Some of the Best of Tor.com 2021

by Ruoxi Chen (Editor), Ellen Datlow (Editor), Pemi Aguda

A collection of some of the best original science fiction and fantasy short fiction published on Tor.com in 2021.

Includes stories by:

'Pemi Aguda
G. V. Anderson
Elizabeth Bear
Kate Elliott
Aliza Greenblatt
Glen Hirshberg
Elsie Kathleen Jennings
Cheri Kamei
Jasmin Kirkbride
Matthew Kressel
Usman T. Malik
Sam J. Miller
Annalee Newitz
noc
Sarah Pinsker
Daniel Polansky
Peng Shepherd
Cooper Shrivastava
Lavie Tidhar
Catherynne M. Valente
Carrie Vaughn
E. Lily Yu


At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Horror, Science Fiction Fantasy

663 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 25, 2022

About the author

Chen Ruoxi (陳若曦), born 1938, is a Taiwanese author. A graduate of National Taiwan University, she among others helped found the literary journal Xiandai wenxue (Modern Literature).

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Alina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this anthology, as it has some stories that were very imaginative and well written, but also has a lot of mediocre (and worse) ones. Below I rated each of the stories individually, with a few words about impressions and/or subject.


Masquerade Season by Pemi Aguda - 2.5/5★
Heavily reminiscent of The Giving Tree, but with three masquerades instead of the tree; and instead of the child asking the tree for things, the kid's mother, who designs and sews clothes, asks for parts of the masquerades. The moral though seems a little different , as Pauly realizes that it hurts the masquerades and decides to protect them and renounce a better, wealthier life.
How much can you give 'til you cannot give any more?
Can also be read on Tor.com.


The Lay of Lilyfinger by G.V. Anderson - 3+/5★
A short story with strange and not so well defined creatures (a snake with wings, a furry mongrel, a conquering race of beasts, all speaking and having hands and fingers). Covered topics: coming of age, the pain of being ripped from one’s culture and not being able to return/reconnect; what one must give up or sacrifice to achieve one’s dreams.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


The Red Mother by Elizabeth Bear - 3+/5★
A witty Viking story, with dragons and riddles.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


The Tinder Box by Kate Elliott - 4/5★
A retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Tinder Box, but this time with a much cleverer witch and a revolution.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


Questions Asked in the Belly of the World by Aliza Greenblatt - 3+/5★
An enclosed mycological World that feeds from the creativity and artiness of its residents, through an inner voice contained in a protuberance in the back of the neck. Quite strange, but also interesting and making you wonder.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


Black Leg by Glen Hirshberg - 1.5/5★
A horror story about a documentary filmmaker of ghost stories. It starts quite interesting, with a jury service selection, but I soon lost interest, as it seemed to me the story lost its coherency and fluency.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


The Wonderful Stag, or The Courtship of Red Elsie by Kathleen Jennings - 2/5★
A VERY short short-story with a (magical) stag and a gruesome ending.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


Blood in the Thread by Cheri Kamei - 4/5★
Beautiful retelling of “The Crane Wife”
Can also be read on Tor.com.


Sand by Jasmin Kirkbride - 3.5/5★
This whole story is a metaphor for intergenerational trauma, the way we perpetuate the (many times destructive) patterns of behaviour we see in our parents. Well written, though it is quite impossible to imagine having sand in the mouth and breath, eat, etc, 'around' it.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


Now We Paint Worlds by Matthew Kressel - 3+/5★
Under the guise of an investigation on the disappearance of three colonized planets, there's a debate if humanity is good or bad.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


#Spring Love, #Pichal Pairi by Usman T. Malik - 2.5/5★
A story about a pichal pairi who’s also a (kind of) witch, and a romance, and a pandemic. Lots of unfamiliar cultural references, and the whole story wasn’t really my cup of tea.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


Let All the Children Boogie by Sam J. Miller - 2.5/5★
Hard to rate, as I liked the music references and the second part, but the in-the-face woke stuff kind of annoyed me.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


#Selfcare by Annalee Newitz - 2.5+/5★
Good idea and a rather strong start, but it fizzled out towards the end.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


The Far Side of the Universe by Noc - 3.5/5★
Such a beautiful cover, but such a short story! We’re sometime in the future, when we can choose, for a fee, to transfer our consciousness through a black hole dubbed the Gateway to Heaven, across 6,070 light-years, while the body is euthanized.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


A Better Way of Saying by Sarah Pinsker - 2/5★
A good idea, but I didn't quite like the execution. A young boy is hired to shout the title cards for silent movies and realizes he has a special power.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


Baby Teeth by Daniel Polansky - 3/5★
A short story with vampires and vampire hunters, and D&D games.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


The Future Library by Peng Shepherd - 4/5★
Another superb cover! I also enjoyed the story and the writing a lot.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


Aptitude by Cooper Shrivastava - 3+/5★
A young woman (from Earth or at least our universe) manages to get summoned to an aptitude test that decides who gets to become a god/designer of universes. But all she actually wants is to find out who designed her universe, that now is dying, and especially why it is failing.
I enjoyed the story, though I had to ignore quite a lot of advanced math.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


Judge Dee and the Three Deaths of Count Werdenfels by Lavie Tidhar - 3/5★
Three different persons claim the murder of Count Werdenfels, all with the stake to inherit his estate – but who actually did it? The plot was quite nice, but would have probably benefited from a longer format. As it is, I really didn’t understand much from the relation between the count and the other characters, and especially the one between servant and master.
P.S. This is a vampire story and it has three (at least up to date) more companions, unrelated except for the two main characters.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


L'Esprit de L'Escalier by Catherynne M. Valente - 4.5/5★
Beautiful writing, as I was expecting from Valente, and a challenging take on Orpheus and Eurydice. A metaphor about abusive relationships: it's not love if you don't consider your partner's feelings and wishes, and you just do what you think he/she should want, without bothering to check.
Beautiful cover also.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


An Easy Job by Carrie Vaughn - 4/5★
This is a prequel to Sinew and Steel and What They Told, which I also enjoyed.
A space pilot must locate a smuggler from a space station, but soon finds out that the smuggler is the same 'race' as him, so the job becomes the opposite of easy.
There's another story about Graff, also on Tor.com, which I also read, and I would love to read some more of Graff and the Visigoth.
Can also be read on Tor.com.


