, only becoming aware of the difference between her and her peers. Not a bad story, just not my cup of tea, so to speak.
If You Get My Meaning, by Charlie Jane Anders, *. A story in which a stream of characters describes their feelings towards one other, and regarding the physical changes in their bodies as they are surgically morphed into aliens, adjusting their social circles. I’m sure there could be some takeaways regarding gender-affirming surgery, if any of the characters had been established as worth caring about. Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award 2021 – finalist. Locus Awards 2021 – Novelette – 5th place.
Sinew and Steel and What They Were Told, by Carrie Vaughn, ****. A space accident forces the reveal of an astronaut worker’s falsified medical scans. Romantic feelings are deftly woven into the injured astronaut’s perspective. C. L. Moore used to do this sort of thing for heterosexual relationships.
Little Free Library, by Naomi Kritzer, **. Free Little Libraries are all over the place, and we all know how they work. But when a woman puts one up and begins exchanging messages with a mysterious stranger, she gets more than she was expecting. A cute story, nothing more. Hugo Awards 2021 – short story – nomination. Locus Awards 2021 winner – short story.
An Explorer’s Cartography of Already Settled Lands, by Fran Wilde, *. A colony ship carries a people to their new land, only to find it is already inhabited. Excessively poetic language obscures any story about what happens there.
The Night Sun, by Zin E. Rocklyn, *. A woman is trapped in a weekend getaway with her abusive husband. But once there, she finds herself among the other werewolves of the region. I hate stories about zombies, vampires, werewolves, etc, and even so, this story is just not as spooky as it seems intended to be.
Anything Resembling Love, by S. Qiouyi Lu, **. A shy young girl finds that no one understands her embarrassment at her inability to control the centipedes that burst forth from her body when she is anxious, especially with boys - even though everyone experiences such phenomenon. It’s an original idea, but too weird. I mean, it emphasizes her teenage angst, but why does this happen?
Beyond the Dragon’s Gate, by Yoon Ha Lee, ***. Anna Kim is brought before the Marshal of the Harmonious Stars, the supreme commander of military forces, because she has survived a prior tragic experience in communication with AIs. Fascinating world building, but the ending is too abrupt and the Marshal should have been able to figure it out without Anna’s help.
Of Roses and Kings, by Melissa Marr, **. Alice in Wonderland with sex and murder.
We’re Here, We’re Here, by K.M. Szpara, **. Members of a boy band are unable to live in accord with their true gender/sexual identities, as they are held hostage by their manager’s control of their throat implants. Interesting characters, but barely speculative fiction.
Two Truths and a Lie, by Sarah Pinsker, *****. Stella finds that the brother of her childhood friend Marco had shaped his entire life around a story told when he was a guest on a forgotten local TV show. Not only him, but all of her childhood friends. Pushing through her own multi-layered dread she learns she was too. Hugo Awards 2021 winner - Novelette. Nebula Awards 2021 winner – Novelette. Bram Stoker Awards 2021 – long fiction – nomination. Locus Awards 2021 – novelette – 2nd place.
The Night Soil Salvagers, By Gregory Norman Bossert, *. This so-called story is written as a sequence of performance directions – Title (Nocturne for Midnight on the Full Moon), Find (items needed), Performance, Variation, Commentary. I found this structure oppressive, and the lack of a story arc through them to be boring. By the end, I was just skimming.
The Ones Who Look, by Katharine Duckett, *****. A story told in the workplace of Ethical Empire, a business built around the creation of a digital afterlife. Subscribers contract to have their life observed and judged, so that they might live on after death in the appropriate place. Zoe, an observer, begins dating Henri, a founding engineer, who eventually reveals some flaws in the system. Very original concept, with interesting complications.
Everything’s Fine, by Matthew Pridham, ***. Eric and a couple of co-workers obsess over the events of a TV show named Design of the Times, while the world they live in grows dangerously strange.
Yellow and the Perception of Reality, by Maureen McHugh, ****. Wanda struggles as a social worker, while attempting to emotionally support her institutionalized sister, once a brilliant physicist whose mind has been destroyed in a novel way. She had been participating in an experiment intended to alter the perception and consciousness of a subject octopus. Wanda’s perspective is limited and she is not really able to understand what has happened, just how she feels about it. Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award 2021 – 3rd place.
Exile’s End, by Carolyn Ives Gilman, *****. The story follows a museum curator and her struggle to balance the arguments for and against indigenous rights to archeological artifacts. The author works at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. The story’s true topic is thinly veiled, having been recast into a somewhat contrived interplanetary scenario.
Flight, by Claire Wrenwood, *. The story is told in reverse chronological order, resulting in a somewhat incomprehensible sequence of events. If recast into forward chronological order, it is about a young woman fooled by her desire to be inducted into a magical lifestyle that features the growth of wings. I think it might be intended that the reader also be pulled initially by the romanticism of having wings, but that did not work for me.
Wait for Night, by Stephen Graham Jones, **. This is a gruesome story about nearly immortal beings existing on the fringe of society in the contemporary American West. Mostly it’s about the blood - yuck. Locus Awards 2021 – short story – 10th place.
Solution, by Brian Evenson, **. In a post-climate changed world, an aging researcher reflects on his role in developing biotechnology that enables survival through adaptation, while a rich group of investors back off-planet evacuation of their elite selves. The biotechnology seemed implausible to me.
Hearts in the Hard Ground, by G. V. Anderson, ***. A character study about a woman who buys a haunted house after her mother passes, and the elusive ghosts that inhabit it. Of little interest conceptually, but with interesting characters.
The Perfection of Theresa Watkins, by Justin C. Key, *****. Darius is a contemporary technology hot-shot, who unexpectedly confronted cancer with its aggressive treatments. While in chemotherapy, he met and eventually married another mortally ill cancer patient. He partners with his colleagues to enter her into a program of resurrection that he has been a co-developer of. Along the way, is significant speculation on brain and medical science, as well as commentary on race and ethics. I found it a powerful story.
The Ashes of Around Twenty-three Strangers, by Jeremy Packert Burke, **. In a post-apocalyptic world, rainstorms break out indoors and houses collapse, while human lives collapse amidst thre fatalistic religion that has developed. Plausibility is not as important to Burke as archetypal decline. This does not fascinate me.
Placed into Abyss, by Rachel Swirsky, ***. As a highly dysfunctional family cleans out the house of the recently passed matriarch, Chris relives traumatic episodes of his life and the lives of others. An unusual narrative technique involves saying what doesn’t happen, meaning what does happen in another existence. It is eventually explained as time travel through a quantum multiverse. The family was so dysfunctional that I could not really find anything to identify with.
City of Red Midnight, by Usman T. Malik, **. A compound set of multiple nested stories from Lahore, that explore a magical folk realm. The overall arc seemed to wander, with no particular consistency, and without a satisfactory conclusion. And then suddenly, it was over. Eugie Awards 2021 – finalist. Locus Awards 2021 – novelette – 10th place.
The Little Witch, by M. Rickert, *. An old woman and the ghost of her dead cat befriend a young trick-or-treater over the course of a few years, who seems to actually have some halloweenish witchcraft powers.
Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law, by Lavie Tidhar, **. A somewhat cute story about the political power of old world vampires, and how they interact with humans. Eugie Awards 2021 – finalist.
Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex, by Tamsyn Muir, *. A locked room magic mystery. There is a lot of presumed background necessary to understanding the investigation, that I simply do not have, or even care to figure out.
January 13, 2021
Story I liked best: "We're Here, We're Here".
(which of course has nothing to do with the fact that there's a boy band in my novel)
Story I haaaaated: "Exile's End". Haaaaaated.
Stories that gave me All The Feels: "The Girlfriend's Guide to Gods", "Sinew and Steel and What They Told", "Little Free Library".
Story that creeped me out, but in a good way: "Wait For Night".
Story of a great caper: "How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobucar".
Story I wish was longer: "Beyond the Dragon's Gate".
These have all been free online and now they're all free in one Kindle book, so what have you got to lose?
(which of course has nothing to do with the fact that there's a boy band in my novel)
Story I haaaaated: "Exile's End". Haaaaaated.
Stories that gave me All The Feels: "The Girlfriend's Guide to Gods", "Sinew and Steel and What They Told", "Little Free Library".
Story that creeped me out, but in a good way: "Wait For Night".
Story of a great caper: "How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobucar".
Story I wish was longer: "Beyond the Dragon's Gate".
These have all been free online and now they're all free in one Kindle book, so what have you got to lose?
November 9, 2021
Average rating 2.9 stars! There are a few really standout stories in this collection, but the majority are pretty forgettable. Mini-reviews of each short story below!
