Some of the Best from Tor.com: 15th Anniversary Edition. 2023
SOME OF THE BEST FROM TOR.COM: 15TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION.
RATED 74% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE 3.03 OF 5
29 STORIES : 5 GREAT / 13 GOOD / 7 AVERAGE / 1 POOR / 3 DNF
I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with Tor.com. (now ReactorMag.) I LOVE that they publish some of the best science fiction around, champion the novella as a literary form, and have brought the energy of the younger generations into the genre. I HATE that they seem to have hacked the awards ballots with free content, frequently prioritize identity over storytelling, and focus far too heavily on fantasy instead of science fiction.
…but you can’t be reading short science fiction in 2024 without reading ‘some of the best from tor.com.”
Five Stories make the all-time great list:
Six Months, Three Days • (2011) • by Charlie Jane Anders. One of the SF masterpieces of the 21st century. To quote the first line of the story… “The man who can see the future has a date with the woman who can see many possible futures.”
Exile's End • (2020) • novelette by Carolyn Ives Gilman. Masterful. This is what science fiction can do at its best. A curator at an art museum meets an alien who claims to be a member of a race believed to be long dead. He becomes dedicated to the repatriation of the world’s most precious painting, which he believes has the spirit of a girl trapped within. It must be destroyed to release her. The story deals intelligently and with nuance around the complicated issues of art, artifacts, ownership, property, and respect for cultures that we find alien, inexplicable, and destructive.
Nine Last Days on Planet Earth • (2018) • novelette by Daryl Gregory. A young man’s coming of age story is told in nine moments against the backdrop of a strangely beautiful biological invasion. Great characters and charmingly delicate prose.
Counting Casualties • (2023) • short story by Yoon Ha Lee. When the deadfleet destroys a planet with their erasure-choirs, it is as if that planet never existed. Whatever science or art was exceptional on that world, disappears both reality and memory. Can one small spaceship stop them? And what actually becomes of what they erase? A spectacular “sense-of-wonder” space opera.
The Tale of Ak and Humanity • (1922) • short story by Ефим Зозуля? (trans. of Рассказ об Аке и человечестве?) [as by Yefim Zozulya]. Russian political dystopia where the government decides whose life is necessary or unnecessary. Which always sounds nice, until you see how that selection in made. Sharp and satirically funny.
SOME OF THE BEST FROM TOR.COM: 15TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION IS RATED
29 STORIES : 5 GREAT / 13 GOOD / 7 AVERAGE / 1 POOR / 3 DNF
How do I arrive at a rating?
Six Months, Three Days • (2011) • by Charlie Jane Anders
Great. One of the SF masterpieces of the 21st century. To quote the first line of the story… “The man who can see the future has a date with the woman who can see many possible futures.”
The Puppetmaster • (2023) • short story by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
Average. Epistolary story about a brother who tries to have his sister killed, but she double crosses him through collaborator with hideous alternate universe monsters. Quite predictable and deep absorbed in banal fantasy style.
The Witch of Duva • [The Grisha] • (2012) • novelette by Leigh Bardugo
DNF. Hated the language and generic fantasy elements. Just didn’t care about anything here
No Flight Without the Shatter • (2018) • novelette by Brooke Bolander
Average. Overly stylized story of climate change, the last human being raised by extinct(?) animals, and rockets.
Porgee's Boar • (2022) • short story by Jonathan Carroll [as by Johnathan Carroll]
Good. An artist’s best customer is a gangster, who commissions a work created from a picture of his childhood. Possibly not genre.
The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections • (2018) • novelette by Tina Connolly
Good. The food-taster for a vicious royal experiences a special meal with pastries created by her husband. These are magical pastries that powerfully evoke memories both pleasant and terrible.
Brimstone and Marmalade • (2013) • short story by Aaron Corwin
Good. I was charmed by this childish story. A girl wants a pony for her birthday, but her parents get her a demon instead.
Of All the New Yorks in All the Worlds • (2022) • short story by Indrapramit Das
Good. Feels like a 1990s low budget NYC indie movie about a boy pining over a girl who he used to love in an alternate NYC.
How to Cook and Eat the Rich • (2023) • short story by Sunyi Dean
Poor. In a dystopia where meat in scarce, a rich man is offered the chance for the ultimate delicacy. The title ruins the “twist” ending.
Please Undo This Hurt • (2015) • short story by Seth Dickinson
Good. A paramedic who is trying to hang on, but having huge problems dealing with the pain in the world, gets the opportunity to make a call and be gone from the world.
After the Animal Flesh Beings • (2023) • short story by Brian Evenson
Good. A post-human world of robots who ‘make’ children and contemplate the meaning of life.