Small Monsters by E. Lily Yu - 3/5★
A story of a little monster that gets abused all the time and how he manages to overcome his problems. The worldbuilding is absent and the story is a little too on the nose, but the writing is quite beautiful.
Can also be read on Tor.com.

[Tomislav · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a repackaging of 22 Tor.com short story and novelette releases from 2022, as a single kindle download offered for free recently through Amazon.com. There is no editor per se, no front or back matter, they are ordered alphabetically by author name, and it is not obvious what the selection criteria were, so this is not truly an anthology. I read them individually over an extended period of time. The contents are mostly fantasy, with a little science fiction, and a little literature that is not speculative fiction at all. There are no major award winners here, but it does include two nominees – “Let All the Children Boogie” for 2021 Nebula short story. “L’Esprit de L’Escalier” for 2021 Hugo novelette. Here are my thoughts on each story included, and my overall rating is a simple arithmetic average (2.6 stars) of my individual ratings. My favorites were “Let All the Children Boogie” and “An Easy Job”.

“Masquerade Season” by ‘Pemi Aguda. A young boy in an unnamed impoverished land is unexpectedly granted possession of three masquerades. These mysterious beings become both a matter of pride to him, and a matter of responsibility – and he must learn that they are not simply toys or impersonal resources. It is a nice touch that their nature is never fully explained to the reader. (4/5)

“The Lay of Lilyfinger” by G.V. Anderson. Pom and his teacher Saaba-niszak travel by ferryboat to Skinnere where they are to perform the traditional Skinnish musical epic “The Lay of Lilyfinger.” Their status as outsiders of the historically oppressed people, coming from the land of the Larish occupiers triggers hard feelings in some and unexpected sympathy in others. It is more sophisticated world-building than is initially apparent. (3/5)

“The Red Mother” by Elizabeth Bear. A greying Viking sorcerer is on a kin-duty quest to inform his brother he is no longer a wanted criminal. In a remote village he encounters an old friend who seeks to enlist his aid in removing a nearby dragon. Or at least stop it from causing catastrophic volcanic eruptions. The trope-laden writing is barely redeemed by a little smart-aleck dialog from the sorcerer. (2/5)

“The Tinder Box” by Kate Elliot. A sly witch in a medieval feudal setting schemes to overthrow the king and queen, taking a long view. Yet another story about a sly witch in a medieval feudal setting. Yawn. (1/5)

“Questions asked in the Belly of the World” by Aliza T. Greenblatt. A couple, one an artist and the other non-artist inventor live in a strange colony world, on the side of a river, where everyone has a domineering Voice inside their mind. The voices are eventually revealed to be slimy, eel-like things that live in the back of the human host’s head. The narrative is just beginning to explain how this works, and that they redirect technical creativity into more familiar artforms. The why is never answered. It is an interesting setting to puzzle out, and frustrating that the story ends abruptly. It is a prelude to a larger work? (3/5)

“Black Leg” by Glen Hirshberg. A barely working Documentary Filmmaker meets a night watchman, as they are both prospective jurors. One night, a few weeks later he tries to find him at a darkened mall. There is prolonged tone setting before he is quickly frightened away. Then, on the last page, we get a tomato-surprise explanation about Filipino fairies. (1/5)

“The Wonderful Stag, or the Courtship of Red Elsie” by Kathleen Jennings. The magical stag provides golden rings to lovers of the village. George-the-Wolf hungers for Red Elsie, but she refused to go courting in the woods. He concocts a scheme that does not go well for him or the village. (2/5)

“Blood in the Thread” by Cheri Kamel. A lesbian romance, in which the women see themselves in parallel to a folktale. An ok story, but with no speculative content in the plot. (1/5)

“Sand” by Jasmin Kirkbride. A girl grows to womanhood, in a world somewhat like our own. except that humans carry distasteful grinding sand in their mouths. Can this scourge be overcome by self-discipline? Or is every generation destined to pass along the affliction? An original, if a little odd, description of the human condition. (3/5)

“Now We Paint Worlds” by Matthew Kressel. Orna Liat Obote Manashampo is Acting Representative of the Free Trade Union, Outer Deep Region 59, and she is sent to an Eden-like human-engineered world to investigate the disappearance of some inhabited planets, on one of which had lived her Mother. A local inhabitant tells her that humanity deserves to be eliminated. The forces behind the actions are all-powerful and yet somehow naively simplistic. (3/5)

“Spring Love, Pichal Pairi” by Usman T. Malik. Raza Minhas, a magazine journalist, interviews Farah, a pichal pairi or South Asian witch whose feet are backwards. Separated by pandemic, Raza determines to travel from Lahore, and seek her out in the tunnels of Karachi. But the universe she lives in is somewhere between the natural and the supernatural. In this story, Malik has given just the correct amount of description for a reader unfamiliar with Pakistani mythology, and produced some fascinating characters. (4/5)

“Let All the Children Boogie” by Sam J. Miller. Teenaged Laurie meets a mysterious non-binary friend, and they share an interest in a late-night radio show of punk rock. The investigation into some strange radio interference that intrudes on the station leads them together and into a future reality. This story was nominated for 2021 Nebula short story. The portrayal of teenaged anxiety and attraction is pitch perfect. (5/5)

“Selfcare” by Annalee Newitz. Some downtrodden workers at Skin Seraph confront a Fae social media influencer trying to destroy the business of their employer. Their solution is to join forces. Some of the characters have non-binary gender identity, but I don’t find that sufficient to rescue a mundane plot. (3/5)

“The Far Side of the Universe” by Noc Gu. As they near end of their lives, and sometimes at a younger age than that, people are undergoing digitization in order to be transmitted to Cygnus X-1. Their bodies are then disposed of. But the whole thing could be just a scam to improve the Federation economy. (2/5)