How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobucar- Rich Larson
-Cool cyberpunk Barcelona heist story. Tightly constructed, clever world-building, fun classic heist-style twists. 4/5
Girlfriend's Guide to Gods- Maria Dahvana Headley
-Yes, we get it, greek myths are misogynist. This isn't quite the hot take you think it is. The attempts at self-affirmation fall flat and hollow 1/5
St Valentine, St Abigail, St Brigid- C.L. Polk
-Interesting look at witchcraft and folk magic; a sweet and effective little story 3/5
If you get my meaning- Charlie Jane Anders
-Continuation of The City in the Middle of the Night. A short and sweet story that makes no effort to hide its themes of trauma, personal growth and emotional communication. I think its pretty clever but I still think the conclusion of TCitMotN goes in the wrong direction, and this follows it. 3/5
Sinew and Steel and What they Told- Carrie Vaughan
-Really powerful emotional little story about a cyborg being 'outed', and how this effects their relationships and person. Very well written and told, short, snappy and well-formed. Hints of the wider world-building, while establishing everything necessary for the story as it is. 4/5
Little Free Library- Naomi Kritzer
-Fine and very short short story about a mysterious interaction with another world. Somewhat charming, but nothing really outstanding or impressive. 2/5
An Explorer's Cartography of Already Settled Lands- Fran Wilde
-Enchanting, enthralling story of alien belonging. What an incredible little piece of writing, beautiful prose and thoughtful narrative. 5/5
The Night Sun - Zin E. Rocklyn
-Suprisingly scary horror story, with some effective body horror and chilling elements. Like the best horror, it uses its fantastic elements to make points about the human condition. There are a few issues that prevent it from really shining, but solid story. 3/5
Anything Resembling Love - S. Qiouyi Lu
-I felt distinctly, hideously uncomfortable reading this. So mission accomplished. A heavy but effective metaphor for rape specifically and wider rape culture or just societal expectations on women and how this affects them. 4/5
Beyond the Dragon's Gate - Yoon Ha Lee
-Pretty meh. Lacklustre prose with some extended tortured metaphors that deserve to be put out their misery. Lots of exposition delivered in a clunky way. 2/5
Of Kings and Roses - Melissa Marr
-Not really into it- Alice in Wonderland fan-fiction. Fairly well-written but just nothing for me to really latch on to. 2/5
We're here, we're here - KM Szpara
-Fine? Again not really much to say about this one. Very basic look at a black-mirror type scenario, with a queer-tinter lens. 2/5
Two Truths and a Lie - Sarah Pinsker
-Interesting and creepy story, possibly pushing one too many ideas in its short space, but it plays into this and mostly carries it off. Gets more unsettling the more you think about it. 4/5
The Night Soil Salvagers - Gregory Norman Bossert
-Disjointed and too whimsical for my tastes. An interesting idea with a different take on modern fairies, but the execution left a lot to be desired. 1/5
The Ones Who Look - Katherine Duckett
-A fairly standard overview of some of the issues involved in digital immortality. Not bad, but no original takes on the idea. 3/5
Everything's Fine - Matthew Pridham
-Creepy and unnerving, but possibly over-the-top with it. A lovely examination of how we try to deal with un-deal-with-able things, full of zeitgeist for those of us who live in an ending world, but for some reason are deemed crazy if we ever address it. 4/5
Yellow and the Perception of Reality - Maureen McHugh
-Seems at once to push certain things a little too far, and other elements not nearly enough. Definitely has the makings of a great story, but the pieces don't fully align into something final. The basic premise that we can't understand reality directly, if we did it would drive us insane, is interesting but it doesn't take centre stage enough 3/5
Exile's End - Carolyn Eves Gilman
-Pretty great sci-fi that channels James Acaster's "Finders Keepers Shut Up" look at cultural appropriation in museums. Shame Le Guin did the same thing, better, 50 years ago. Also plagued by some very poor editing, but still manages to be a good story. 4/5
Flight - Claire Wrenwood
-Another fine story. Almost a tone-poem, an exercise in mood. For a story that takes place over the course of thirty years, precious little happens otherwise. It's a decent allegory for the damage done by beauty standards, and how these harmful images can be deeply ingrained. Not sure how effective the reverse chronology is. Also a good highlight on the cycle of abuse. Overall just fine, 2/5
Wait for Night - Stephen Graham Jones
-Yep, it's a vampire story all right. Drenched in Americana and a machismo that feels like a holdover from an earlier age, not necessarily in a good way. You could say there's a lot going on between the lines here, but to me it comes across more as lazy. Take just a little more time to show us something. Not super interested 2/5
Solution - Brian Everson
-It is, wait for it, fine. A fun take on the scientist-despairing-at-the-state-of-humanity trope, who then takes action to change the world. For the better? Who could say. Perhaps we deserve to let go of our time in this world. There are interesting elements here that should have been explored further, like the relationship with the daughter. 2/5
Hearts in the Hard Ground - G. V. Anderson
-Ok, now this is a brilliant ghost story. Genuinely haunting, emotional, ghosts that tie in to the psyche/trauma of the characters. Lovely detailed setting, I can see the house very clearly. Only a couple of characters but they are well fleshed out in the time we spend with them. Excellent 5/5
The Perfection of Theresa Watkins - Justin C. Key
-A little confused, with some fairly heavy racial commentary. Interesting look at identity and controlling relationships. Definitely has the seeds of an interesting story. 3/5
The Ashes of Around Twenty-Three Strangers - Jeremy Packert Burke
-Not really sure. As in, have read it and still not sure what its about. Could have been a tale about humans wrecking the planet but thenwe've got the weird rain-in-houses thing going on, plus the corpses of giant gods? I never got a sense of the world we are in, so it all felt a little disconnected. Great title though. 2/5
Placed into Abyss - Rachel Swirsky
-Very similar in idea to HitHG from earlier, but could not be more opposite in execution. Really heavy-handed "the ghosts are your trauma" story that shoe-horns in some quantum woo nonsense as well. None of this worked for me unfortunately 1/5
City of Red Midnight: Usman T. Malik
-Excellent and gorgeous fairy-tale, with delightful interlocking layers of narrative, each on feeling distinct in voice and setting. The ability to bring worlds to life so vividly in such a small handful of words is just delightful. 5/5
The Little Witch- M. Rickert
-Fine whimsical little story about Halloween. Didn't love it, and the edges were poorly defined. Some people like this in a short story, for me it was too far, frustrating. 2/5
Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law - Laive Tidhar
-Really cool vampire story! I like this one a lot. Spooky, atmospheric, that great feeling of good vampire stories with entrenched rules and regulations governing the secret horrors of the night. We are also in the indistinct medieval Europe that best suits this kind of monster. Great work 4/5
The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex - Tamsin Muir
-I strongly dislike the tone that Muir strikes. Sorry. I didn't like it in Gideon the Ninth and I don't like it here. This is a short enough dose of it that it is manageable, and the story and world-building here is quite interesting. Not sure if it would work as a standalone, maybe it does. There's a distinct air here of Sherlock Holmes, deducing the answer to impossible mysteries. There isn't enough set-up for the reader to reach these conclusions independetly, so the mystery aspect doesn't work for me either. 2/5
How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobucar- Rich Larson
-Cool cyberpunk Barcelona heist story. Tightly constructed, clever world-building, fun classic heist-style twists. 4/5
Girlfriend's Guide to Gods- Maria Dahvana Headley
-Yes, we get it, greek myths are misogynist. This isn't quite the hot take you think it is. The attempts at self-affirmation fall flat and hollow 1/5
St Valentine, St Abigail, St Brigid- C.L. Polk
-Interesting look at witchcraft and folk magic; a sweet and effective little story 3/5
If you get my meaning- Charlie Jane Anders
-Continuation of The City in the Middle of the Night. A short and sweet story that makes no effort to hide its themes of trauma, personal growth and emotional communication. I think its pretty clever but I still think the conclusion of TCitMotN goes in the wrong direction, and this follows it. 3/5
Sinew and Steel and What they Told- Carrie Vaughan
-Really powerful emotional little story about a cyborg being 'outed', and how this effects their relationships and person. Very well written and told, short, snappy and well-formed. Hints of the wider world-building, while establishing everything necessary for the story as it is. 4/5
Little Free Library- Naomi Kritzer
-Fine and very short short story about a mysterious interaction with another world. Somewhat charming, but nothing really outstanding or impressive. 2/5
An Explorer's Cartography of Already Settled Lands- Fran Wilde
-Enchanting, enthralling story of alien belonging. What an incredible little piece of writing, beautiful prose and thoughtful narrative. 5/5
The Night Sun - Zin E. Rocklyn
-Suprisingly scary horror story, with some effective body horror and chilling elements. Like the best horror, it uses its fantastic elements to make points about the human condition. There are a few issues that prevent it from really shining, but solid story. 3/5
Anything Resembling Love - S. Qiouyi Lu
-I felt distinctly, hideously uncomfortable reading this. So mission accomplished. A heavy but effective metaphor for rape specifically and wider rape culture or just societal expectations on women and how this affects them. 4/5
Beyond the Dragon's Gate - Yoon Ha Lee
-Pretty meh. Lacklustre prose with some extended tortured metaphors that deserve to be put out their misery. Lots of exposition delivered in a clunky way. 2/5
Of Kings and Roses - Melissa Marr
-Not really into it- Alice in Wonderland fan-fiction. Fairly well-written but just nothing for me to really latch on to. 2/5
We're here, we're here - KM Szpara
-Fine? Again not really much to say about this one. Very basic look at a black-mirror type scenario, with a queer-tinter lens. 2/5
Two Truths and a Lie - Sarah Pinsker
-Interesting and creepy story, possibly pushing one too many ideas in its short space, but it plays into this and mostly carries it off. Gets more unsettling the more you think about it. 4/5
The Night Soil Salvagers - Gregory Norman Bossert
-Disjointed and too whimsical for my tastes. An interesting idea with a different take on modern fairies, but the execution left a lot to be desired. 1/5
The Ones Who Look - Katherine Duckett
-A fairly standard overview of some of the issues involved in digital immortality. Not bad, but no original takes on the idea. 3/5
Everything's Fine - Matthew Pridham
-Creepy and unnerving, but possibly over-the-top with it. A lovely examination of how we try to deal with un-deal-with-able things, full of zeitgeist for those of us who live in an ending world, but for some reason are deemed crazy if we ever address it. 4/5
