Some of the Best from Tor.com: 15th Anniversary Edition

by Charlie Jane Anders, Kemi Ashing-Giwa, Leigh Bardugo

This year on July 20th, Tor dot com turned 15! Since that long-ago year of 2008, we’ve published more than 600 original stories from authors around the world. To celebrate, we pulled together some highlights from those last 15 years into a special, free, limited-time bundle: Some of the Best from Tor dot com: 15th Anniversary Edition!

- Six Months, Three Days by Charlie Jane Anders
- The Puppetmaster by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
- The Witch of Duva by Leigh Bardugo by Brooke Bolander
- Porgee's Boar by Jonathan Carroll
- The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections by Tina Connolly
- Brimstone and Marmalade by Aaron Corwin
- Of All the New Yorks in All the Worlds by Indrapramit Das
- How to Cook and Eat the Rich by Sunyi Dean
- Please Undo This Hurt by Seth Dickinson
- After the Animal Flesh Beings by Brian Evenson
- Exile's End by Carolyn Ives Gilman
- A Short History of the Twentieth Century, or, When You Wish Upon a Star by Kathleen Ann Goonan
- Nine Last Days on Planet Earth by Daryl Gregory
- The City Born Great by N.K. Jemisin
- Blood in the Thread by Cheri Kamei
- These Deathless Bones by Cassandra Khaw
- Counting Casualties by Yoon Ha Lee
- The Language of Knives by Haralambi Markov
- The Hanging Game by Helen Marshall
- Tear Tracks by Malka Ann Older
- The Touches by Brenda Peynado
- Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker
- Burning Girls by Veronica Schanoes
- Blood Is Another Word for Hunger by Rivers Solomon
- This World is Full of Monsters by Jeff VanderMeer
- The Devil in America by Kai Ashante Wilson
- Small Monsters by E. Lily Yu
- The Tale of Ak and Humanity by Yefim Zozulya, Translated by Alex Shvartsman

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

719 pages, ebook

First published July 17, 2023

About the author

My 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.

Reviews

[Austin Beeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

****

Lots more short science fiction reviews here
https://www.shortsf.com

SOME OF THE BEST FROM TOR.COM: 15TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION IS RATED
29 STORIES : 5 GREAT / 13 GOOD / 7 AVERAGE / 1 POOR / 3 DNF

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.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Any collection of short stories is always a hit and miss affair, but for me this one had a lot more misses than hits. Having reached the end of the collection, nothing really stands out and many of the stories felt more like an exercise in style over narrative.

[Petermathieson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This generous collection has lots of great stories with good variety in theme if not in tone. Some of the standouts to me are The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections, Nine Last Days on Planet Earth, and Burning Girls.

[André · Rating 5 out of 5]

As expected of an anniversary collection, there are no unsatisfactory entries here. All stories are good, most are fantastic. A great book to get to know and enjoy contemporary speculative short fiction, absolutely recommended.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fave: THE LAST BANQUET OF TEMPORAL CONFECTIONS

[Thia Reads A Lot]

Some of the Best from Tor.com: 15th Anniversary Edition - Edited by Irene Callo
This collection had little in common except the publisher. I enjoyed a few stories, but most weren't all that interesting. I'll refrain from reading more collections like this and read only the short stories I am interested in.

Reading Journal Index: 2023-206