A Better Way of Saying” by Sarah Pinsker. In 1915, the careers of a brother and sister are launched as silent move “shouters.” She desires nothing more than to become an actress associating with the likes of Douglas Fairbanks, while his spontaneous corrections or updates mysteriously find their way into the written scripts. The story has robust characterizations, even if the speculative concept is too light for me. (3/5)

“Baby Teeth” by Daniel Polansky. A girl from high school has died, and a boy classmate of hers is mildly troubled. However, at the funeral home at night he encounters an unexplained intruder, and Penny’s corpse sits up and talks to him. As he goes about his nerdy life, playing games with his nerdy D&D friends, he becomes involved in events he does not understand, although the reader will. (4/5)

“The Future Library” by Peng Shepherd. In the climate dystopic future, the few remaining trees are endowed with magical properties with respect to writers of books. The concept is a little flaky to start with, and then is carried to ridiculous extremes. The human characters are placeholders to carry the concept forward. (1/5)

“Aptitude” by Cooper Shrivastava. Framed as the interview process for a position in godhood, the story follows one candidate as she demonstrates her skills at universe building. The competing efforts are described with long recitations of meaningless word candy. Probably unable to best her competition, she resorts to sabotage of others. (1/5)

“Judge Dee and the Three Deaths of Count Werdenfels” by Lavie Tidhar. This is another chapter in the life of the travelling medieval vampire Judge Dee and his human assistant Jonathan. They are summoned to the Castle Werdenfels to determine the truth regarding the murder of the vampire Count. The upside-down circumstances of the investigation flow from the fact that the killer is not to be punished, but rather is entitled to inherit the castle. (3/5)

“L’Esprit de L’Escalier” by Catherynne M. Valente. The character piece and situational exploration is rich in imagery and references to the classical Greek story of Orpheus and Eurydice. In it we find that in spite of Orpheus’ extreme measures with reinstalling Eurydice’s living essence in her corpse, his motivations may actually be self-interest rather than love. The whole set-up is gradually exposed through description of the current situation, and the actual speculative procedure resulting in the situation is completely off-stage. The piece was nominated for 2021 Hugo novelette. I would have preferred the work to also have more events or plotting. (4/5)

“An Easy Job” by Carrie Vaughn. There is a planet, hidden among the trade worlds, that sends its representatives out to secretly experience and record interplanetary civilization. Two such representatives, one playing the part of an anti-pirate government agent, and the other an accountant in the employ of smugglers, encounter each other. After they exchange recordings, they find they have an unresolvable dilemma between them. There is a lot of tension, and the situation between the two characters is novel and interesting. This is one of the very few actual science fiction stories in the anthology. (5/5)

“Small Monsters” by E. Lily Yu. A cute little story about a small monster that needs to survive in a dog-eat-dog world. (2/5)

[Chlorine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read one previous instance in this series and been disappointed because, in my opinion, the editors put too much material and ended up including some of the not so great. This issue is slightly shorter than the 2019 one and I felt the overall quality was much better. A small fraction of the stories were "meh" to me but most were enjoyable and a large fraction were really good.

Among the ones I really liked are :
A better way of saying by Sarah Pinsker
Questions asked in the belly of the world by A. T. Greenblatt
An easy Job by Carry Vaughn
Judge Dee and the Three Deaths of Count Werdenfels by Lavie Tidhar (this one is part of a series of short stories and I'll be getting to the other ones)
L'esprit de l'escalier by Catherynne M. Valente

[Fritze Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fabulous collection by some big names in speculative fiction. All of the stories ranged from good to great. Below are my noted on each. Length of commentary doesn’t necessarily reflect enjoyment as much as it reflects how much time I had. I try to give spoiler alerts where appropriate.

I love that each piece gets it’s own unique cover art done by a different artist.

Masquerade Season
I got tripped up on some of the sentences. Not sure if that was due to some alternate linguistics that I didn’t parse or typos. Regardless, the story was good and should have been heartbreaking but it went too fast to reach that effect.
I think, we didn’t really see the boy develop a relationship of his own with his masquerades. The mother’s taking from them for her own ego/material gain wad horrifying, but I wanted a contrast. E. g. What was the son’s spiritual gain that she was depleting? What did he really lose by sending them off?

The Lay of Lillyfinger
Spectacular. Gorgeous. The subtle shift in the character, Saaba-niszak, and the symbolism of her physical transformation.
It’s really the cumulative effect of all the characters’ changes make this story so powerful. All of the musicians come to an understanding and set aside their differences. Pom learns more about the world and starts pushing back. The mother learns some compassion when she receives empathy from a “lesser being”. The daughter (presumably) refuses to wear fur and identifies with the hired musicians. And Saaba-niszak accepts that her master’s way isn’t the only way. That she can forge her own way in the world. Accepting the many versions of the same song, choosing to be respectful of her apprentice.
A story about letting your old traumas transform from wounds you lick obsessively into forces for change. All this depth with nothing extra. A masterpiece.

The Red Mother
I’m not a dragon story aficionado, but I’m always happy to read them when they come along. Of course, any story featuring “monsters” is really about people. Even those who mostly prefer to be alone are bound by honor and familial duty. Or a simple need for supplies.
There were a couple details I knew were coming, but just as I thought maybe I had the story figured, a new twist came along.
Twice, the fourth wall was broken, and aside from my personal distaste for it, there was no purpose in it. It wasn’t necessary for the story nor even to the ongoing style.

The Tinder Box
A retelling of an old Russian Fairytale?
Regardless, find a link and share to “You Can’t Make Me Conform”.
I started out thinking that the initial rulers were “evil” and that this would be a story about fighting for justice. And while the theme of Haves and Have-Nots continued, the MC seemed more like an agent of chaos than of justice. It wasn’t entirely clear how the tinderbox worked.
But, I loved the playful manipulation of the MC. And the lesbian twist. Overall, a fun retelling.

Questions Asked in the Belly of the World
What are the consequences of challenging the orthodox? Is it a coincidence that those who ask too many questions die young?
A truly unique story exploring the age old fears of strangeness, conformity, and death.