Yellow and the Perception of Reality - Maureen McHugh
-Seems at once to push certain things a little too far, and other elements not nearly enough. Definitely has the makings of a great story, but the pieces don't fully align into something final. The basic premise that we can't understand reality directly, if we did it would drive us insane, is interesting but it doesn't take centre stage enough 3/5
Exile's End - Carolyn Eves Gilman
-Pretty great sci-fi that channels James Acaster's "Finders Keepers Shut Up" look at cultural appropriation in museums. Shame Le Guin did the same thing, better, 50 years ago. Also plagued by some very poor editing, but still manages to be a good story. 4/5
Flight - Claire Wrenwood
-Another fine story. Almost a tone-poem, an exercise in mood. For a story that takes place over the course of thirty years, precious little happens otherwise. It's a decent allegory for the damage done by beauty standards, and how these harmful images can be deeply ingrained. Not sure how effective the reverse chronology is. Also a good highlight on the cycle of abuse. Overall just fine, 2/5
Wait for Night - Stephen Graham Jones
-Yep, it's a vampire story all right. Drenched in Americana and a machismo that feels like a holdover from an earlier age, not necessarily in a good way. You could say there's a lot going on between the lines here, but to me it comes across more as lazy. Take just a little more time to show us something. Not super interested 2/5
Solution - Brian Everson
-It is, wait for it, fine. A fun take on the scientist-despairing-at-the-state-of-humanity trope, who then takes action to change the world. For the better? Who could say. Perhaps we deserve to let go of our time in this world. There are interesting elements here that should have been explored further, like the relationship with the daughter. 2/5
Hearts in the Hard Ground - G. V. Anderson
-Ok, now this is a brilliant ghost story. Genuinely haunting, emotional, ghosts that tie in to the psyche/trauma of the characters. Lovely detailed setting, I can see the house very clearly. Only a couple of characters but they are well fleshed out in the time we spend with them. Excellent 5/5
The Perfection of Theresa Watkins - Justin C. Key
-A little confused, with some fairly heavy racial commentary. Interesting look at identity and controlling relationships. Definitely has the seeds of an interesting story. 3/5
The Ashes of Around Twenty-Three Strangers - Jeremy Packert Burke
-Not really sure. As in, have read it and still not sure what its about. Could have been a tale about humans wrecking the planet but thenwe've got the weird rain-in-houses thing going on, plus the corpses of giant gods? I never got a sense of the world we are in, so it all felt a little disconnected. Great title though. 2/5
Placed into Abyss - Rachel Swirsky
-Very similar in idea to HitHG from earlier, but could not be more opposite in execution. Really heavy-handed "the ghosts are your trauma" story that shoe-horns in some quantum woo nonsense as well. None of this worked for me unfortunately 1/5
City of Red Midnight: Usman T. Malik
-Excellent and gorgeous fairy-tale, with delightful interlocking layers of narrative, each on feeling distinct in voice and setting. The ability to bring worlds to life so vividly in such a small handful of words is just delightful. 5/5
The Little Witch- M. Rickert
-Fine whimsical little story about Halloween. Didn't love it, and the edges were poorly defined. Some people like this in a short story, for me it was too far, frustrating. 2/5
Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law - Laive Tidhar
-Really cool vampire story! I like this one a lot. Spooky, atmospheric, that great feeling of good vampire stories with entrenched rules and regulations governing the secret horrors of the night. We are also in the indistinct medieval Europe that best suits this kind of monster. Great work 4/5
The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex - Tamsin Muir
-I strongly dislike the tone that Muir strikes. Sorry. I didn't like it in Gideon the Ninth and I don't like it here. This is a short enough dose of it that it is manageable, and the story and world-building here is quite interesting. Not sure if it would work as a standalone, maybe it does. There's a distinct air here of Sherlock Holmes, deducing the answer to impossible mysteries. There isn't enough set-up for the reader to reach these conclusions independetly, so the mystery aspect doesn't work for me either. 2/5
August 5, 2021
There were a few good stories: Stephen Graham Jones, G.V.Anderson and Lavie Tidhar. Overall this collection was not to my liking.
May 27, 2024
En lo personal me pareció un poco extraña la idea de Tor.com: compilar 29 de sus cuentos a lo largo de más de 600 páginas. Los cuentos en el sitio de tor.com (ahora react magazine –reactmag.com) son gratuitos, así que el libro es de libre distribución, sin embargo, la mayor parte de los cuentos no son muy buenos, ni destacables, ni nada, lo único que se me ocurre es que fue una decisión comercial para el mercado estadounidense: creo que les gustan los ladrillotes.
Como en toda compilación, hay algunos cuentos buenos, otros regulares y algunos malos, pero la calidad depende mucho del lector y sus gustos. Esto en una reseña de los cuentos y una valoración personal:
1. «How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobučar» (Cómo Quini el Calamar colocó mal su Klobučar) de Rich Larson (autor del cuento “Hielo”, argumento de uno de los capítulos de “Love, Death +Robots vol. 2”). Está escrito en forma muy coloquial e indirecta. La narración de Larson es bastante sutil y de alto nivel, pero es bastante ingenioso, muestra un futuro altamente probable y tiene un final que parece Deux ex Machina, pero se debe poner atención a los detalles para captar su lógica. Es muy divertido, pero hace que la lectura sea lenta. Está situado en Barcelona, en un futuro cercano. Se planea el robo de una obra de arte, y Larson aprovecha para describirnos el ambiente futurista. Personalmente, es el que más me gustó: *****
2. «The Girlfriend’s Guide to Gods» («La guía a los dioses de la novia») de Maria Dahvana Headley. Es un escrito totalmente brillante y feminista que habla de los mitos e ilusiones de una mujer cuando tiene se primer novio a los quince, cuando ya tiene novio formal, cuando se casa y cuando se convierte en mujer divorciada y al fin logra su realización, cuando deja de estar limitada y puede explorar sus límites. Al contrario del anterior, no es sutil ni ingenioso, sino un poco burdo y tendencioso. ***
3. «St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid» («Sn. Valentín, Sta. Abigail, Sta. Brígida») de C. L. Polk, cuento que narra un pasaje en la vida de una adolescente que tiene una amiga, a la cual admira tanto que quiere ayudarla en sus estudios, hasta que admite que está enamorada de ella; se entera de que el hijo del jefe del papá de su amiga la golpea, así que no la deja sola ni un minuto, hasta que la ayuda a ingresar a una universidad. El quid de la cuestión es que la mamá de la protagonista es hechicera, aunque ella también lo es, no tiene tanta experiencia ni poder. El hombre que golpeaba a su amiga queda resentido y rencoroso porque se la quitó, así que contrata a un hechicero para recuperarla.
Cuento escrito con una fantasía desbordada, con descripciones y estilo retorcido y trabajoso. No apto para aquellos que apenas se están metiendo en las lecturas de CF&F. ***
4. «If You Take My Meaning» («Si sabes a lo que me refiero») de Charlie Jane Anders. Tres mutantes viven aventuras durante una excursión, mientras reflexionan que lo que los hace humanos son sus emociones y forma de pensar. Medio disperso y cursi. **
5. «Sinew and Steel and What They Told» («Sinew y Steel y lo que dijeron») de Carrie Vaughn. Un piloto explorador sufre un grave accidente. En la enfermería de la nave donde viaja descubren que no es totalmente humano. Está modificado para servir como espía. Muy breve, escrito de forma un poco confusa. ***
6. «Little Free Library» («Pequeña biblioteca gratis») de Naomi Kritzer. Una mujer pone una pequeña biblioteca gratis que resulta ser un portal a un universo paralelo. Breve y directo, tal como debe ser un cuento. Breve y sin grandes pretensiones, muy disfrutable, empero. ****
7. «An Explorer’s Cartography of Already Settled Lands» («Una cartografía del explorador de tierras ya colonizadas») de Fran Wilde. Es una pequeña colección de narraciones fantásticas e imaginativas al estilo Italo Calvino o Ken Liu, en este caso, comentando acerca de los mapas de la imaginación. ***
8. «The Night Sun» («Sol nocturno») de Zin E. Rocklyn. Su narrativa es rasposa y agresiva, muchas veces las escenas que describe tienen un tinte onírico. Pero hasta ahí, se supone que es sobre hombres-lobo (o más bien, humanos-lobo), pero su existencia es más bien sugerida. Si uno se tiene que imaginar todo, ¿qué caso tiene hacer una narración? **
9. «Anything Resembling Love» («Cualquier cosa que se le parezca al amor») de S. Qiouyi Lu. Es un relato que presenta el aspecto de explotación sexual femenina, muchas veces ella es la que parece propiciarlo y aceptarlo por presión social. A una chica le salen ciempiés por la boca cuando tiene emociones fuertes, casi siempre excitación, dolor o miedo. ***
10. «Beyond the Dragon’s Gate» («Más allá de la puerta del dragón») de Yoon Ha Lee. Hay una guerra interplanetaria, y un bando acaba de terminar nuevas naves de ataque manejadas por IAs. Pero las IAs están fallando y destruyendo las naves. El alto comando lleva a una especialista en IA para conectarse y hablar con ellas y se entera que las IAs no quieren el upgrade más reciente. Eso es todo, aparte de que el desarrollo es medio infantil y apoyándose en un par de clichés, con un par de pistas falsas e información intrascendente para fines del cuento, el final es insatisfactorio y anticlimático. **
11. El siguiente cuento es «Of Roses and Kings» («De rosas y reyes») de Melissa Marr. Hace tiempo describí un cuento mexicano con una frase que se podría considerar peyorativa: «el Oblivion pirata», así que voy a evitar favoritismos con este cuento estadounidense y lo voy a describir con la frase «Alicia en el país de las maravillas pirateado», es el universo de Alicia, pero con violencia, muerte y sexo. *
12. «We’re here, we’re here» («Estamos aquí, estamos aquí») de K.M. Szpara. Cuento raro que se enfoca más en resaltar la diversidad sexual en un grupo musical masculino tipo “New Kids On The Block”, lo cienciaficcioñero es que se supone que la gerencia (todos los grupos musicales de este tipo son una fabricación comercial) ha implantado dispositivos de control en la garganta de los integrantes para controlar su voz, lo que dicen en las entrevistas y su comportamiento. El relato sirve para quejarse de que una cosa así limita la libertad sexual. Lo políticamente correcto sería ser tolerante con este cuento porque hable de homosexualidad y el autor es transgénero, pero la verdad yo lo considero el peor del libro. *
13. «Two truths and a lie» («Dos verdades y una mentira») de Sarah Pinsker. Cuento de una fantasía muy sutil, extraña, del género weird. Una mujer empieza a limpiar la casa de un conocido recién fallecido. Encuentra recuerdos de un antiguo y poco popular programa de TV que cuenta parte de su destino y de los que ella conoció. Es como ir descubriendo una realidad alterna, o descubrir que esta realidad contiene a otras realidades…, algo así. Deliciosamente sacado de onda. *****