Exile's End • (2020) • novelette by Carolyn Ives Gilman
Great. Masterful. This is what science fiction can do at its best. A curator at an art museum meets an alien who claims to be a member of a race believed to be long dead. He becomes dedicated to the repatriation of the world’s most precious painting, which he believes has the spirit of a girl trapped within. It must be destroyed to release her. The story deals intelligently and with nuance around the complicated issues of art, artifacts, ownership, property, and respect for cultures that we find alien, inexplicable, and destructive.
A Short History of the Twentieth Century, or, When You Wish Upon a Star • (2014) • novelette by Kathleen Ann Goonan
Good. A girl grows up loving rockets and wanting to be involved with them. Set against the backdrop of the space race.
Nine Last Days on Planet Earth • (2018) • novelette by Daryl Gregory
Great. A young man’s coming of age story is told in nine moments against the backdrop of a strangely beautiful biological invasion. Great characters and charmingly delicate prose.
The City Born Great • [The Great Cities] • (2016) • short story by N. K. Jemisin
Good. Chaotic fantasy about a homeless person who discovers that their role is to help the city of New York come alive.
Blood in the Thread • (2021) • short story by Cheri Kamei
Average. A woman-as-a-crane fable interspersed between scenes of a lesbian couple’s relationship. One of the partners becomes famous and allows herself to be abused to continue that fame.
These Deathless Bones • (2017) • short story by Cassandra Khaw
Average. Fantasy about magical boney revenge upon a horrible young royal.
Counting Casualties • (2023) • short story by Yoon Ha Lee
Great. When the deadfleet destroys a planet with their erasure-choirs, it is as if that planet never existed. Whatever science or art was exceptional on that world, disappears both reality and memory. Can one small spaceship stop them? And what actually becomes of what they erase? A spectacular “sense-of-wonder” space opera.
The Language of Knives • (2015) • short story by Haralambi Markov
Average. Well written but repulsive and ultimateness meaningless story of a man and daughter who bake his husband in a religious (?) ritual.
The Hanging Game • (2013) • short story by Helen Marshall
Good. Creepy fantasy in which the act of hanging oneself allows access to demonic/magical predictions of the future. Predictable in the plot, but elevated by the tone of the prose.
Tear Tracks • (2015) • short story by Malka Older
Good. A multi-racial team is sent to make first contact with a vaguely human-shape alien race. As they get to know the aliens more and work towards a treat, it becomes apparently that these aliens have an interesting relationship between pain and grief.
The Touches • (2019) • short story by Brenda Peynado
Good. Interesting tale of human isolation and virtual/augmented reality as a way of staying protected from “The Dirty,” and the dystopian world of plague, disease, and desecration. I assumed this was written in response to Covid, but it appears to be publish before the Lockdowns.
Two Truths and a Lie • (2020) • novelette by Sarah Pinsker
Good. A creepy piece of subtle dark fantasy. The story centers around the cleaning of a hoarders old house and a sinister local children’s show that most people don’t remember. I still get back-of-the-neck shivers when I think of it.
Burning Girls • (2013) • novella by Veronica Schanoes
DNF. I bounced off of this long story about witches very early. A young girl was working with a witch to facilitate abortion.
Blood Is Another Word for Hunger • (2019) • short story by Rivers Solomon
Average. A slave girl kills her masters and gives rapid birth to a demon that serves her. Have enormous trouble understanding why this became a Hugo Finalist.
This World Is Full of Monsters • (2017) • novelette by Jeff VanderMeer
DNF. JG Ballard meets David Cronenberg, but less graceful and mature. I bounced off of this bit of meandering body horror about 30% in.
The Devil in America • (2014) • novelette by Kai Ashante Wilson
Average: A young black girl in the 1870s has an intimation of her African Magic and the devils her family brought with them during slavery. Then she meets her match in an American White Devil and the bargain she makes with him. Great characters and family dynamics. I was enthralled by this fantasy story, until it absolutely comes apart with no purpose and writing techniques that are either a cop out or abusive of the reader. Normally don’t quote from stories, but I have to quote from the end for you to understand how completely this immolates itself in pretension.
“*Weird, son. Definitely some disturbing writing in this section. But overarching theme = a people bereft, no? Dispossessed even of cultural patrimony? Might consider then how to represent this in the narrative structure. Maybe just omit how Easter learns to trick the Devil into the chicken? Deny the reader that knowledge as Easter’s been denied so much. If you do, leave a paragraph, or even just a sentence, literalizing the “Fragments of History.” Terrible title, by the way; reconsider.”
Small Monsters • (2021) • short story by E. Lily Yu
Good. A small monster lives a horribly painful life, being partially eaten by larger monsters and regrowing the part that was lost. Then the monster forms a friendship with an artistic crab and their life changes.
The Tale of Ak and Humanity • (2022) • short story by Ефим Зозуля? (trans. of Рассказ об Аке и человечестве? 1922) [as by Yefim Zozulya]
Great. Russian political dystopia where the government decides whose life is necessary or unnecessary. Which always sounds nice, until you see how that selection in made. Sharp and satirically funny.