Black Leg
The opening has an eerie stillness, like a muggy day before the storm breaks. The climax is scary as it should be. But the ending fell flat, for me. Perhaps because there was no fight, or because nothing in the MC’s skill set was a tool that saved him. And nothing from the trial came back to save him; it was just a plot set-up.

Mild spoilers: at first, I thought I never got the title. Then while thinking, I thought, unless it’s the bug’s leg. It’s the only leg mentioned, I think. But I still don’t understand why that would be the title. What’s the symbolism of the leg?

Anyway, I liked the story. I liked that a person’s ennui, malaise could free them to take a dangerous path. And the setting was perfect to mirror the character’s inner state.

The Wonderful Stag
Beautiful and sad. Is it a metaphor for humanity’s treatment of nature?

Blood in the Thread
Wow. Must re-read.
The metaphor is a little more blunt than some of the other stories in this collection but the story is just as beautiful. While the character seeks literal fame, stardom, the story could apply to any profession. Ambition and drive for acceptance in a profession can blind us to the abuses that accumulate along the way. That we often give up pieces of ourselves as we pursue success.

Sand
What?
I liked this, but it is a strange one. And, it takes a lot for me to think something is weird.
Eventually I just accepted it as an absurdist metaphor for generational traditions. The things we pass on to our children without questioning. Or if we question, we continue anyway because we can’t see an alternative. I’m curious what the author had in mind - religion, political party affiliation, abusive parenting, the drive to keep up with the Joneses? I guess it’s the lack of specificity that makes the story universal.
I liked the theme of feeling weird and then finding out everyone is weird. I liked the insistence that you can change and do better for your own kids, and that it’s ok to get help.
Spoiler - I thought it was weird/wrong that they put the pearls in her mouth. I mean I guess you try to fix yourself but your kids will still have their own burdens. Hmm.

Now we Paint the Worlds
Spoilers. I started out curious. Then, It seemed obvious the MC, Orna, would show the gods a different view of humanity, but I still liked it and wanted to see how the story played out. However, as it went on, Adair seemed one-dimensional, a foil so the author could get out their tirade against nihilism. Literally using the word Nihilism. I found the judgement of Adair just as ruthless and cruel as the destruction of the three worlds, which maybe is in keeping with the character of the gods, but I didn’t like it coming from Orna. I did like the final paragraph.

# Spring Love # Pichal Pairi
It’s possible a reader more familiar with Pichal Pairi legends would find this scarier from the beginning. I found it intriguing.

I’m kinda skeptical about how the interview with her was set up in the first place, but their banter is engaging enough I quickly got over my disbelief.
Also, every time I see the green eyes /red hair combo I just…ugh.

Let All the Children Boogie
My life is complete now. I’m done reading.

It’s not just that the musical references were obviously chosen just for me, but that Laurie’s anxiety, that assumption that others are cooler and less afraid, is so relatable.

# self care
Queer folk, development of friendships, and labor rights- these are my things. Beauty and influencers- not so much. Still I thought the tech and the beauty store were introduced well. The witch we did meet was cool; I liked her character. But the “fae” are just “witches with actual powers, not Wiccans.” And we quickly went from fae and magic aren’t real to oh your internet research says they’re real? OK! Then we really see it for ourselves, but we’ve already been told what to believe. Overall, a solid 3.5. Just maybe not quite my thing.

The Far Side of the Universe
Oh, shit! Because if corporations owned spiritually, you know this is what would happen.
It’s so short (tight writing), I don’t think I can say anything without giving away the whole thing.
(Look up “sacred”)

A Better Way of Saying
I feel like I’ve read this one before. Weird.
It’s different, and I really liked it, and I feel like I should have more to say about it.

Baby Teeth
Spoilers, I guess. A vampire hunter story without all the typically cool trappings of arcane knowledge and ancient weapons, It has a feel of Twin Peaks, except without the not-quite-innocent optimism of Agent Cooper. But like Twin Peaks, the women are (mostly) either ground down, near absent mothers or young victims. And having been the one female friend in the nerd crowd, the objectification Erica was hard to watch. Although it was employed by the author to great effect. Erica is no Mary Sue, and it seems clear that this dumb objectification of females is not the author’s way of thinking about women but an observation that very often young women have no one truly on their side.
The narrative voice is good. I think we’d lose the gritty numbness if it were told straight through the 15 year old protagonist’s POV. And yet there were a couple of moments when this tripped me up. Notably, when they drove to where the factory used to be, but at that time it was still operating. I had to work through how a factory that wasn’t there was operating and then realized it was the narrator informing us the factory had since been shuttered. One 4th wall break.
About the time I realized this was a vampire story, I wondered how derivative this would be, but again the narrator, both “older” and at 15, was engaging.
And real SPOILERS: I liked the aspect of wanting to be a hero and failing, being realistically held back from getting yourself killed by an adult. I also liked the not-really-a-hero brutality of the vampire slayer.

The Future Library
I like to think that humanity isn’t so awful; that in the end, we’ll pull it together and save the Earth fir ourselves if for no other reason.

But then, it practically is the end isn’t it? And we aren’t are we.

So this end of the world tale felt believable right from the start, and offering a modicum of hope at the end. Maybe the trees, or the giant masses of mold, or something in the deeps of the ocean is smarter than us. At least, I do have faith that humanity doesn’t have the power to completely wipe life from earth. The post-human future may be populated by dandelions and blue Chernobyl wolves, but maybe life will develop another round of “intelligent” beings, and maybe they too will find some beauty in our messes.

Aptitude
The pacing of this one is like running down a mountain, and maybe you’re not a runner but you have no choice but to keep running because you’re already going too fast and the physics looks hard as the boulders that you don’t want to faceplant into so you run on by and then the slope starts to level and you look around panting and see that everything is beautiful.

Judge Dee and the Three Deaths of Count Werdenfels
The MC is dimwitted, but funny. Judge Dee is an interesting character, as are the formal rules of vampires. A good mystery that I didn’t predict.