14. «The Night Soil Salvagers» («Los rescatadores del suelo nocturno», creo) de Gregory Norman Bossert. Ni siquiera entendí bien el sentido del cuento. Creo que el nombre «The Night Soil Salvagers» se refiere a un grupo musical. Todo el cuento está en segmentos de una ¿canción?, ¿partitura?, ¿sinfonía? Hay cuentos que son muy buenos, hay otros muy malos, este sirve para confundirse. *
15. «The Ones Who Look» («Aquellos que miran») de Katharine Duckett. Una mujer trabaja en la empresa Imperio Ético, una realidad virtual que imita perfectamente la realidad humana, pero siempre tiene observaciones éticas, incluso existen ángeles de la guarda (personajes virtuales), que se la pasan aconsejando a las personas acerca de lo que es más ético. El Imperio Ético incluso ha desarrollado versiones del Cielo y el Infierno virtuales a donde pueden accesar los usuarios una vez muertos en la vida real y si hicieron un contrato para digitalizar sus personalidades, recuerdos, personalidad, etc. El problema es que las versiones virtuales del Cielo y el Infierno tienen bugs inesperados y sus costos superan a las ganancias esperadas. La trama suena muy interesante, pero está pobremente desarrollado. **
16. «Everything’s Fine» («Todo está bien») de Matthew Pridham, cuento tremendista y grotesco, cuenta un día normal y mediocre con personajes normales y mediocres. Es sólo que el mundo está lleno de asesinos, zombis, caníbales y destrucción en general. Pero el personaje principal continúa su vida normal y mediocre. A lo mejor al autor le dió mucha risa escribirlo, pero, personalmente, me parece normal y mediocre. **
17. «Yellow and the Perception of Reality» («Amarillo y la percepción de la realidad») de Maureen McHugh. Más que “cuento raro”, yo lo llamaría “cuento desarmado”. Habla de los estudios de la percepción de la realidad, de un punto de vista físico, matemático, filosófico; un punto de vista académico, en resumen. Se habla de un equipo de trabajo que estuvieron haciendo un experimento, del cual nadie sabe con exactitud los detalles, y mucho menos lo que salió mal y que causó un accidente que mató a casi todos los participantes. Solamente sobrevivió la líder del equipo con una lesión muy rara: agnosia perceptual global, afección rara y extraña que afecta –irónicamente– la percepción de la realidad del afectado. Se habla del pulpo con el que se inició el experimento, pero que fue donado a un acuario porque ya estaba viejo. Todos los elementos son brillantes e interesantes por sí solos, y el cuento promete una historia profunda, pero la autora no arma nada, todos los elementos quedan dispersos. Ni siquiera la historia principal tiene una conclusión discernible. **
18. «Exile’s End» («El fin del exilio») de Carolyn Ives Gilman. Es uno de esos cuentos de ciencia ficción totalmente calcados de la vida real. Una tribu que se creía que había sido diezmada y masacrada reclama la devolución de uno de sus artefactos pertenecientes a una de las colecciones de un museo. La autora trabaja en el museo nacional del indio americano en Washington, D.C. y ha vivido casos así en la vida real; tan sólo los ubicó en diferentes planetas y escribió palabras cienciaficcioñeras. Yo lo considero bastante estándar, pero en las reseñas de muchos lectores gringo aparece como “muy bueno” y su “favorito”. ***
19. «Flight» («Vuelo») de Claire Wrenwood. Este cuento transcurre en un orden cronológico inverso, habla de una chica que ingresa a la universidad y ve que todas las mujeres tienen alas de ángel; casi inmediatamente obtiene las suyas, pero aprende que son sólamente de adorno. Lo único interesante es su estructura narrativa. **
20. «Wait for Night» («Espera la noche») de Stephen Graham Jones. Cuento rudo escrito con un estilo rijoso y rudo, lleno de analogías, localismos y modismos. Habla de seres casi inmortales que viven al margen de la sociedad. Lo único que me quedó claro es que es una narración rijosa. *
21. «Solution» («Solución») de Brian Evenson. Relato sobre un científico loco y sus ilusiones de salvar el mundo. Lleno de clichés e ilogicidades, realmente nunca concreta una idea o subtrama. *
22. «Hearts in the Hard Ground» («Corazones en el duro suelo») de G. V. Anderson. Una historia de fantasmas; una mujer cuya madre acaba de morir, se muda a una casa que resulta estar embrujada. Lo novedoso es que realmente no hay tensión, ni terror, ni violencia ni suspenso. Todo se confunde con los recuerdos de la mujer. Por lo menos está narrado de una forma muy familiar y romántica, como si todo fuera un recuerdo, como si fuera parte de uno. Muchos relatos latinoamericanos usan este estilo, pero supongo que en EE. UU. es bastante novedoso. ****
23. «The Perfection of Theresa Watkins» («La perfección de Theresa Watkins») de Justin C. Key. Describe situaciones y expectativas muy interesantes: una compañía desarrolla una forma de superar muchos cánceres: la trasferencia de conciencia a otro cuerpo. El quid de la cuestión es que el autor no usa una narración lineal y descriptiva, es decir, todos los hechos se infieren a partir de diálogos y el contexto, por lo que el cuento parecería bastante confuso si se lee sin mucha atención. ****
24. «The Ashes of Around Twenty-Three Strangers» («Las cenizas de aproximadamente veintitrés extraños») de Jeremy Pakert Burke. Una narración un poco sin sentido con una trama que no cuaja. Habla de un mundo postapocalíptico, pero bien raro, es una especie de realidad alternativa donde hay dioses que hacen que todas las nubes de lluvia estén ahora dentro de las casas, la lluvia las inunda y las destroza, matando a sus habitantes, o, por lo menos, haciendo que abandonen el lugar después de salvar lo que pueden. El cuento habla de una chava que se dedica a saquear lo que pueda y recordar a su hermano, que se volvió fanático y defendía las lluvias interiores, hasta que le tocó a su casa y murió. Está tan disperso que termina de forma confusa y sin concluir nada. ¿Se trataba de describir las inundaciones?, ¿a la chava saqueadora, a su hermano fanático? **
25. «Placed Into Abyss (Mise en Abyse)» («Colocado en el abismo (Mise en Abyse)») de Rachel Swirsky. Un cuento que a primera vista parece bastante confuso, con una trama simplona y cursi. En una segunda lectura se revela como una trama simplona y cursi, pero con una narrativa compleja: acaba de morir la matriarca de una familia, así que todos se reunen ahí para limpiar y escombrar. Algunos diálogos y actitudes muestran que la familia es disfuncional, y el personaje principal del cuento tiene flasbacks que lo demuestran claramente, es sólo que algunos hechos, diálogos y hasta recuerdos pertenecen a otro universo, a otra realidad paralela. Confusión cuántica, pero al final la trama es simplona y cursi. ***
26. «City of Red Midnight: A Hikayat» («Ciudad de la medianoche roja: un hikayat») de Usman T. Malik. Cuento de una fantasía mágica, llena de personajes extraños, djinns, hechiceros, reinas, ladrones y sacerdotes, al mejor estilo de “Las mil y una noches”, solamente que con la extensión de un cuento y situado en Lahore, Pakistán. *****
27. «The Little Witch» («La pequeña bruja») de M. Rickert. Parece agradable y prometedor, al principio: una mujer, ya entrada en años, solitaria y abandonada conoce a una niña vestida de bruja la noche de Halloween, cuando los niños y adolescentes van a pedir dulces puerta a puerta con el famoso “trick or treat”. Al año siguiente la brujita regresa a su puerta, pero la mujer empieza a notar que nadie más se acerca y que la brujita no crece con los años, y que la mujer que la cuidaba al principio ha sido sustituida por una cabra. Poco a poco se van mostrando eventos y comportamientos cada vez más extraños, por ejemplo, que la brujita un día se aparece en la casa de la mujer, revive a su gato muerto y se queda a vivir ahí, lo que sigue causando eventos extraños y alarmantes a veces. Pero hasta ahí. El cuento nunca resuelve nada, ni llega a un clímax, ni a alguna conclusión ni nada. Cuento con un buen desarrollo pero muy mal resuelto. ***
28. «Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law» («El juez Dee y los límites de la ley») de Lavie Tidar. Con un título bastante desafortunado, pero una trama bastante original: es un cuento de vampiros, pero muy lejos de ser tradicional, el personaje principal es el vampiro juez Dee y su ayudante humano Jonathan. Entre vampiros también hay reglas (el propio juez Dee se encarga de aclararnos que no son leyes, dado que un vampiro siempre es culpable de algo). Obviamente que el asesinato y esclavitud de los humanos se considera normal, pero el asesinato entre vampiros se puede considerar como algo que se debe castigar, pero todo de acuerdo al buen juicio del juez que lo esté investigando. El caso que se presenta tiene una gran intención política entre la nobleza vampírica y, al parecer, ni siquiera lo cometió un vampiro. Por demás interesante y original. *****
29. «The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex» («El misterioso estudio del doctor Sex») de Tamsyn Muir. Es un relato de misterio e investigación estilo Sherlock Holmes, solamente que con seres raros y grotescos en una ambientación gótica. Yo me lo imaginé como una historia de la serie “Merlina” (“Wednesday”). Este cuento aparece con el subtítulo “A Locked Tomb Story”, y en el colofón del cuento, donde se dan algunos datos de la autora, se nos informa que ya ha escrito una trilogía, llamada “Locked Tomb”. Este cuento parece extraído de ahí, por lo que uno se encuentra a la deriva, sin contexto. El cuento está muy bien, pero no se entiende sin todos los datos adicionales que deben estar en la novela. ****
Como en toda compilación, hay algunos cuentos buenos, otros regulares y algunos malos, pero la calidad depende mucho del lector y sus gustos. Esto en una reseña de los cuentos y una valoración personal:
1. «How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobučar» (Cómo Quini el Calamar colocó mal su Klobučar) de Rich Larson (autor del cuento “Hielo”, argumento de uno de los capítulos de “Love, Death +Robots vol. 2”). Está escrito en forma muy coloquial e indirecta. La narración de Larson es bastante sutil y de alto nivel, pero es bastante ingenioso, muestra un futuro altamente probable y tiene un final que parece Deux ex Machina, pero se debe poner atención a los detalles para captar su lógica. Es muy divertido, pero hace que la lectura sea lenta. Está situado en Barcelona, en un futuro cercano. Se planea el robo de una obra de arte, y Larson aprovecha para describirnos el ambiente futurista. Personalmente, es el que más me gustó: *****
2. «The Girlfriend’s Guide to Gods» («La guía a los dioses de la novia») de Maria Dahvana Headley. Es un escrito totalmente brillante y feminista que habla de los mitos e ilusiones de una mujer cuando tiene se primer novio a los quince, cuando ya tiene novio formal, cuando se casa y cuando se convierte en mujer divorciada y al fin logra su realización, cuando deja de estar limitada y puede explorar sus límites. Al contrario del anterior, no es sutil ni ingenioso, sino un poco burdo y tendencioso. ***
3. «St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid» («Sn. Valentín, Sta. Abigail, Sta. Brígida») de C. L. Polk, cuento que narra un pasaje en la vida de una adolescente que tiene una amiga, a la cual admira tanto que quiere ayudarla en sus estudios, hasta que admite que está enamorada de ella; se entera de que el hijo del jefe del papá de su amiga la golpea, así que no la deja sola ni un minuto, hasta que la ayuda a ingresar a una universidad. El quid de la cuestión es que la mamá de la protagonista es hechicera, aunque ella también lo es, no tiene tanta experiencia ni poder. El hombre que golpeaba a su amiga queda resentido y rencoroso porque se la quitó, así que contrata a un hechicero para recuperarla.