L’esprit de L’escalier
With the story featuring Greek Gods, why do I have to look up French?
Reminds me of lyrics from another band:
You’ve taken my silence as total compliance
(Couldn’t get away with it)
I don’t know what else to say. I’ve experienced that brand of “love”. (And rejected it (and found better.)) This is a somehow beautiful telling of it. But why do I feel like I need to know how she died?
Also, having just read Miller’s Cerce, this is a hilariously different take on Apollo.
It also occurs to me that this could be a metaphor for the natural decline in sex in a marriage and how women are often blamed for their husband’s cheating. She’s cold, frigid, not keeping herself…

An Easy Job
Easy vs. simple! I love that it opens with that distinction.
A beautiful story about how close two people can get, how we keep secrets from those we love most, and how the experience of shared emotion is what we all live for.

Small Monsters

A horrifying beginning results in a beautiful ending, showing the power of commensuralism over self-serving competition, and development of the self through art and friendship.

[Punk]

Free everywhere you can find it. I got a DRM-free epub from Kobo.

[Jaime K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Average of 3.46 but I'm okay with rounding up

Masquerade Season: 4.5
I love the illustration.
Three masquerades follow a boy named Pauly, but his mom wants things off them and he eventually has to let them go. I didn’t fully understand it but seeing as other “Best ofs” by Tor.com left me not finishing the anthology, this was a good start.

The Lay of Lilyfinger: 4.5
This was good, sad, and drew me in quick. Saaba-niszak is a musician who takes on apprentice musicians and singers, though one at a time. Her current appy is hitting puberty but he can still sing well. They’re hired for a Staining ceremony in an area that is coming back to its heritage and I didn’t understand all the culture bu I was very drawn in.

The Red Mother: 4.25
This was slow but also had an interesting take with a riddling dragon. Someone is sent by their brother to rid the area of a dragon, and the dragon loses the riddle contest, but the ramifications of their deal is quite interesting

The Tinder Box: 3.25
The narrator is a witch of some kind and is determined to get revenge on the king’s family. They first target the prince but the princess is a better target, but once she meets the princess, her initial savior of the pubowner soldier, everything felt rushed. I also feel like the initial buildup with telling the soldier about the lamps and the chests and the dog was pointless.

Questions Asked in the Belly of the World: 2
I didn’t get this until the end because it was tough for me to wrap my head around everything and then there was back and forth with this confusing voice that wasn’t revealed until the end

Black Leg: 3.9
This was too short and a bit confusion at times. But, I was intrigued by the woman with the necklace and the odd things the narrator saw. I wish there was more to clear up my confusion.

The Wonderful Stag, or the Courtship of Red Elsie: 2
I get why this was used for the cover of the book, but I thought the story itself was weird and didn’t make sense.

Blood in the Thread: 2.5
Some of the back-and-forth with the maybe crane but still lady love threw me off. I didn’t understand any of it until the end. It was also incredibly dark which I don’t mind, but being confused made me not like it.

Sand: 3.5
I thought this was super freaking weird but beautiful by the end. At birth, children are given sand grown from their parents’ spit, and the sand is poured in their mouths. Swallowing it is dangerous and spitting it out causes more to form. People mumble and most learn to live with it. But then the narrator’s mom learns of something called swifting, and the narrator turns from their drugged life and learns to be free.
This art would have done well for the cover of the book too.

Now We Paint Worlds: 3.25
This was odd and the title didn’t seem to fit. The end is good but still didn’t capture my interest. It’s about missing planets, three gods, and a man who lets his fear and hate rule him.

#Spring Love, # Pichal Pairi: 3.5
The cover is neat. I didn’t know what pichal pairi were before now, but I think this is an interesting take on mythos + real world events, though I was confused at the ended.

Let All the Children Boogie: 3.6
I felt this was overly hardhanded and the end was confusing. None of my questions were answered. Still, the sci-fi aspect about there being messages from the future was neat. I feel like that didn’t even matter though at the end. Also, there was a Woodstock in 1991?

#Selfcare: 4
The cover is weird, and the end was super odd. But it’s a good short about fae and their vengeance.

The Far Side of the Universe: 0
If a character has symbols in their name, I’m not reading it.

A Better Way of Saying: 4
This was good, but I reread the end twice with the narrator’s last job where his magic manifested (which was really cool during the silent films), but I still didn’t fully get it. The cover art is AMAZING.

Baby Teeth: 4
The art is weird because that’s not how I feel like the vampire seems described. It took me a bit to get into but I was quite interested with the string of murders of teenage girls and their connections to former deaths (all in threes) that occurred every 30 years or so (not exact like in IT).

The Future Library: 5
I love the cover.
I love the story. It’s bittersweet and I almost cried.
The future technology and climate issues occurring in the years between 2014 and 2114 were very realistic. The fact that, even at the end, humans want to destroy the last forest despite all the health issues from the lack of trees on Earth, was also very real. I love the notion of a Future Library, and the secret reveal towards the end.

Aptitude: 5
There is so much science and math (mainly the math behind the physics) that I got giddy. The end was unexpected, but it works. This was such a great sci-fi short that I would love to have a novel of.

Judge Dee and the Three Deaths of Count Werdenfels: 4.75
Another vampire story! This one is a mystery and a neat take on human servitude. Actually, the other one was too. But this had an extra twist: the age of a vampire when they are killed determines if the vamp leaves behind a corpse, mummy, or dust. I liked this, and the reveal at the end which I totally should have caught on to. The vampire laws were quite interesting too.

L’Esprit de L’escalier: 1
Greek mythology in present day, yet it’s super tragic. I just glanced through as everything felt more depressing.

An Easy Job: 4.25
Neat futuristic sci-fi about a mysterious race of humans who are beyond empaths–those from the same planet can read/feed each others’ memories. The narrator finds one of his people in the middle of nowhere, and it turns out they are involved in a piracy string without realizing it.

Small Monsters: 3.5
Well written, but very disturbing of a small monster born to feed its mother, then leaves a smallest monster behind to stop being eaten alive. After all, its limbs grow back. Its journey brings it to one more awful thing after the next until it meets an artist crustacean who becomes its friend.

[Yasaman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked some of these, didn't like others. Mostly I was just reminded that most SFF short fiction is disappointing in some way: either you wish it was longer, or it's got all the subtlety of an anvil. I kept track of the short stories as I read them, and I'll collect those short reactions below.

"Masquerade Season" by 'Pemi Aguda: wistful and kind of sad, with a kid learning a hard lesson about how much you can stand to give away even to the ones you love.

"The Lay of Lilyfinger" by G.V. Anderson: unsubtle, in that way short fiction often is in order to land its point within the constraints of the form. still, there's some nuance here in the tension between colonized peoples.

"The Red Mother" by Elizabeth Bear: fantasy Viking stuff, which isn't really my jam, but had a fun resolution.

"The Tinder Box" by Kate Elliott: a fairy tale about revolution rather than royal restoration, which is a nice and needed twist."

"Questions Asked in the Belly of the World" by A.T. Greenblatt: interesting worldbuilding.

"Black Leg" by Glen Hirshberg: good LA atmosphere: I pegged the setting and the narrator as extremely LA within a couple pages. But I finished the story with an "okay, so what?" It's horror that doesn't really go anywhere or say anything.

"The Wonderful Stag, or the Courtship of Red Elsie" by Kathleen Jennings: a grim and grisly little fairy tale.

"The Red Thread" by Cheri Kamei: intellificcy, and not really sure this qualifies as fantasy since the fairy tale part is just used as a frame, but some lovely prose. content note for domestic violence.

"Sand" by Jasmin Kirkbride: a metaphor so obvious and ham-fisted it was tedious to spend 20 pages reading about it.

"Now We Paint Worlds" by Matthew Kressel: boring and unsubtle prose, and didactic in an anvilicious way.

"# Spring Love, # Pichal Pairi" by Usman T. Malik: set in our modern plague-ridden times, which was not fun, but I still enjoyed this little faintly fantasy-tinged loved story, mostly for the way it brought Lahore to life.

"Let All the Children Boogie" by Sam J. Miller: wish this one was longer, it ended kind of abruptly, but it was a lovely slice of life about two queer teens in the 90s bonding through music and a mysterious radio broadcast.

"#selfcare" by Annalee Newitz: fun mashup of near future SF and fantasy set in the Bay Area.

"The Far Side of the Universe" by noc: a grim little scifi take on far-future assisted suicide.

A Better Way of Saying" by Sarah Pinsker: I liked the intersection of small magics and silent film, and the New York setting.

"Baby Teeth" by Daniel Polansky: a grim and chilly vampire story. Good voice, but depressing and not really my thing.

"The Future Library" by Peng Shepherd: I just wanted to know more about the trees and less about the grim, too-plausible climate apocalypse dystopia :(

"Aptitude" by Cooper Shrivastava: my favorite so far. Really interesting premise and thought-provoking, without being dull or ponderous.

"Judge Dee and the Three Deaths of Count Werdenfels" by Lavie Tidhar: boring vampire shit is still boring vampire shit even when there's a boring vampire mystery.

"L'Esprit de l'Escalier" by Catherynne M. Valente: Orpheus & Eurydice modern AU, depressing relationship dysfunction + zombie Eurydice version. Competent at what it was doing, but I didn't really care for what it was doing.

"An Easy Job" by Carrie Vaughn: zippy, with a fun and interesting conflict between our protagonist and antagonist. Didn't overstay its welcome, but I wouldn't mind reading more of this.

"Small Monsters" by E. Lily Yu: I got kind of impatient with this little fantasy parable, because once I got it, I was like 'yeah yeah, why keep reading?' Still, it wasn't bad.

[2022 Reading Challenge: SPEAKING OF CHRIS PINE]

[Madhurabharatula Pranav Rohit Kasinath · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have downloaded several of the Best of Tor .com (insert year here ) collections because its free - and hey! why not!
But then you tend to realise when there are a lot of anthologies that are horrible and paid out there , why should a free anthology be any better ?
I read the first 10 stories before DNF'ing and here are my thoughts on each of them. Most of these stories are moral polemics in the guise of a science fiction/ fantasy story - a mad tragedy if there ever was one. Science fiction and fantasy embraces moral complexity - a preachy SFF story is one of the most dismal and insipid things ever put to paper. There are a lot of them in this collection.

Masquerade Season by Pemi Aguda - This story had me scratching my head - I assume the theme is "otherness" and how that "otherness" can be exploited. The only good thing about this story, in retrospect, is that it got me interested in African masquerades, but a lot of the weirdness and the surrealism was just that - pointless surrealism.

The Lay of Lilyfinger by G.V. Anderson - This was a phenomenal story. Anderson manages to build a whole world with only a few pages of narrative. The fantasy is pretty low stakes - but it deals with the complexity of war, immigration and art with depth, care and mature consideration that is lacking in most of the stories that follow. This story made me want to keep reading this collection while simultaneously rasing the bar for ever subsequent story in the collection. Fantastic fantastic writing.

The Red Mother by Elizabeth Bear - This story was slow. And as I read it, I found myself liking what I read. By the time I was done, I was pretty sure it was impossible for two such phenomenal stories to be placed one after the other in an anthology. Elizabeth Bear is fantastic. SHe has a dry wit and while the plot is nothing new - it feeds off charm, dialogue and splendid character work to become something entirely greater than the sum of its parts. A must read.

The Tinder Box by Kate Elliott - This is where the anthology started taking a nosedive though I was too buzzed after the entries above to realise it. This is a polemic. It has all the makings of social activism while lacking everything that makes for a good "story". I love fairy tale retellings, but when viewed through a purely activist lens, all the fun is sucked out of fables. And Kate Elliott really sucks the fun out of fairy tales. For pointers in how to write an excellent fairy tale retelling please check out some of Leigh Bardugo's short stories.