Cuento escrito con una fantasía desbordada, con descripciones y estilo retorcido y trabajoso. No apto para aquellos que apenas se están metiendo en las lecturas de CF&F. ***
4. «If You Take My Meaning» («Si sabes a lo que me refiero») de Charlie Jane Anders. Tres mutantes viven aventuras durante una excursión, mientras reflexionan que lo que los hace humanos son sus emociones y forma de pensar. Medio disperso y cursi. **
5. «Sinew and Steel and What They Told» («Sinew y Steel y lo que dijeron») de Carrie Vaughn. Un piloto explorador sufre un grave accidente. En la enfermería de la nave donde viaja descubren que no es totalmente humano. Está modificado para servir como espía. Muy breve, escrito de forma un poco confusa. ***
6. «Little Free Library» («Pequeña biblioteca gratis») de Naomi Kritzer. Una mujer pone una pequeña biblioteca gratis que resulta ser un portal a un universo paralelo. Breve y directo, tal como debe ser un cuento. Breve y sin grandes pretensiones, muy disfrutable, empero. ****
7. «An Explorer’s Cartography of Already Settled Lands» («Una cartografía del explorador de tierras ya colonizadas») de Fran Wilde. Es una pequeña colección de narraciones fantásticas e imaginativas al estilo Italo Calvino o Ken Liu, en este caso, comentando acerca de los mapas de la imaginación. ***
8. «The Night Sun» («Sol nocturno») de Zin E. Rocklyn. Su narrativa es rasposa y agresiva, muchas veces las escenas que describe tienen un tinte onírico. Pero hasta ahí, se supone que es sobre hombres-lobo (o más bien, humanos-lobo), pero su existencia es más bien sugerida. Si uno se tiene que imaginar todo, ¿qué caso tiene hacer una narración? **
9. «Anything Resembling Love» («Cualquier cosa que se le parezca al amor») de S. Qiouyi Lu. Es un relato que presenta el aspecto de explotación sexual femenina, muchas veces ella es la que parece propiciarlo y aceptarlo por presión social. A una chica le salen ciempiés por la boca cuando tiene emociones fuertes, casi siempre excitación, dolor o miedo. ***
10. «Beyond the Dragon’s Gate» («Más allá de la puerta del dragón») de Yoon Ha Lee. Hay una guerra interplanetaria, y un bando acaba de terminar nuevas naves de ataque manejadas por IAs. Pero las IAs están fallando y destruyendo las naves. El alto comando lleva a una especialista en IA para conectarse y hablar con ellas y se entera que las IAs no quieren el upgrade más reciente. Eso es todo, aparte de que el desarrollo es medio infantil y apoyándose en un par de clichés, con un par de pistas falsas e información intrascendente para fines del cuento, el final es insatisfactorio y anticlimático. **
11. El siguiente cuento es «Of Roses and Kings» («De rosas y reyes») de Melissa Marr. Hace tiempo describí un cuento mexicano con una frase que se podría considerar peyorativa: «el Oblivion pirata», así que voy a evitar favoritismos con este cuento estadounidense y lo voy a describir con la frase «Alicia en el país de las maravillas pirateado», es el universo de Alicia, pero con violencia, muerte y sexo. *
12. «We’re here, we’re here» («Estamos aquí, estamos aquí») de K.M. Szpara. Cuento raro que se enfoca más en resaltar la diversidad sexual en un grupo musical masculino tipo “New Kids On The Block”, lo cienciaficcioñero es que se supone que la gerencia (todos los grupos musicales de este tipo son una fabricación comercial) ha implantado dispositivos de control en la garganta de los integrantes para controlar su voz, lo que dicen en las entrevistas y su comportamiento. El relato sirve para quejarse de que una cosa así limita la libertad sexual. Lo políticamente correcto sería ser tolerante con este cuento porque hable de homosexualidad y el autor es transgénero, pero la verdad yo lo considero el peor del libro. *
13. «Two truths and a lie» («Dos verdades y una mentira») de Sarah Pinsker. Cuento de una fantasía muy sutil, extraña, del género weird. Una mujer empieza a limpiar la casa de un conocido recién fallecido. Encuentra recuerdos de un antiguo y poco popular programa de TV que cuenta parte de su destino y de los que ella conoció. Es como ir descubriendo una realidad alterna, o descubrir que esta realidad contiene a otras realidades…, algo así. Deliciosamente sacado de onda. *****
14. «The Night Soil Salvagers» («Los rescatadores del suelo nocturno», creo) de Gregory Norman Bossert. Ni siquiera entendí bien el sentido del cuento. Creo que el nombre «The Night Soil Salvagers» se refiere a un grupo musical. Todo el cuento está en segmentos de una ¿canción?, ¿partitura?, ¿sinfonía? Hay cuentos que son muy buenos, hay otros muy malos, este sirve para confundirse. *
15. «The Ones Who Look» («Aquellos que miran») de Katharine Duckett. Una mujer trabaja en la empresa Imperio Ético, una realidad virtual que imita perfectamente la realidad humana, pero siempre tiene observaciones éticas, incluso existen ángeles de la guarda (personajes virtuales), que se la pasan aconsejando a las personas acerca de lo que es más ético. El Imperio Ético incluso ha desarrollado versiones del Cielo y el Infierno virtuales a donde pueden accesar los usuarios una vez muertos en la vida real y si hicieron un contrato para digitalizar sus personalidades, recuerdos, personalidad, etc. El problema es que las versiones virtuales del Cielo y el Infierno tienen bugs inesperados y sus costos superan a las ganancias esperadas. La trama suena muy interesante, pero está pobremente desarrollado. **
16. «Everything’s Fine» («Todo está bien») de Matthew Pridham, cuento tremendista y grotesco, cuenta un día normal y mediocre con personajes normales y mediocres. Es sólo que el mundo está lleno de asesinos, zombis, caníbales y destrucción en general. Pero el personaje principal continúa su vida normal y mediocre. A lo mejor al autor le dió mucha risa escribirlo, pero, personalmente, me parece normal y mediocre. **
17. «Yellow and the Perception of Reality» («Amarillo y la percepción de la realidad») de Maureen McHugh. Más que “cuento raro”, yo lo llamaría “cuento desarmado”. Habla de los estudios de la percepción de la realidad, de un punto de vista físico, matemático, filosófico; un punto de vista académico, en resumen. Se habla de un equipo de trabajo que estuvieron haciendo un experimento, del cual nadie sabe con exactitud los detalles, y mucho menos lo que salió mal y que causó un accidente que mató a casi todos los participantes. Solamente sobrevivió la líder del equipo con una lesión muy rara: agnosia perceptual global, afección rara y extraña que afecta –irónicamente– la percepción de la realidad del afectado. Se habla del pulpo con el que se inició el experimento, pero que fue donado a un acuario porque ya estaba viejo. Todos los elementos son brillantes e interesantes por sí solos, y el cuento promete una historia profunda, pero la autora no arma nada, todos los elementos quedan dispersos. Ni siquiera la historia principal tiene una conclusión discernible. **
18. «Exile’s End» («El fin del exilio») de Carolyn Ives Gilman. Es uno de esos cuentos de ciencia ficción totalmente calcados de la vida real. Una tribu que se creía que había sido diezmada y masacrada reclama la devolución de uno de sus artefactos pertenecientes a una de las colecciones de un museo. La autora trabaja en el museo nacional del indio americano en Washington, D.C. y ha vivido casos así en la vida real; tan sólo los ubicó en diferentes planetas y escribió palabras cienciaficcioñeras. Yo lo considero bastante estándar, pero en las reseñas de muchos lectores gringo aparece como “muy bueno” y su “favorito”. ***
19. «Flight» («Vuelo») de Claire Wrenwood. Este cuento transcurre en un orden cronológico inverso, habla de una chica que ingresa a la universidad y ve que todas las mujeres tienen alas de ángel; casi inmediatamente obtiene las suyas, pero aprende que son sólamente de adorno. Lo único interesante es su estructura narrativa. **
20. «Wait for Night» («Espera la noche») de Stephen Graham Jones. Cuento rudo escrito con un estilo rijoso y rudo, lleno de analogías, localismos y modismos. Habla de seres casi inmortales que viven al margen de la sociedad. Lo único que me quedó claro es que es una narración rijosa. *
21. «Solution» («Solución») de Brian Evenson. Relato sobre un científico loco y sus ilusiones de salvar el mundo. Lleno de clichés e ilogicidades, realmente nunca concreta una idea o subtrama. *
22. «Hearts in the Hard Ground» («Corazones en el duro suelo») de G. V. Anderson. Una historia de fantasmas; una mujer cuya madre acaba de morir, se muda a una casa que resulta estar embrujada. Lo novedoso es que realmente no hay tensión, ni terror, ni violencia ni suspenso. Todo se confunde con los recuerdos de la mujer. Por lo menos está narrado de una forma muy familiar y romántica, como si todo fuera un recuerdo, como si fuera parte de uno. Muchos relatos latinoamericanos usan este estilo, pero supongo que en EE. UU. es bastante novedoso. ****
23. «The Perfection of Theresa Watkins» («La perfección de Theresa Watkins») de Justin C. Key. Describe situaciones y expectativas muy interesantes: una compañía desarrolla una forma de superar muchos cánceres: la trasferencia de conciencia a otro cuerpo. El quid de la cuestión es que el autor no usa una narración lineal y descriptiva, es decir, todos los hechos se infieren a partir de diálogos y el contexto, por lo que el cuento parecería bastante confuso si se lee sin mucha atención. ****
24. «The Ashes of Around Twenty-Three Strangers» («Las cenizas de aproximadamente veintitrés extraños») de Jeremy Pakert Burke. Una narración un poco sin sentido con una trama que no cuaja. Habla de un mundo postapocalíptico, pero bien raro, es una especie de realidad alternativa donde hay dioses que hacen que todas las nubes de lluvia estén ahora dentro de las casas, la lluvia las inunda y las destroza, matando a sus habitantes, o, por lo menos, haciendo que abandonen el lugar después de salvar lo que pueden. El cuento habla de una chava que se dedica a saquear lo que pueda y recordar a su hermano, que se volvió fanático y defendía las lluvias interiores, hasta que le tocó a su casa y murió. Está tan disperso que termina de forma confusa y sin concluir nada. ¿Se trataba de describir las inundaciones?, ¿a la chava saqueadora, a su hermano fanático? **
25. «Placed Into Abyss (Mise en Abyse)» («Colocado en el abismo (Mise en Abyse)») de Rachel Swirsky. Un cuento que a primera vista parece bastante confuso, con una trama simplona y cursi. En una segunda lectura se revela como una trama simplona y cursi, pero con una narrativa compleja: acaba de morir la matriarca de una familia, así que todos se reunen ahí para limpiar y escombrar. Algunos diálogos y actitudes muestran que la familia es disfuncional, y el personaje principal del cuento tiene flasbacks que lo demuestran claramente, es sólo que algunos hechos, diálogos y hasta recuerdos pertenecen a otro universo, a otra realidad paralela. Confusión cuántica, pero al final la trama es simplona y cursi. ***
26. «City of Red Midnight: A Hikayat» («Ciudad de la medianoche roja: un hikayat») de Usman T. Malik. Cuento de una fantasía mágica, llena de personajes extraños, djinns, hechiceros, reinas, ladrones y sacerdotes, al mejor estilo de “Las mil y una noches”, solamente que con la extensión de un cuento y situado en Lahore, Pakistán. *****
27. «The Little Witch» («La pequeña bruja») de M. Rickert. Parece agradable y prometedor, al principio: una mujer, ya entrada en años, solitaria y abandonada conoce a una niña vestida de bruja la noche de Halloween, cuando los niños y adolescentes van a pedir dulces puerta a puerta con el famoso “trick or treat”. Al año siguiente la brujita regresa a su puerta, pero la mujer empieza a notar que nadie más se acerca y que la brujita no crece con los años, y que la mujer que la cuidaba al principio ha sido sustituida por una cabra. Poco a poco se van mostrando eventos y comportamientos cada vez más extraños, por ejemplo, que la brujita un día se aparece en la casa de la mujer, revive a su gato muerto y se queda a vivir ahí, lo que sigue causando eventos extraños y alarmantes a veces. Pero hasta ahí. El cuento nunca resuelve nada, ni llega a un clímax, ni a alguna conclusión ni nada. Cuento con un buen desarrollo pero muy mal resuelto. ***
28. «Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law» («El juez Dee y los límites de la ley») de Lavie Tidar. Con un título bastante desafortunado, pero una trama bastante original: es un cuento de vampiros, pero muy lejos de ser tradicional, el personaje principal es el vampiro juez Dee y su ayudante humano Jonathan. Entre vampiros también hay reglas (el propio juez Dee se encarga de aclararnos que no son leyes, dado que un vampiro siempre es culpable de algo). Obviamente que el asesinato y esclavitud de los humanos se considera normal, pero el asesinato entre vampiros se puede considerar como algo que se debe castigar, pero todo de acuerdo al buen juicio del juez que lo esté investigando. El caso que se presenta tiene una gran intención política entre la nobleza vampírica y, al parecer, ni siquiera lo cometió un vampiro. Por demás interesante y original. *****
29. «The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex» («El misterioso estudio del doctor Sex») de Tamsyn Muir. Es un relato de misterio e investigación estilo Sherlock Holmes, solamente que con seres raros y grotescos en una ambientación gótica. Yo me lo imaginé como una historia de la serie “Merlina” (“Wednesday”). Este cuento aparece con el subtítulo “A Locked Tomb Story”, y en el colofón del cuento, donde se dan algunos datos de la autora, se nos informa que ya ha escrito una trilogía, llamada “Locked Tomb”. Este cuento parece extraído de ahí, por lo que uno se encuentra a la deriva, sin contexto. El cuento está muy bien, pero no se entiende sin todos los datos adicionales que deben estar en la novela. ****
January 10, 2021
There was one story that I loved by Carolyn Ives Gilman called "Exile's End". It was a science fiction version of a story dealing with conflict over the ownership of an artifact. The conflict was between a museum and a people thought to be extinct. It could easily have been about an indigenous artifact on planet Earth, but Gilman heightened the conflict with an alien cultural imperative that increased the story's complexity.
I read eight stories in this anthology including Gilman's. I thought four of them were good, but weren't standouts for me. The other three ended up being problematic for me. Other stories in the anthology didn't hold my interest. The average rating of the stories I read was between two and three stars. I rounded it up to three stars.
I read eight stories in this anthology including Gilman's. I thought four of them were good, but weren't standouts for me. The other three ended up being problematic for me. Other stories in the anthology didn't hold my interest. The average rating of the stories I read was between two and three stars. I rounded it up to three stars.
own-anthologies
May 3, 2021Rich Larson How Quini The Squid Misplaced his Klobucar
Maria Dahvana Headley The Girlfriend's Guide to Gods
C.L. Polk St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid
Charlie Jane Anders if You Take My Meaning
Carrie Vaughn Sinew and Steel and What They Told
Naomi Kritzer Little Free Library
Fran Wilde An Explorer's Cartography of Already Settled Lands
Zin E. Rocklyn The Night Sun
S. Qiouyi Lu Anything Resembling Love
Yoon Ha Lee Beyond the Dragon's Gate
Melissa Marr Of Roses and Kings
K.M. Szpara We're Here, We're Here
Sarah Pinsker Two Truths and and a Lie
Gregory Norman Bossert The Night Soil Salvagers
Katharine Duckett The Ones Who Look
Matthew Pridham Everything's Fine
Maureen F. McHugh Yellow and the Perception of Reality
Carolyn Ives Gilman Exile's End
Claire Wrenwood Flight
Stephen Graham Jones Wait for Night
Brian Evenson Solution
G.V. Anderson Hearts in the Hard Ground
Justin C. Key The Perfection of Theresa Watkins
Jeremy Packert Burke The Ashes of Around Twenty-Three Strangers
Rahel Swirsky Placed into Abyss
Usman T. Malik City of Red Midnight
M. Rickert The Little Witch
Lavie Tidhar Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law
Tamsyn Muir Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex
Maria Dahvana Headley The Girlfriend's Guide to Gods
C.L. Polk St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid
Charlie Jane Anders if You Take My Meaning
Carrie Vaughn Sinew and Steel and What They Told
Naomi Kritzer Little Free Library
Fran Wilde An Explorer's Cartography of Already Settled Lands
Zin E. Rocklyn The Night Sun
S. Qiouyi Lu Anything Resembling Love
Yoon Ha Lee Beyond the Dragon's Gate
Melissa Marr Of Roses and Kings
K.M. Szpara We're Here, We're Here
Sarah Pinsker Two Truths and and a Lie
Gregory Norman Bossert The Night Soil Salvagers
Katharine Duckett The Ones Who Look
Matthew Pridham Everything's Fine
Maureen F. McHugh Yellow and the Perception of Reality
Carolyn Ives Gilman Exile's End
Claire Wrenwood Flight
Stephen Graham Jones Wait for Night
Brian Evenson Solution
G.V. Anderson Hearts in the Hard Ground
Justin C. Key The Perfection of Theresa Watkins
Jeremy Packert Burke The Ashes of Around Twenty-Three Strangers
Rahel Swirsky Placed into Abyss
Usman T. Malik City of Red Midnight
M. Rickert The Little Witch
Lavie Tidhar Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law
Tamsyn Muir Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex
July 12, 2022
The fact that it took me an absurdly long amount of time to actually finish this collection should be considered to cast no aspersions on its merit.