Questions asked in the Belly of the World by Aliza Greenblatt : This was boring. Very very boring. The concept of a fungal world was unique but Greenblatt stopped there, not daring to go further. THe story was dull and I actually skipped the ending.

Black Leg by Glen Hirshberg - This was good. Very very good. Hirshberg came close to making me feel mildly uneasy with his prose, while sitting in a room in full daylight. Will definitely check out his other short stories.

The Courtship of Red Elsie by Kathleen Jennings - Excellent. Short, sweet, gothic and bloody. This is how you write dark fairytales.

Blood in the Thread by Cheri Kamei - WTF is this? Sigh...

Sand by Jasmine Kirkbride - AWful. The sand is a metaphor for all the baggage we are born with. How original...

Now We Paint Worlds by Matthew Kressel - This was the story that did me in. It feels, at all points of time like it was written by a second grader trying to channel Lovecraft into something more hopeful. I decided I had just about had enough.

Courtship of Red Elsie, Black Leg, Red Mother and The Lay of Lily finger - must read out of the first ten.

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sprawling read, bringing together 22 short stories from the SFF publishing powerhouse’s website. The curated authors range from well-known names to new entrants. And if you’re reading the volume as a way of discovering something new there is a range of styles and points of view here which will probably serve up something for almost everyone.

Very quickly, some of the best of the best from 2021, in my eyes:

• #Spring Love, #Pichal Pairi, Usman T. Malik: Love’s hard enough as it is, harder still when one of you has supernatural powers.
• Small Monsters, E. Lily Yu: Nature, red in tooth and claw, but not devoid of friendship.
• The Far Side of the Universe, noc: Um...are you sure you did the math right on this project?
• An Easy Job, Carrie Vaughn: An investigator who’s more than he seems meets a target who is just like him.

Even the stories I didn’t particularly like were put together well and professionally presented. I could see why they were in the collection, even when they didn’t resonate. Kudos to Chen and Datlow. Sadly, the 2021 edition seems to have been the last of the series.

[Dea · Rating 5 out of 5]

QUESTIONS ASKED IN THE BELLY OF THE WORLD – I would LOVE to read a whole series based on this world. I have so many questions about how and who and where to now.
BLOOD IN THE THREAD – points for subverting expectations. I thought this was very well done.
SAND - the allegory doesn't quite work in this one, but I really enjoyed it. It is an interesting way to look at the issue and the resolution is lovely.
#SELFCARE - so much fun! I would love to read a whole bunch of stories of supernatural problem-solving from a beauty shop, by a team of friendly peoples.
L’ESPRIT DE L’ESCALIER – I LOVED this one. I don't know if it is because there are several layers to the story, or facets if you will, or if it is because I am currently playing (dying in) Hades. Truly wonderful, and to think I hesitated to pick up author's other books.
AN EASY JOB – I read this one before and LOVED it then. The short story sequel is not enough, I want more!
SMALL MONSTERS – this was very sweet. Wonderful parallels to abuse being passed down from parent to child, and also from partner to partner. Also how that pattern can be broken by simple care.

[Renee Babcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific anthology of short fiction (short stories and novellas) from Tor.com, which consistently puts out really good fiction. There was only one story that didn't hold my interest, and in an anthology of this size, that's pretty impressive. But there were a few stories that particularly stood out (and these should also be available at Tor.com to read):

Questions Asked in the Belly of the World by A. T. Greenblatt
The Wonderful Stag, or the Courtship of Red Elsie by Kathleen Jennings
Sand, by Jasmin Kirkbride (one of the weirdest stories I've ever read!)
Now We Paint Worlds, by Matthew Kressel
Let all the Children Boogie by Sam J. Miller (my second favorite story of the entire anthology, and not just because it was dedicated to David Bowie and David Mitchell, two of my favorites, and I loved this story so much I immediately went out and bought Miller's debut novel)
The Far Side of the Universe by noc (my favorite of the entire anthology, this was terribly beautiful and sad)

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I usually do for story collections I rate each as I go and give the overall collection a rating based on the average. Which also usually means, with a few exceptions, that collections like this end up squarely in the middle with 3 stars. Some I really liked, some I liked a bit, and others didn't quite work for me. Overall, a solid collection.

Masquerade Season - 3.5
The Lay of Lilyfinger - 4
The Red Mother - 4
The Tinder Box - 3.5
Questions Asked in the Belly of the World - 4.5
Black Leg - 3
The Wonderful Stag, or the Courtship of Red Elise - 2
Blood in the Thread - 3
Sand - 3
Now We Paint Worlds - 4
#Spring Love, #Pichal Pairi - 3
Let All the Children Boogie - 3.5
#Selfcare - 2
The Far Side of the Universe - 2.5
A Better Way of Saying - 3
Baby Teeth - 4.5
The Future Library - 2
Aptitude - 2.5
Judge Dee and the Three Deaths… - 4.5
L'espirit De L'escalier - 2.5
An Easy Job - 3
Small Monsters - 2

[Cosmogyral (Gav) · Rating 3 out of 5]

5 stars: "Sand," Jasmin Kirkbride; "The Future Library," Peng Shepherd; "L'Espirit de L'Escalier," Catherynne M. Valente.

4 stars: "The Lay of Lilyfinger," G.V. Anderson; "The Red Mother," Elizabeth Bear; "A Better Way of Saying," Sarah Pinsker; "Judge Dee and the Three Deaths of Count Werdenfels," Lavie Tidhar; "An Easy Job," Carrie Vaughn.

3 stars: "Masquerade Season," 'Pemi Aguda; "The Wonderful Stag, or the Courtship of Red Elsie," Kathleen Jennings; "Blood in the Thread," Cheri Kamei; "Now We Paint Worlds," Matthew Kressel; "Aptitude," Cooper Shrivastava.

2 stars: "The Tinder Box," Kate Elliott; "Questions Asked in the Belly of the World," A.T. Greenblatt; "Let All the Children Boogie," Sam J. Miller; "#Spring Love #Pichal Pairi," Usman T. Malik; "The Far Side of the Universe," Noc.