This is a very strong collection overall, and I love that it gives me the opportunity to encounter new authors. Tor is a treasure, and now I have to read these every year. Hopefully the 2021 collection won't take me quite as long.
My favorite stories were "Exile's End" (I still think about this one), “City of Red Midnight: A Hikayat” (so well-crafted), “How Quini the Squid Misplaced his Klobučar” (a clever, fun heist story), "Two Truths and a Lie" (so creepypasta!), and “Hearts in the Hard Ground” (a ghost story with feelings).
There were a few emotionally brutal stories, like “Placed into Abyss (Mise en Abyse)”, which I'm glad I read but wouldn't read again. Some heavy-handed metaphors, too--"Flight" and "Anything Resembling Love"--but they were effective.
Overall, very strong and I look forward to starting the 2021 set.
This is a very strong collection overall, and I love that it gives me the opportunity to encounter new authors. Tor is a treasure, and now I have to read these every year. Hopefully the 2021 collection won't take me quite as long.
My favorite stories were "Exile's End" (I still think about this one), “City of Red Midnight: A Hikayat” (so well-crafted), “How Quini the Squid Misplaced his Klobučar” (a clever, fun heist story), "Two Truths and a Lie" (so creepypasta!), and “Hearts in the Hard Ground” (a ghost story with feelings).
There were a few emotionally brutal stories, like “Placed into Abyss (Mise en Abyse)”, which I'm glad I read but wouldn't read again. Some heavy-handed metaphors, too--"Flight" and "Anything Resembling Love"--but they were effective.
Overall, very strong and I look forward to starting the 2021 set.
April 6, 2021
There's a bit of everything in this book, from the very good (Exile's End, a beautiful, touchy story masterfully written), the very band (we're here we're here, a fanfiction with no scifi elements, basically) and the average. All in all, the average is average, so 3 stars would be appropriate for me.
November 14, 2021
Like many collections, a mixed bag. Too high a percentage of fantasy/horror/literary-artsy stories for me. Predictably, my favorites were mostly from authors I already like: Charlie Jane Anders, Maureen McHugh, Naomi Kritzer, Carrie Vaughn, Sarah Pinsker, Lavie Tidhar. And I'd read several of those previously.
June 21, 2021
There were some great stories here, and some utterly forgettable ones. On the whole, I enjoyed it.
January 2, 2022
Took me all year, but was so worth it.
July 25, 2022
I enjoyed this collection of stories. None were really bad, and some were quite good. I liked Everything's Fine and its bizarre world, and Exile's End, with its ethical questions, best.
January 15, 2021
I find this almost impossible to read. When I pick up an anthology, I look at the authors-someone new? An old favorite? A new author that’s all the buzz? The table of contents does not list the authors! You have to go to each “about the author” note following each story’s title, then navigate back to the story beginning. I was so excited to see this new anthology, but it left me wishing for a Gardner Dozois and George Martin “best of”.
June 15, 2022
I originally downloaded this book solely because Charlie Jane Anders has a piece in it. But I finished it with a new list of writers to follow. Dagnabit! I better retire soon so I have a chance to read them all…
It doesn't really take as long to read as my dates suggest. I would pick it up whenever I wanted/needed a short story and I was never disappointed.
It doesn't really take as long to read as my dates suggest. I would pick it up whenever I wanted/needed a short story and I was never disappointed.
July 13, 2022
Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2020 edition
V.V.A.A.
** 3.5 **
29 cuentos
1- How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobucar
Rich Larson --------------------> 3.4
2- The Girlfriend's Guide to Gods
Maria Dahvana Headly --------------------> 3.0
3- St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid
C.L. Polk --------------------> 3.3
4- If You Take My Meaning
Charlie Jane Anders --------------------> 3.4
5- Sinew and Steel and What They told
Carrie Vaughn --------------------> 3.4
6- Little Free Library
Naomi Kritzer --------------------> 5.0
7- An Explorer's Carthography of Already Settled Lands
Fran Wilde --------------------> 3.3
8- The Night Sun
Zin E. Rocklyn --------------------> 3.4
9- Anything Resembling Love
S. Qiouyi Lu --------------------> 3.3
10- Beyond The Dragon's Gate
Yoon Ha Lee --------------------> 3.3
11- Of roses and Kings
Melissa Marr --------------------> 3.2
12- We're Here, We're Here
K.M. Szpara --------------------> 3.2
13- Two Truths and a Lie
Sarah Pinsker --------------------> 4.0
14- The Night Soil Salvagers
Gregory Norman Bossert --------------------> 3.0
15- The Ones Who Look
Katherine Duckett --------------------> 3.3
16- Everything's Fine
Matthew Pridham --------------------> 3.0
17- Yellow and the Perception of Reality
Maureen McHugh --------------------> 4.0
18- Exile's End
Caroline Ives Gilman --------------------> 4.0
19- Flight
Claire Wrenwood --------------------> 3.2
20- Wait for Night
Stephen Graham Jones --------------------> 4.0
21- Solution
Brian Evenson --------------------> 3.8
22- Hearts in the Hard Ground
G.V. Anderson --------------------> 3.2
23- The Perfection of Theresa Watkins
Justin C. Key --------------------> 3.7
24- The Ashes of Around Twenty-Three Strangers
Jeremy Packett Burke --------------------> 3.4
25- Placed into Abyss (Mise en Abyse)
Rachel Swirsky --------------------> 3.2
26- City of Red Midnight: A Hikayat
Usman T. Malik --------------------> 4.0
27- The Little Witch
M. Rickert --------------------> 4.0
28- Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law
Lavie Tidhar ---------------> 3.7
29- The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex
Tamsyn Muir --------------------> 3.3
June 4, 2021
Es la primera vez que leo una de estas antologías de lo mejor de Tor.com, esta vez del 2020. El principal atractivo que tiene es quizá la posibilidad de descubrir nuevos autores del fantástico (a veces incluso fuera del ámbito anglosajón) y echar un vistazo a sus otros trabajos, a pesar de que leer el libro se me hizo una tarea un tanto cuesta arriba; como suele ocurrir con las antologías, el nivel de los cuentos es algo desigual, y mientras que algunos de ellos han terminado por ser increíbles obras que sin duda merecen una difusión mayor, otros me han parecido regulares y hubo tres de ellos incluso que no pude terminar porque desconecté completamente tanto de su argumento como de la forma en que estaban escritos. Otra cosa que no me gusta es que es demasiado largo, con 29 relatos distintos (muchos de ellos no precisamente "breves") en los que además se nota una clara preferencia por la ciencia-ficción, relegando al terror como un agregado secundario y a la fantasía... bueno, digamos que como algo anecdótico.
De todas formas hay cuentos excelentes como "Two Truths and a Lie" de Sarah Pinsker, "Flight", de Claire Wrenwood o "Exile's End", de Carolyn Ives Gilman, a mi juicio el mejor del libro y uno que todo el mundo debería leer porque es un excelente ejemplo de como tratar temas difíciles en el fantástico sin caer en el panfleto y abordando una serie de matices que yo particularmente no suelo ver en la ficción que llaman "comprometida".
De todas formas hay cuentos excelentes como "Two Truths and a Lie" de Sarah Pinsker, "Flight", de Claire Wrenwood o "Exile's End", de Carolyn Ives Gilman, a mi juicio el mejor del libro y uno que todo el mundo debería leer porque es un excelente ejemplo de como tratar temas difíciles en el fantástico sin caer en el panfleto y abordando una serie de matices que yo particularmente no suelo ver en la ficción que llaman "comprometida".
April 13, 2022
Didn't really love any, didn't hate any. One or other felt like they should have been read in their own serialized context. Some authors are quite good at showing their "voice", making this, as is usual of Tor.com's best of collections, a nice way to not only read good short fiction but also to get to know different authors that might interest you.
My particular favourites would be Little Free Library by Naomi Kritzer - a quick whimsical fantasy - and Solution by Brian Evenson - a beautifully written quite chilling story of not so far from reality sci-fi.
How Quini The Squid Misplaced his Klobučar - 3,5
The Girlfriend's Guide to Gods - 3
St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid - 3,5
If You Take my Meaning - 4
Sinew and Steel and What They Told - 4
Little Free Library - 4,5
An Explorer's Cartography of Already Settled Lands - 3,5
The Night Sun - 3
Anything Resembling Love - 4
Beyond the Dragon's Gate - 3,5
Of Roses and Kings - 3
We're Here, We're Here - 3
Two Truths and a Lie - 3,5
The Night Soil Salvagers - 2
The Ones Who Look - 4
Everything's Fine - 4
Yellow and the Perception of Reality - 3,5
Exile's End - 4
Flight - 4
Wait for Night - 4
Solution - 4,5
Hearts in the Hard Ground - 4
The Perfection of Theresa Watkins - 3,5
The Ashes of Around Twenty-three Strangers - 3
Placed into Abyss - 2
City of Red Midnight: A Hikayat - 4
The Little Witch - 3
Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law - 4
Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex - 3,5
My particular favourites would be Little Free Library by Naomi Kritzer - a quick whimsical fantasy - and Solution by Brian Evenson - a beautifully written quite chilling story of not so far from reality sci-fi.