1 star: "Black Leg," Glen Hirshberg; "#Selfcare," Annalee Newitz; "Baby Teeth," Daniel Polansky; "Small Monsters," Lily E. Yu.

Average score: exactly 3 stars, very tidy.

[Ricardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una selección de los mejores relatos fantásticos publicados en la web de Tor.com durante el año 2021, y en esta ocasión debo decir que me gustó mucho más que la del 2020. No solo el nivel de los cuentos me pareció en general más alto, sino que este año la selección ha estado un poco más variada y ha habido una representación de fantasía mucho mayor, a diferencia de otros años en los que la ciencia-ficción era de lejos el género mayoritario.

Si bien el nivel general ha sido destacable, algunos de los cuentos me parecieron pequeñas obras maestras, cada uno a su manera. Entre estos están "The Red Mother" de Elizabeth Bear, "Baby Teeth" De Daniel Polansky, "L'Esprit de l'Escalier" de Catherynne M. Valente, "Small Monsters" de E. Lily Yu y, mi favorito, "The Future Library" de Peng Shepherd. Estos fueron los que me gustaron más pero todo el libro está en general muy bien. Échenle un ojo que, como todos los años, Tor lo ha puesto gratis para Kindle así que lo tienen fácil.

[Joel · Rating 2 out of 5]

As is common in short-story collections, I found this one to be a mixed bag.

There were multiple 1-star stories in here, but a few 4-star reads as well. None of the stories were 5-star reads in my opinion.

The best stories for me were: Small Monsters by E. Lily Yu, The Future Library by Peng Shepherd, Baby Teeth by Daniel Polansky, and The Lay of Lilyfinger by G.V. Anderson, with The Lay of Lilyfinger probably being my favorite, closely followed by The Future Library. I feel like those are the two I'll remember most after the others have faded into memory.

In the Kindle version of the book, there were also multiple typos and a few randomly inserted words that made no sense in their placement. I don't know whether the same holds true for the originally published stories on the website, but the Kindle collection could have benefited from a decent editor.

2 out of 5 stars.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

What's not to love about a free collection of fantasy and science-fiction short stories by a wide range of authors? For me, unfortunately, the answer to that question is: most of the stories in it. A few were quite enjoyable, including “Masquerade Season” by ‘Pemi Aguda, “The Far Side of the Universe” by noc, and “An Easy Job” by Carrie Vaughn, with “The Red Mother” by Elizabeth Bear being the best of the crop. But the rest ranged between ordinary and awful: some trivial, some painfully worthy, many exhaustingly overwritten, trying to fit whole novels' worth of worldbuilding into spaces too small for it. A generous two stars—the same score I gave to the previous Tor collection I've read (2016), but definitely a step down in quality from it.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good collection, with some top-notch writers. But for me, it is too heavy on the fantasy and light on the science fiction. Also, I don't care for prose that is metaphoric or experimental or very literary, and there's a lot of that here. My favorites are the more straightforward stories, the ones by Sam Miller, Carrie Vaughn, Matthew Kressel, Cooper Shrivastava, Annalee Newitz, and Lavie Tidhar (yes, the last two authors' stories were fantasy, but I liked them). I usually love Sarah Pinsker's stories, but didn't see where there was science fiction or fantasy in her story here.

[Shan]

I guess I read the first story sometime in 2021 but I don’t remember it enough to comment on here. Starting with the second in the book.

GV Anderson, The Lay of Lilyfinger. A story of the power of music and the sorrow of losing one’s own culture when it’s suppressed by a conquering culture. Amazing depth of worldbuilding in a short story, with winged dragons and furry people and apprentices and languages. 10/17/22

[Talenyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of my favorite short stories ever are included in this collection:
“The Lay of Lilyfinger” by G. V. Anderson
“The Tinder Box” by Kate Elliott
“Blood in the Thread” by Cheri Kamei
“L’Esprit de L’Escalier” by Catherynne M. Valente

Also two new installments from good series:
“Judge Dee and the Three Deaths of Count Werdenfels” by Lavie Tidhar
“An Easy Job” by Carrie Vaughn

[amina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard Science & Fantasy

This was one of the most engaging collections of hard science and fantasy I have had the pleasure of reading in decades.
No two stories are alike. Each author devotes a satisfying stretch of writing to developing the reader's interest in the background and setting of each story.
I'm hooked and looking forward to the next compilation.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

While there were a handful of stories I really enjoyed, by and large this anthology just didn't click for me. It wasn't that the writing was bad or the stories were bad, just that I found that most of them just didn't grab my attention, which made it a little slog to get through. As always, your mileage may vary.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only a few I hated. (Plot, please; I beg of you. Leave your delicately brushed 25-page descriptions of a day in the life on the hard drive.) The Orpheus and Eurydice ... thing was a fucking bore. Really enjoyed the Judge Dee story (though I kept waiting for the Van Gulik angle ...).

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 2 out of 5]

What the...?

There were some good stories. Some were crisp, compact, witty. But they were submerged by massive and massively boring tales.
If these were some of the best, then I seriously need to stay away from the site in question. Obviously our tastes don't match.
'Nuff said.

[Brian Parkhurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exception and Not So!

As the title states, several stories were very good, several took "getting use to, some I could not finish because they were hopeless, for a variety of reasons.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rich and original collection of sci-fi and fantasy short stories. Most collections contain a bit of hit and miss, this was mostly hits. I had a feeling of reading adult fairy tales or parables like newer darker Brothers Grimm.

[Mysteryfan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories and novellettes from Tor.com Books. It was a free download for my Kindle. It was somewhat uneven but there were enough stories that I liked. Tor puts out some good science fiction and I was hoping this would attract me to some new authors

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recent Reads: Some Of The Best Of Tor.com 2021. A collection of short fiction from the SFF web site. An excellent set of stories, from all over the world and across the genre, with a mix of new and well-known writers. There's something here for everyone.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with all collections ,some worked better than others for me

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely some of the best short stories I have ever read. Highly recommend for any lover of short fiction. I now have several more authors to read, based on this selection.

[Jessika · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic and diverse collection of short stories on