How Quini The Squid Misplaced his Klobučar - 3,5
The Girlfriend's Guide to Gods - 3
St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid - 3,5
If You Take my Meaning - 4
Sinew and Steel and What They Told - 4
Little Free Library - 4,5
An Explorer's Cartography of Already Settled Lands - 3,5
The Night Sun - 3
Anything Resembling Love - 4
Beyond the Dragon's Gate - 3,5
Of Roses and Kings - 3
We're Here, We're Here - 3
Two Truths and a Lie - 3,5
The Night Soil Salvagers - 2
The Ones Who Look - 4
Everything's Fine - 4
Yellow and the Perception of Reality - 3,5
Exile's End - 4
Flight - 4
Wait for Night - 4
Solution - 4,5
Hearts in the Hard Ground - 4
The Perfection of Theresa Watkins - 3,5
The Ashes of Around Twenty-three Strangers - 3
Placed into Abyss - 2
City of Red Midnight: A Hikayat - 4
The Little Witch - 3
Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law - 4
Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex - 3,5
May 17, 2021
Tor collections are usually all win for me. This time there were more than a couple of stories that just did not grab me. On top of that, there seems to have been a theme running through a lot of these stories, a theme of rape/sexual assault/abuse. And while the theme and the exploration of the topic are important, having to read story after story about people suffering in that one specific way from that one specific sort of trauma got too much too fast. I think that is in part why so many stories did not grab me, feeling emotionally exhausted I did not want to put in extra work to keep my attention.
That said, there were many really good stories that are worth checking out. The list of the ones I enjoyed is below.
St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid by C.L. Polk
Sinew And Steel And What They Told by Carrie Vaughn
Little Free Library by Naomi Kritzer
Anything Resembling Love by S. Qiouyi Lu
Two Truths And And A Lie by Sarah Pinsker
The Ones Who Look by Katharine Duckett
Everything’s Fine by Matthew Pridham
Yellow And The Perception Of Reality by Maureen McHugh
Exile’s End by Carolyn Ives Gilman
Flight by Claire Wrenwood
Wait For Night by Stephen Graham Jones
Placed Into Abyss by Rachel Swirsky
City Of Red Midnight by Usman T. Malik
That said, there were many really good stories that are worth checking out. The list of the ones I enjoyed is below.
St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid by C.L. Polk
Sinew And Steel And What They Told by Carrie Vaughn
Little Free Library by Naomi Kritzer
Anything Resembling Love by S. Qiouyi Lu
Two Truths And And A Lie by Sarah Pinsker
The Ones Who Look by Katharine Duckett
Everything’s Fine by Matthew Pridham
Yellow And The Perception Of Reality by Maureen McHugh
Exile’s End by Carolyn Ives Gilman
Flight by Claire Wrenwood
Wait For Night by Stephen Graham Jones
Placed Into Abyss by Rachel Swirsky
City Of Red Midnight by Usman T. Malik
November 6, 2024
I have always enjoyed checking out these collections from tor.com - it's a satisfying way to sample the work of some really promising authors. As with most collections of this nature, the styles of writing tend to vary widely, with some stories clicking with me and others bouncing off; I will say this is one of the more enjoyable ones I've read, with a pretty strong hit-to-miss rate. Many of these stories touched on themes of connection, communication, and isolation; natural territory for SF/F short stories, but especially appropriate in this case as these were published in 2020, as the pandemic was keeping us in isolation. But even some of the stories that don't have a direct line to that metaphor have a compelling emotional impact; a few are a little too abstract and poetic to stick with me, but many succeed in telling effective stories with neat ideas and effective character arcs. Some of my favorites are the stories written by Maureen McHugh, Naomi Kritzer, Justin C. Key, Carrie Vaughn, Stephen Graham Jones, and Brian Evenson, although there are a lot of others that are worthwhile.
February 13, 2021
I always look forward to this end of year collection, and this one is bigger than ever! It's a great collection of shorter fiction. Some stories didn't grab me, and there are about a handful I didn't finish. But some standout favorites include St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid by Alyssa Winans, If You Take My Meaning by Charlie Jane Anders, The Ones Who Look by Esther Goh, Yellow and the Perception of Reality by Maureen McHugh, Exile's End by Carolyn Ives Gilman (I think this was my favorite of the entire anthology), City of Red Midnight by Usman T. Malik and Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law by Lavie Tidhar.
There were some interesting common themes about what is reality, several stories of what happens after death, a lot of LBGTQI content, which was nice to see. On the whole, I found this a really enjoyable set of stories.
There were some interesting common themes about what is reality, several stories of what happens after death, a lot of LBGTQI content, which was nice to see. On the whole, I found this a really enjoyable set of stories.
June 9, 2022
Nearly brilliant
I would have loved to have given this anthology 5 stars; indeed, two-thirds/three-quarters of the stories certainly merited full marks.
But amongst those strong stories were a few that lay in wait to trip the unsuspecting reader.
Whether it was a case of too much science fact for the average sci-fi reader, or a certain writer had just downloaded the latest Thesaurus (and were determined to use it), or too many characters popped up in a short story for the reader to follow who was doing what to whom in which realm with confidence, several stories jarred: great potential, but missed the mark on execution.
Will those few off-putting stories deter me from buying the next edition? No. Like I say, the majority is quality, and well worth the effort of traipsing through the not-so-good.
I would have loved to have given this anthology 5 stars; indeed, two-thirds/three-quarters of the stories certainly merited full marks.
But amongst those strong stories were a few that lay in wait to trip the unsuspecting reader.
Whether it was a case of too much science fact for the average sci-fi reader, or a certain writer had just downloaded the latest Thesaurus (and were determined to use it), or too many characters popped up in a short story for the reader to follow who was doing what to whom in which realm with confidence, several stories jarred: great potential, but missed the mark on execution.
Will those few off-putting stories deter me from buying the next edition? No. Like I say, the majority is quality, and well worth the effort of traipsing through the not-so-good.
January 28, 2021
Hats off to Tor.com for making a selection of its fiction available to download for free. Of course, it's free on their website throughout the year, but it's great to have it available as a summary volume at year's end, for those of us who like to read anthologies.
Tor.com always features a mix of established authors and newcomers, which is refreshing. There are strong stories by Rich Larson, C.L. Polk, Carrie Vaughan, Mary Rickert, Lavie Tidhar, Sarah Pinsker, Maureen McHugh, and many others. A nice mix of science fiction and fantasy, and a good representation of the topics being examined in the field today.
Tor.com always features a mix of established authors and newcomers, which is refreshing. There are strong stories by Rich Larson, C.L. Polk, Carrie Vaughan, Mary Rickert, Lavie Tidhar, Sarah Pinsker, Maureen McHugh, and many others. A nice mix of science fiction and fantasy, and a good representation of the topics being examined in the field today.
February 9, 2021
It is a bit difficult to review an anthology. The stories are different. Overall I really liked it. Some stories (Sinew and Steel and What They Told by Carrie Vaughn; Little Free Library by Naomi Kritzer; Beyond the Dragon's Gate by Yoon Ha Lee; and of course The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex by Tamsyn Muir) were so intriguing and captivating that I would have liked to read a whole novel about those characters and those settings. Others were uncomfortable and thought-provoking, and I was glad to have read them, but also glad that they ended. A few stories were a bit meh. Some stories (especially the horror ones) took me out of my comfort zone.
In general, short stories and anthologies are really great to read once in a while. You find authors that you did not know of before but whose style you really like and are happy to read more of. On the other hand, the stories are so short that even if you do not click with one at all, you can stop reading or force yourself through it, whichever feels right at the time. For instance, one of the few stories I forced myself to read, turned really interesting in the middle and ended up among my favourite stories in this book.
In general, short stories and anthologies are really great to read once in a while. You find authors that you did not know of before but whose style you really like and are happy to read more of. On the other hand, the stories are so short that even if you do not click with one at all, you can stop reading or force yourself through it, whichever feels right at the time. For instance, one of the few stories I forced myself to read, turned really interesting in the middle and ended up among my favourite stories in this book.
August 1, 2021
Another wonderful collection from Tor.com with new stories from Rich Larson, Charlie Jane Anders, Stephen Graham Jones and Lavie Tidhar. Didn't love every story, but that is what you get from such a large collection such as this. Loved my favourite authors (like Anders and SGJ) but the delight is always with the authors that are new to you and you find your TBR grow as you now need to find more of their works, for me this was C. L. Polk and Naomi Kritzer.
August 5, 2021
As every omnibus, some were a hit, and some were a miss. More on the 'hit' side, though. How Qini the Squid misplaced his Klobučar (Rich Larson) exhilarated me, The Perfection of Theresa Watkins (Justin C. Key) made my skin crawl, Judge Dee and the Limits of Law (Lavie Tidhar) made me want more, and Two Truths and a Lie (Sarah Pinsker) and Yellow and the Perception of Reality (Maureen McHugh) made me love its characters.
June 19, 2022
Great Way to Meet Your New Favorite Authors
It took me a long time to get through this anthology. Mostly because I would read a story that I really, really liked and then I would go out and search for the author's other work then read that, and then go back and repeat. This is a great book full of fabulous stories. I didn't like them all, which is common. But I liked enough of them. I can highly recommend this book.
It took me a long time to get through this anthology. Mostly because I would read a story that I really, really liked and then I would go out and search for the author's other work then read that, and then go back and repeat. This is a great book full of fabulous stories. I didn't like them all, which is common. But I liked enough of them. I can highly recommend this book.
May 3, 2021
This is a collection of short stories: science fiction, fantasy, horror. It's hard to review anthologies, by their very nature. So: all of these stories are well written. Some of them absolutely did not work for me. Some of them absolutely did. Overall, there were more stories I liked than stories I didn't, so yay!
October 26, 2021
Recent Reads: Some Of The Best From Tor.com 2020. A large collection of short fiction from all sides of the genre; with perhaps a few more modern ghost stories. The result? An excellent book of stories from folk like Lavie Tidhar, Charlie Jane Anders, and more!
December 7, 2021
Excellent Anthology
Always enjoy these - some great stories from recognised authors and its always a joy to discover new writers.
These anthologies always contain stories that appeal to a diverse audience.
Always enjoy these - some great stories from recognised authors and its always a joy to discover new writers.
These anthologies always contain stories that appeal to a diverse audience.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews