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And Side by Side They Wander
An intergalactic art heist by a ragtag group of underqualified misfits. What could go wrong?
For three hundred years, humanity’s greatest works of art have been on loan at the Greenwood Museum. It was finally time for them to come home...but the alien curators were disinclined to return them.
Force was out of the question. Earth’s government was They were not going to press the issue. So, all we had was guile and hubris to fuel our little intergalactic art heist.
My old friend Tarquin was our leader, but not the captain. That was Tchik-tchik, though whether Tchik-tchik was our insectoid pilot’s name or species is still unclear to me. Misora, with her extremely illegal biotech mods, was our muscle.
Jack was there to hack the security systems of the biggest museum in the galaxy. He was a sensynth, a sentient synthetic being, and the most powerful machine intelligence on Earth uncorrupted by alien technology.
My name is Fennel Tycho. I’d like to tell you I was there because of my expertise in Art History. Truth is, I was there because without me, Jack would not have agreed to go. He was notorious for being difficult to work with—but it was a mistake to think I could make things any easier.
A meditation on the nature of love, life, and the "culture of the copy," And Side by Side They Wander asks the In a future where there are clones, androids, and a sentient mycelium that creates fungal simulacra, who is real and what is fake?
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
For three hundred years, humanity’s greatest works of art have been on loan at the Greenwood Museum. It was finally time for them to come home...but the alien curators were disinclined to return them.
Force was out of the question. Earth’s government was They were not going to press the issue. So, all we had was guile and hubris to fuel our little intergalactic art heist.
My old friend Tarquin was our leader, but not the captain. That was Tchik-tchik, though whether Tchik-tchik was our insectoid pilot’s name or species is still unclear to me. Misora, with her extremely illegal biotech mods, was our muscle.
Jack was there to hack the security systems of the biggest museum in the galaxy. He was a sensynth, a sentient synthetic being, and the most powerful machine intelligence on Earth uncorrupted by alien technology.
My name is Fennel Tycho. I’d like to tell you I was there because of my expertise in Art History. Truth is, I was there because without me, Jack would not have agreed to go. He was notorious for being difficult to work with—but it was a mistake to think I could make things any easier.
A meditation on the nature of love, life, and the "culture of the copy," And Side by Side They Wander asks the In a future where there are clones, androids, and a sentient mycelium that creates fungal simulacra, who is real and what is fake?
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
112 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 19, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
May 25, 2026
"Space museum art heist" makes it sound like a sci-fi Ocean's Eleven or something, but this is way more 90s Trek than anything (complimentary). While the logline may make it seem like they're trying to sell you something the book is not, Tanzer is simply incapable of being less than captivating in her storytelling. Far from a mere novella-length form of the viral "what if Indiana Jones stole BACK treasures??" post that makes the social media rounds every few months, ASBSTW is a thought-provoking reflection on the act of artistic creation and its cousin, mechanical reproduction.
From the point of view of Fennel Tycho, a human art student who is selected for the mission because of her connection to android Jack Kirby (!), ASBSTW is a story both intimate and epic, as the dissolution of Fennel and Jack's relationship gets as much page time as the story of how Earth surrendered all its cultural treasures to the Celerians.
A quick read well worth sitting with!
From the point of view of Fennel Tycho, a human art student who is selected for the mission because of her connection to android Jack Kirby (!), ASBSTW is a story both intimate and epic, as the dissolution of Fennel and Jack's relationship gets as much page time as the story of how Earth surrendered all its cultural treasures to the Celerians.
A quick read well worth sitting with!
May 22, 2026
Orpheus and Eurydice, 1864 by Frederic Leighton
A picture by Leighton
Robert Browning
"But give them me, the mouth, the eyes, the brow!
Let them once more absorb me! One look now
Will lap me round for ever, not to pass
Out of its light, though darkness lie beyond:
Hold me but safe again within the bond
Of one immortal look! All woe that was,
Forgotten, and all terror that may be,
Defied, no past is mine, no future: look at me!"
Molly Tanzer's "And Side by Side They Wander" is currently free to listen to on Audible -if you are a member!
Led by Tarquin a clone and captained by the alien Tchik-tchik, with Misora as muscle (who can unfold six versions in one body) and Jack (who's a sensynth, a sentient synthetic being who's image is of the same man as Tarquin is) to hack the biggest museum in the galaxy.
Art historian Fennel Tycho was mostly there keep Jack on the team that's out to steal back the art aliens took in a Earth's government approved exchange for alien technology to fix Earth's problems because Earth was to get the art back when they meet the aliens "standards" of living.
I rather liked the use of Greek myth where Orpheus' getting Eurydice back is similar to the heist in fate (Eurydice going to the woods /the ship going to Greenwood Museum) and Jack and Fennel's relationship (a gender reversal for Orpheus and Eurydice) and the mixing of science fiction, certainly Orpheus and Eurydice were a great art history choice to mix with themes of art copies.
It reminds me somewhat of the BBC podcast Forest 404 in the theme of saving or deleting art and what that is.
Shout out to the art like Achilles defeating Penthesilea, the Amazon Queen amphora (wine-jar) signed by Exekias.
And one I didn't know of Chris Ofili's The Holy Virgin Mary (1996).
May 23, 2026
The early word on Molly Tanzer's new novella, And Side by Side They Wander, seemed to promise an Oceans 11 style space opera art heist kind of story. That's not really what you get. Instead, trust the back cover copy when it suggest that here you'll find "a meditation on the nature of love, life, and the "culture of the copy".
Space aliens have taken some of our most famous works of art, in exchange for both the technology they promise will save humanity (it does), and a bunch of copies of the Mona Lisa and some other stuff. It's a loan, they say. When you're ready, you can have it back. Then we ask for it back and they say no. Almost everyone, we find out (tiny spoiler), goes "cool", doesn't care much and gets on with things. But for a bunch of rich clones and some other folk, including some guy who got caught up with the mushroom stuff on the cover, that's not ok. The original thing is what's special (even if, in the early stages of the story, they can't quite say why.
Space aliens have taken some of our most famous works of art, in exchange for both the technology they promise will save humanity (it does), and a bunch of copies of the Mona Lisa and some other stuff. It's a loan, they say. When you're ready, you can have it back. Then we ask for it back and they say no. Almost everyone, we find out (tiny spoiler), goes "cool", doesn't care much and gets on with things. But for a bunch of rich clones and some other folk, including some guy who got caught up with the mushroom stuff on the cover, that's not ok. The original thing is what's special (even if, in the early stages of the story, they can't quite say why.
April 11, 2026
Although brief in length, this is not a “light” read. It is a thoughtful examination of humanity through the perspective of an art history expert. The central narrative of an intergalactic art heist is interwoven with detailed descriptions and analyses of significant works throughout human history. This book is less character-driven and instead focuses on a reflective commentary on society and human nature. While the storyline was engaging, the focus on art analysis occasionally disrupted the narrative momentum for me. Overall, I found it to be an enjoyable and intellectually stimulating read. It presents ideas that feel very relevant in the current cultural climate and left me with much to consider.
May 20, 2026
People have been told this lie that good writing is distant.
It's meticulously plotted out. It's consistent. It's level.
If you read enough criticism you think good writing (and good film) is about analysis. As a critic, please listen to me, when I tell you that it's not.
Good writing (and good criticism) isn't analysis. It is action.
People think 'self-awareness' that puts myth and fantasy and science fiction and 'cheesy' ideas on a pedestal is an armour that allows them to explore those ideas without being embarrassed. So they have been taught to keep this kind of writing at arm's distance. And while that can be safe, it is also predictable and formulaic. It doesn't hold up to scrutiny and time, because it has nothing to say. Because it won't dare to say it.
The best writers dare to be cheesy. They dare to be open. To be seen. And they miss more than they hit.
And when they miss? It can be brutal. Especially if they're great writers. The worst writing you will ever experience is done by great writers. Mediocre writers are mostly just lazy. It takes a great writer to make a complete catastrophe.
But when the best writers hit? Oooh. You feel it. In your teeth. In your toes. In all your magic buttons. It unzips you.
I've been reading Molly Tanzer for over a decade.
And this is a hit.
Some of her work I love, some I enjoy, some of her work has frustrated me, but through all her work, I've always seen potential. Which is why I keep recommending her to my readers.
Her plot design (especially in her short fiction and in this novella) is very well done. She creates memorable characters with distinct voices. On top of that she has a great approach to both mythos and modern topics.
And she weaves all of that into stories in a way that's personal. Relatable. In this book she transitions between philosophy, art theory, the discussion of artificial intelligence, vulgar comedy, intimate grief, political analysis, cultural criticism and terraforming fungi bombs all within the context of an intergalactic art heist.
But what makes this work, is that she grounds it in character.
We see these concepts through the perspective of love unrequited, of the anxiety of our personal expectations. Our desire for attention. Our desire to be noticed. Which is the desire to create (and see) art.
It is the desire to see others.
That line connects all the different subject matter in the story, from questions of love, to ideas of consciousness and the value of art and how we often fail to understand others or see them through our bias.
It connects through the main character, through her infatuations and love and the art she discusses and the mythos that speaks to her and the adventure she's found herself in.
And that's the risky part.
That's the part that reminds me of the best writers. Where it's not just 'can I tell an interesting story about a space heist'? But can I make this a personal story? Can I risk being vulnerable?
It's easy to be detached. It's easy to cover up. It's easy to put on a show to please others.
It's more difficult to be human. This is the problem facing so much discussion of the arts these days. Creation, style, subject matter? All of that is just window dressing.
What's so beautiful and valuable about art, is finally, finally, being seen.
Great work. 10/10
It's meticulously plotted out. It's consistent. It's level.
If you read enough criticism you think good writing (and good film) is about analysis. As a critic, please listen to me, when I tell you that it's not.
Good writing (and good criticism) isn't analysis. It is action.
People think 'self-awareness' that puts myth and fantasy and science fiction and 'cheesy' ideas on a pedestal is an armour that allows them to explore those ideas without being embarrassed. So they have been taught to keep this kind of writing at arm's distance. And while that can be safe, it is also predictable and formulaic. It doesn't hold up to scrutiny and time, because it has nothing to say. Because it won't dare to say it.
The best writers dare to be cheesy. They dare to be open. To be seen. And they miss more than they hit.
And when they miss? It can be brutal. Especially if they're great writers. The worst writing you will ever experience is done by great writers. Mediocre writers are mostly just lazy. It takes a great writer to make a complete catastrophe.
But when the best writers hit? Oooh. You feel it. In your teeth. In your toes. In all your magic buttons. It unzips you.
I've been reading Molly Tanzer for over a decade.
And this is a hit.
Some of her work I love, some I enjoy, some of her work has frustrated me, but through all her work, I've always seen potential. Which is why I keep recommending her to my readers.
Her plot design (especially in her short fiction and in this novella) is very well done. She creates memorable characters with distinct voices. On top of that she has a great approach to both mythos and modern topics.
And she weaves all of that into stories in a way that's personal. Relatable. In this book she transitions between philosophy, art theory, the discussion of artificial intelligence, vulgar comedy, intimate grief, political analysis, cultural criticism and terraforming fungi bombs all within the context of an intergalactic art heist.
But what makes this work, is that she grounds it in character.
We see these concepts through the perspective of love unrequited, of the anxiety of our personal expectations. Our desire for attention. Our desire to be noticed. Which is the desire to create (and see) art.
It is the desire to see others.
That line connects all the different subject matter in the story, from questions of love, to ideas of consciousness and the value of art and how we often fail to understand others or see them through our bias.
It connects through the main character, through her infatuations and love and the art she discusses and the mythos that speaks to her and the adventure she's found herself in.
And that's the risky part.
That's the part that reminds me of the best writers. Where it's not just 'can I tell an interesting story about a space heist'? But can I make this a personal story? Can I risk being vulnerable?
It's easy to be detached. It's easy to cover up. It's easy to put on a show to please others.
It's more difficult to be human. This is the problem facing so much discussion of the arts these days. Creation, style, subject matter? All of that is just window dressing.
What's so beautiful and valuable about art, is finally, finally, being seen.
Great work. 10/10
November 25, 2025
While it isn't reclaiming artifacts from the British museum, which someone should do since it seems lax security, going to reclaim humanity's stuff from aliens is pretty good too. "And Side by Side They Wander" by Molly Tanzer examines what is real in a world of easy reproductions, clones, and synthetic copies. Jumping way ahead, but out 19 May 2026 from Tor Publishing Group.
Humanity was boned. Climate disasters, war, you name it. Least until some benevolent aliens rolled up and could solve all of our problems, they just wanted to hold onto large portions of our art, just in case. But totally will give it back when we fix our issues. But wouldn't you know it, they aren't done looking at it yet. Enjoy the replicas and technology. Except humanity is still a bit...punchy. Enter a crew who really has no business doing this job.
Reasons to read:
-Went places I was not expecting
-I'm sorry, please elaborate on that sentence right now
-Sudden escalation
-More proof that we should all get quarterly strikes we can give supervisors
-Sentient Mycelium, not sure if sapient would apply
Cons:
-That sentence gets no further investigation, the curse of novellas.
Humanity was boned. Climate disasters, war, you name it. Least until some benevolent aliens rolled up and could solve all of our problems, they just wanted to hold onto large portions of our art, just in case. But totally will give it back when we fix our issues. But wouldn't you know it, they aren't done looking at it yet. Enjoy the replicas and technology. Except humanity is still a bit...punchy. Enter a crew who really has no business doing this job.
Reasons to read:
-Went places I was not expecting
-I'm sorry, please elaborate on that sentence right now
-Sudden escalation
-More proof that we should all get quarterly strikes we can give supervisors
-Sentient Mycelium, not sure if sapient would apply
Cons:
-That sentence gets no further investigation, the curse of novellas.
May 19, 2026
This was quite the pleasant read and I was able to get through it in one sitting. I found that I was quickly drawn in to the tale and invested in the outcome of the story. A small group of rather unlikely allies plans and executes a heist to reclaim famous artworks that had been safe-guarded by an alien race, but then not returned. This speaks to problems in our very own system. The message of the story was quite clear in that regard, as well as in humans’ treatment of the planet over time. The themes explored fit well with current events and political climate now and over the course of recent history.
I was quite pleased with the overall world building and character development, despite the short length of the story. I found the inclusion of a romantic relationship with a sentient synthetic being quite interesting. I found myself caring about the fate of each of the characters and would have enjoyed this as an even longer read. Also, I did not see that ending coming!
I will be keeping an eye out for more of Molly Tanzer and possibly even check out her backlist.
I would recommend this novella to people that enjoy science fiction and are looking for a short, thought-provoking read.
Many thanks to Tor Publishing Group/Tordotcom and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book. The opinions expressed are given freely and are honest and my own.
I was quite pleased with the overall world building and character development, despite the short length of the story. I found the inclusion of a romantic relationship with a sentient synthetic being quite interesting. I found myself caring about the fate of each of the characters and would have enjoyed this as an even longer read. Also, I did not see that ending coming!
I will be keeping an eye out for more of Molly Tanzer and possibly even check out her backlist.
I would recommend this novella to people that enjoy science fiction and are looking for a short, thought-provoking read.
Many thanks to Tor Publishing Group/Tordotcom and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book. The opinions expressed are given freely and are honest and my own.
May 25, 2026
2.5 stars rounding down. This…did NOT land for me unfortunately. While it has elements I love, like first contact, aliens, motley space crew, nothing felt fully baked. The premise is that a long time ago an alien species came to Earth and saved it in exchange for all of Earth’s precious art, and now Fennel has been recruited to help with an off-world museum heist to get some items back. The museum was super cool and this should have been the setting of the whole book, IMO the first 70 of the 100 pages should have been scratched. The most substantial character attribute of the MC is her pining for someone who does not love her back, and this reaches the very last page too — I just don’t want to read that and also why? I wonder if part of this story was Tanzer’s “grief book” and that’s why? Everyone else, even the mycelium, were part of a means to an end. Speaking of the mycelium, I think that’s whole section could have been its own novella, the set up here and the possible explanations was also/could have been really cool. It’s an example of a something in the story that took too much page time away from other aspects that contributed to everything not feeling baked. There is some commentary of colonialism, but I didn’t find it meaningful. I just think Tanzer tried to do too much in 100 pages and wasn’t able to execute any element well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 2, 2026
And Side by Side They Wander by Molly Tanzer is a beautifully written novella that left me thoroughly impressed and wishing for more. Despite its short length, the story delivers an impressive amount of character development and world-building. It's one of those rare reads where you feel instantly dropped into a fully formed universe, rich with texture and nuance, yet you’re only getting a tantalizing glimpse of what could be explored in greater depth.
Tanzer has a gift for creating emotionally resonant characters in a very short span of time. The relationships and internal struggles feel fully realized, and there’s a surprising emotional weight to the narrative that builds naturally from the first page. I found myself invested almost immediately, and the emotional payoff by the end hit harder than I expected for a novella of this size.
The world Tanzer hints at is so fascinating: strange, atmospheric, and filled with potential. I couldn’t help but imagine how incredible it would be to see this setting and these characters fleshed out over the course of a full-length novel. There's a lot of promise in the mythology and the underlying themes that could easily sustain a much longer story without losing momentum.
Even though the book left me wanting more, that’s a testament to how well it’s crafted. It’s a short, impactful read that lingers in your mind long after you finish. Tanzer strikes a great balance between style and substance, and I’ll definitely be seeking out more of her work after this.
Tanzer has a gift for creating emotionally resonant characters in a very short span of time. The relationships and internal struggles feel fully realized, and there’s a surprising emotional weight to the narrative that builds naturally from the first page. I found myself invested almost immediately, and the emotional payoff by the end hit harder than I expected for a novella of this size.
The world Tanzer hints at is so fascinating: strange, atmospheric, and filled with potential. I couldn’t help but imagine how incredible it would be to see this setting and these characters fleshed out over the course of a full-length novel. There's a lot of promise in the mythology and the underlying themes that could easily sustain a much longer story without losing momentum.
Even though the book left me wanting more, that’s a testament to how well it’s crafted. It’s a short, impactful read that lingers in your mind long after you finish. Tanzer strikes a great balance between style and substance, and I’ll definitely be seeking out more of her work after this.
May 28, 2026
I read this book in the waiting room at the hospital yesterday and it ignited a great, bright spark in my Humanities Instructor brain - so much so that I want to assign it to my Honors Intro to Humanities class this fall. Dare I hope to entice Molly Tanzer into an online classroom visit?
If you love art and philosophical questions about what makes art Art, this book is for you. I love the conversations about why the authentic, original piece of art is something so much more than a copy ever could be (something I've tried to impress upon my students for a decade). But it's not just about art, though. Many of the characters themselves are not necessarily "the original," but does that diminish their authentic identities? It provokes questions that can be applied to AI as well, making it highly relevant. ❤️❤️
If you love art and philosophical questions about what makes art Art, this book is for you. I love the conversations about why the authentic, original piece of art is something so much more than a copy ever could be (something I've tried to impress upon my students for a decade). But it's not just about art, though. Many of the characters themselves are not necessarily "the original," but does that diminish their authentic identities? It provokes questions that can be applied to AI as well, making it highly relevant. ❤️❤️
March 12, 2026
I was so here for the premise of this novella (who doesn’t love an intergalactic heist?) but the execution fell flat for me. It was much more interior and quiet than I anticipated based on the description and it fell into a lot of info dumping, particularly in the first half.
I think it raised interesting points/questions about the nature of art and humanity and it definitely holds a mirror up to our current issues, as all good speculative fiction does. But it just didn’t ever quite click for me as a whole, unfortunately.
Thanks to netgalley and tordotcom for the arc! 🚀
I think it raised interesting points/questions about the nature of art and humanity and it definitely holds a mirror up to our current issues, as all good speculative fiction does. But it just didn’t ever quite click for me as a whole, unfortunately.
Thanks to netgalley and tordotcom for the arc! 🚀
Did Not Finish
April 5, 2026DNFd at 16%. I adore Molly Tanzer. Her novel A Pretty Mouth is still one that I think about, all these years later. But I just could not get into this one at all. The characters and world building are thrown at us way too fast and I wasn't able to settle in at all, rereading paragraphs to try to recall what I just read as the book continued full speed ahead without me.
February 24, 2026
Still percolating on a review, but maybe I'm just not smart enough for this author. The language really took me out of the story and it took me entirely too long to read this less than 100 page novella.
May 21, 2026
A nice quick read. I think it could've benefitted by being a bit longer, giving some more space to explore the themes and also get to know the team before things go sideways. But overall enjoyable.
January 31, 2026
Ahhh, the ironies of imperial museum practices being applied to Earth as a planet by an alien species. Delicious, heist causing ironies. We have a short tale of an attempt to retrieve Earth's artistic treasures via heist, and the fun and unexpected ways it goes wrong. The crew is great, the aliens are smarmy pretentious bastards, and the ending is delightfully absurd. Also fun side tangents about museum ethics and who gets to be considered people and what the markers are, which always leads down some fascinating roads with alien species. This comes out in May; highly recommended pre order when it does.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I have to say that I'm very impressed by this story's depth, especially considering its length. There are multiple fleshed out characters, all with clear desires, flaws, and backstories of note. In the foreground is an intergalactic art heist by a ragtag group consisting of a human, an augmented human, a clone, a synthetic android, and an alien. In the background is Earth's first contact with alien life forms, the subsequent integration with their advanced technology, and its cost to human culture. In between is more than a bit of philosophical musing on the nature of what is real and what is meaningful — in terms of both tangible items and intangible concepts.
The ending was poignant and thought provoking, and explained the narrative structure of the story. I'm also mad I didn't see it coming after an earlier bit of foreshadowing — .
As I am often railing about how inaccurate and generally terrible book blurbs are — and again, I know these aren't written by the author, so I don't fault them for this — I want to take a moment to highlight two bits from this book's blurb, as the blurb is both accurate and does a great job at setting expectations.
The ending was poignant and thought provoking, and explained the narrative structure of the story. I'm also mad I didn't see it coming after an earlier bit of foreshadowing — .
As I am often railing about how inaccurate and generally terrible book blurbs are — and again, I know these aren't written by the author, so I don't fault them for this — I want to take a moment to highlight two bits from this book's blurb, as the blurb is both accurate and does a great job at setting expectations.
An intergalactic art heist by a ragtag group of underqualified misfits. What could go wrong?
A meditation on the nature of love, life, and the "culture of the copy," And Side by Side They Wander asks the In a future where there are clones, androids, and a sentient mycelium that creates fungal simulacra, who is real and what is fake?Full disclosure: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
There are PLENTY of science fiction stories that begin in the aftermath of humanity having reached the brink of self-destruction. Sometimes we fail the test, leading to a post-apocalyptic dystopia where our descendants curse our self-centeredness. I’ve read and reviewed LOTS of those stories.
Sometimes we succeed in spite of ourselves. Both Star Trek and the In Death series, two ‘verses I never thought I’d be grouping together, have a World War III or equivalent in their backstory. Both cases where humanity stepped over the line of self-destruction but managed to claw themselves back from complete annihilation before it was too late.
But in Star Trek, along with many other stories including this one, humanity manages to either save themselves or reach for the stars via alien intervention. (The movie Star Trek: First Contact sets up that future. I still hear “Magic Carpet Ride” whenever I think of this one. I digress AND I’ve possibly given you an earworm.)
And Side by Side They Wander takes place three centuries after that alien intervention on this future version of Earth. The Celerians gave Earth everything they needed to clean up their pollution-filled environment, roll back climate change, feed, clothe and house their people, and just plain move on from multiple near-extinction level catastrophes to booming post-scarcity economy.
It all sounds too good to be true – but Earth’s remaining governments were WAY too desperate not to take the deal. After all, by the time that particular flock of chickens would come home to roost – if they ever do – those politicians would be long dead and it would be their successors’ successors’ problem.
The cost of all that generosity was simple. The Celerians celebrated artistic creativity – and Earth’s history was a veritable treasure-trove of art. The cost of saving the planet was to let the Celerians take all of Earth’s greatest artistic treasures back to their home planet for safekeeping – and the treasures absolutely did need safekeeping.
The Celerians promised to let Earth have their treasures back when THE CELERIANS decided that Earth had not merely survived but had made the strides necessary to be careful and responsible stewards of their own planet and their own artistic legacy.
Did you notice the catch there? The humans who made the deal clearly didn’t – or were too desperate to care. Probably both. The Celerians get to decide when Earth is ready on their schedule and their timeline by THEIR criteria. We all know how that’s going to go, don’t we?
Earth thinks they’re ready after three hundred years. They certainly are by their own definition. But the Celerians never intended to return Earth’s artistic treasures and Earth hasn’t yet developed the faster than light travel they’d need to come to the Celerian homeworld to argue their point.
Which is where this story comes in, a story which, on the one hand, manages to prove that the Celerians are right, that humanity is not yet “civilized” enough to get their stuff back, and on the other, that the enemy of my enemy is not always my friend, and on the tentacle hiding behind my back, that some gifts do come at just too high a price for everyone involved.
Escape Rating B-: That’s a lot of intro for a rather short book. I’d apologize but I believe that this novella is using all of that SFnal trope-y backstory to make itself short. Meaning that it kind of expects that the reader knows at least bits of what sorts of SF came before it so IT doesn’t have to get into the weeds of all of that.
So if you’ve ever seen Star Trek: First Contact, or read any post-apocalyptic stories however they turned out, or heard of the famous Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man” where the rescuing aliens’ equivalent of the Prime Directive turns out to be a cookbook, the history that leads to this story will have some familiar notes to it.
For this reader, the clearer antecedents besides the above were Down in the Sea with Angels by Khan Wong, Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis and At Stars’ End by Anna Hackett. While the story actually within these pages had a lot of both Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon and especially To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers. This one starts out seeming to be like To Be Taught but ends up more like Volatile Memory – with one hell of a twist.
On the surface, this is a heist story. The Celerians aren’t going to give up Earth’s treasures, so this ragtag crew is going to steal them back. What makes the reader follow along is the way that the individuals on the crew – and their relationships with each other – both embody and reveal the way that the world has developed in the centuries since the Celerians’ intervention – and the ways that it hasn’t.
After all, humans are STILL gonna human, and the warts and all of human behavior are writ very large across this small story. As it drills down through the relationships, it also takes on two rather big topics. One is the nature of art and creativity, and what the differences are, if they exist, between an original work and its perfect copy, and whether and how much that matters.
The second, much more intimate topic, is the difference between love and obsession. What is love if it’s not requited? What will we do for love? And what happens when the lover realizes that the object of their affection is incapable of returning it because love wasn’t programmed in?
In the end, there was a LOT going on in this novella, but I’m not sure it stuck the explosive dismount. The philosophical meditations on art and artists and originality were interesting, and I’m left wondering if the book was intended as a vehicle for those meditations. The romantic elements aren’t romance at all – and I don’t think they were intended to be. I think they were intended to poke at the nature of romantic obsession with unattainable people and how toxic and self-erasing and defeating it can be.
I wanted this to be about the heist, and it’s really not. The heist is more of a frame for everything else, up to and including the self-centered, self-absorbed, destructive capabilities of humans to break the toys they can’t keep for themselves.
In the end, I liked this more for what it reminded me of than I did for what IT actually was. Your reading mileage may vary.
Originally published at Reading Reality
Sometimes we succeed in spite of ourselves. Both Star Trek and the In Death series, two ‘verses I never thought I’d be grouping together, have a World War III or equivalent in their backstory. Both cases where humanity stepped over the line of self-destruction but managed to claw themselves back from complete annihilation before it was too late.
But in Star Trek, along with many other stories including this one, humanity manages to either save themselves or reach for the stars via alien intervention. (The movie Star Trek: First Contact sets up that future. I still hear “Magic Carpet Ride” whenever I think of this one. I digress AND I’ve possibly given you an earworm.)
And Side by Side They Wander takes place three centuries after that alien intervention on this future version of Earth. The Celerians gave Earth everything they needed to clean up their pollution-filled environment, roll back climate change, feed, clothe and house their people, and just plain move on from multiple near-extinction level catastrophes to booming post-scarcity economy.
It all sounds too good to be true – but Earth’s remaining governments were WAY too desperate not to take the deal. After all, by the time that particular flock of chickens would come home to roost – if they ever do – those politicians would be long dead and it would be their successors’ successors’ problem.
The cost of all that generosity was simple. The Celerians celebrated artistic creativity – and Earth’s history was a veritable treasure-trove of art. The cost of saving the planet was to let the Celerians take all of Earth’s greatest artistic treasures back to their home planet for safekeeping – and the treasures absolutely did need safekeeping.
The Celerians promised to let Earth have their treasures back when THE CELERIANS decided that Earth had not merely survived but had made the strides necessary to be careful and responsible stewards of their own planet and their own artistic legacy.
Did you notice the catch there? The humans who made the deal clearly didn’t – or were too desperate to care. Probably both. The Celerians get to decide when Earth is ready on their schedule and their timeline by THEIR criteria. We all know how that’s going to go, don’t we?
Earth thinks they’re ready after three hundred years. They certainly are by their own definition. But the Celerians never intended to return Earth’s artistic treasures and Earth hasn’t yet developed the faster than light travel they’d need to come to the Celerian homeworld to argue their point.
Which is where this story comes in, a story which, on the one hand, manages to prove that the Celerians are right, that humanity is not yet “civilized” enough to get their stuff back, and on the other, that the enemy of my enemy is not always my friend, and on the tentacle hiding behind my back, that some gifts do come at just too high a price for everyone involved.
Escape Rating B-: That’s a lot of intro for a rather short book. I’d apologize but I believe that this novella is using all of that SFnal trope-y backstory to make itself short. Meaning that it kind of expects that the reader knows at least bits of what sorts of SF came before it so IT doesn’t have to get into the weeds of all of that.
So if you’ve ever seen Star Trek: First Contact, or read any post-apocalyptic stories however they turned out, or heard of the famous Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man” where the rescuing aliens’ equivalent of the Prime Directive turns out to be a cookbook, the history that leads to this story will have some familiar notes to it.
For this reader, the clearer antecedents besides the above were Down in the Sea with Angels by Khan Wong, Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis and At Stars’ End by Anna Hackett. While the story actually within these pages had a lot of both Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon and especially To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers. This one starts out seeming to be like To Be Taught but ends up more like Volatile Memory – with one hell of a twist.
On the surface, this is a heist story. The Celerians aren’t going to give up Earth’s treasures, so this ragtag crew is going to steal them back. What makes the reader follow along is the way that the individuals on the crew – and their relationships with each other – both embody and reveal the way that the world has developed in the centuries since the Celerians’ intervention – and the ways that it hasn’t.
After all, humans are STILL gonna human, and the warts and all of human behavior are writ very large across this small story. As it drills down through the relationships, it also takes on two rather big topics. One is the nature of art and creativity, and what the differences are, if they exist, between an original work and its perfect copy, and whether and how much that matters.
The second, much more intimate topic, is the difference between love and obsession. What is love if it’s not requited? What will we do for love? And what happens when the lover realizes that the object of their affection is incapable of returning it because love wasn’t programmed in?
In the end, there was a LOT going on in this novella, but I’m not sure it stuck the explosive dismount. The philosophical meditations on art and artists and originality were interesting, and I’m left wondering if the book was intended as a vehicle for those meditations. The romantic elements aren’t romance at all – and I don’t think they were intended to be. I think they were intended to poke at the nature of romantic obsession with unattainable people and how toxic and self-erasing and defeating it can be.
I wanted this to be about the heist, and it’s really not. The heist is more of a frame for everything else, up to and including the self-centered, self-absorbed, destructive capabilities of humans to break the toys they can’t keep for themselves.
In the end, I liked this more for what it reminded me of than I did for what IT actually was. Your reading mileage may vary.
Originally published at Reading Reality
November 20, 2025
Fun short read, this novella is about a heist. Humans are going to recover from a far, faraway corner in a galaxy, the art we humans lend to an alien species of conservatives who refuse to return them. At the same time, we are left with bleak and pondering thoughts about what humankind will become in the future, influenced by the effects of the Mycenaean era on our civilization.
A good theme to discuss in book club or with other readers: Is there any difference in looking upon copies vs originals?
Also has an uplifting subplot that gives the novella a tone of hope.
The end feels abrupt but I didn't mind. The acknowledgments have some interesting info.
Great cover.
A good theme to discuss in book club or with other readers: Is there any difference in looking upon copies vs originals?
Also has an uplifting subplot that gives the novella a tone of hope.
The end feels abrupt but I didn't mind. The acknowledgments have some interesting info.
Great cover.
May 21, 2026
I thought this book started really strong, and set off with a bunch of different, really interesting themes, and just didn't quite stick the landing for me.
I really love novellas, especially from Tor, and Even Though I Knew The End is one of my favorite books of all time, so I know that they can be absolute home runs. But I do notice that a particular pitfall for some novellas is sticking the landing in so little space, because they often set out to do so much and then feel like they just end, and that was what I experienced here.
I thought the concept of a space alien version of the British Museum set up an incredibly interesting world to have a discussion about art theft in, and the concept of art being special because it was made by someone is important, but all of the themes felt like they were both underdeveloped and often muddied their own waters by the end. I think that the idea of humanity's art being special because it came from a uniquely human perspective was honestly the crux of the book, and one I loved, given that the threat of AI and synthetic art is so real, but then at the end, one character just randomly says that humans make art because the aliens genetically modified them with RNA at some point, and that to me kind of defeated the whole purpose of the arcing message when it didn't do anything for the story, which ended mere pages later.
The concept of the synthetic humans was also so interesting, and I'd highlighted lines about how their perspectives on art and synthetic art are inherently biased because they ARE synthetic products of humanity themselves, copies of another person. I thought it was going to take that concept to a place of "art can be new interpretations on previous things, art is just new perspectives on the known," but it just sort of didn't wrap it up.
The British Museum idea was really cheeky and interesting, but it didn't go any further than "so this museum is the British Museum basically." I felt like more could have been said or happened in the plot to comment on the phenomenon of art theft. It was such a rich playground to build that it then felt like nothing happened in it. I thought the Mycelium was another similar situation. It was an incredibly interesting concept and planted the theme of corporate greed destroying humanity, but it didn't feel to me like it fully wrapped itself up. Maybe if the main plotline with the Museum felt like it did, the Mycelium being in the background wouldn't bother me as much, but when I'm wondering "what it all means" or what the main message of the book is, I feel like there could have been more somewhere to buoy the rest of the ideas that didn't feel like they went far enough.
There were also just a lot of little plotlines that didn't quite feel resolved, like the fact that Tarquin just lied about literally everything and Tchik-tchik ended up just getting everybody killed out of seemingly nowhere. It didn't feel like the ending had poetic purpose or symbolism, and in a story like this with so much symbolism, I wanted that. The romance between Fennel and Jack felt like it was going to have something to say about love and synthetic humans or love and art and then that just didn't really come to anything either.
Maybe there was a lot that I was missing with this read, but I felt like a lot of things felt sort of vague and unfinished by the end. I know there are stories that are intentionally open-ended, and this story did raise a lot of good questions that someone less familiar with ideas, philosophy, and current events about art might find more satisfying, but I LOVE books with plots like this, and I know a lot about the British Museum and AI art controversy, and I felt like there was an extra layer of the author's opinion on what should be done about those things that I really craved here. I wanted a plotline or a moment to show me what she thinks and then the book just ended.
I ADORE tordotcom and will continue to devour their novellas. This one felt like it needed a little longer in the oven for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for the ARC of this book.
I really love novellas, especially from Tor, and Even Though I Knew The End is one of my favorite books of all time, so I know that they can be absolute home runs. But I do notice that a particular pitfall for some novellas is sticking the landing in so little space, because they often set out to do so much and then feel like they just end, and that was what I experienced here.
I thought the concept of a space alien version of the British Museum set up an incredibly interesting world to have a discussion about art theft in, and the concept of art being special because it was made by someone is important, but all of the themes felt like they were both underdeveloped and often muddied their own waters by the end. I think that the idea of humanity's art being special because it came from a uniquely human perspective was honestly the crux of the book, and one I loved, given that the threat of AI and synthetic art is so real, but then at the end, one character just randomly says that humans make art because the aliens genetically modified them with RNA at some point, and that to me kind of defeated the whole purpose of the arcing message when it didn't do anything for the story, which ended mere pages later.
The concept of the synthetic humans was also so interesting, and I'd highlighted lines about how their perspectives on art and synthetic art are inherently biased because they ARE synthetic products of humanity themselves, copies of another person. I thought it was going to take that concept to a place of "art can be new interpretations on previous things, art is just new perspectives on the known," but it just sort of didn't wrap it up.
The British Museum idea was really cheeky and interesting, but it didn't go any further than "so this museum is the British Museum basically." I felt like more could have been said or happened in the plot to comment on the phenomenon of art theft. It was such a rich playground to build that it then felt like nothing happened in it. I thought the Mycelium was another similar situation. It was an incredibly interesting concept and planted the theme of corporate greed destroying humanity, but it didn't feel to me like it fully wrapped itself up. Maybe if the main plotline with the Museum felt like it did, the Mycelium being in the background wouldn't bother me as much, but when I'm wondering "what it all means" or what the main message of the book is, I feel like there could have been more somewhere to buoy the rest of the ideas that didn't feel like they went far enough.
There were also just a lot of little plotlines that didn't quite feel resolved, like the fact that Tarquin just lied about literally everything and Tchik-tchik ended up just getting everybody killed out of seemingly nowhere. It didn't feel like the ending had poetic purpose or symbolism, and in a story like this with so much symbolism, I wanted that. The romance between Fennel and Jack felt like it was going to have something to say about love and synthetic humans or love and art and then that just didn't really come to anything either.
Maybe there was a lot that I was missing with this read, but I felt like a lot of things felt sort of vague and unfinished by the end. I know there are stories that are intentionally open-ended, and this story did raise a lot of good questions that someone less familiar with ideas, philosophy, and current events about art might find more satisfying, but I LOVE books with plots like this, and I know a lot about the British Museum and AI art controversy, and I felt like there was an extra layer of the author's opinion on what should be done about those things that I really craved here. I wanted a plotline or a moment to show me what she thinks and then the book just ended.
I ADORE tordotcom and will continue to devour their novellas. This one felt like it needed a little longer in the oven for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for the ARC of this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of And Side by Side They Wander by Molly Tanzer in exchange for an honest review.
Three hundred years ago, just as mankind was about to putting the finishing touches on ruining the planet, aliens intervened. They provided humans with the technology to turn things around, in exchange for civilization's greatest works of art. Per the agreement, the aliens would house their art in their vast galactic art museum, and return them once human society had stabilized enough to keep them safe on their own.
Unsurprisingly, the art works were not returned, even once the Earth no longer in danger of being destroyed.
So now, Fennel Tycho has signed on to an art heist. Led by her old friend Tarquin, the crew includes her former lover, a synthetic individual named Jack, a mysterious alien pilot Tchik-tchik, and a bio-modified woman named Misora who acts as muscle. Their plan is a simple smash-and-grab: get in, swap the authentic art for flawless reproductions, and get out before anyone even knows they were there. The plan goes hideously awry.
The thing to know about this very short piece is that it's about art and culture repatriation, set against a sci-fi backdrop. Therefore, the story elements, including world-building, character development, and even the heist are not well developed. There are a lot of details, but not enough of any one aspect to feel really satisfying. Which might be the point: art repatriation today is an ongoing and emotionally charged subject. This story reflects that anger and lack of resolution.
So readers should be prepared for a story that intends to Make a Point. Recommended for readers who appreciate the science fiction tradition of holding a mirror up to society. Not really recommended for readers who enjoy heist stories.
Three hundred years ago, just as mankind was about to putting the finishing touches on ruining the planet, aliens intervened. They provided humans with the technology to turn things around, in exchange for civilization's greatest works of art. Per the agreement, the aliens would house their art in their vast galactic art museum, and return them once human society had stabilized enough to keep them safe on their own.
Unsurprisingly, the art works were not returned, even once the Earth no longer in danger of being destroyed.
So now, Fennel Tycho has signed on to an art heist. Led by her old friend Tarquin, the crew includes her former lover, a synthetic individual named Jack, a mysterious alien pilot Tchik-tchik, and a bio-modified woman named Misora who acts as muscle. Their plan is a simple smash-and-grab: get in, swap the authentic art for flawless reproductions, and get out before anyone even knows they were there. The plan goes hideously awry.
The thing to know about this very short piece is that it's about art and culture repatriation, set against a sci-fi backdrop. Therefore, the story elements, including world-building, character development, and even the heist are not well developed. There are a lot of details, but not enough of any one aspect to feel really satisfying. Which might be the point: art repatriation today is an ongoing and emotionally charged subject. This story reflects that anger and lack of resolution.
So readers should be prepared for a story that intends to Make a Point. Recommended for readers who appreciate the science fiction tradition of holding a mirror up to society. Not really recommended for readers who enjoy heist stories.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
TL;DR: A great premise, but lacking overall for me.
Source: NetGalley, thank you so much to the publisher!
Plot: A crew of humans attempting to take back protected artwork from curating aliens (and a lot of meandering through memories).
Characters: The worst part of this? The main character had so little to them, and the others weren’t great.
Setting: I wish we had more details about the setting and aliens but sadly no. A lot of potential.
Science Fiction: Again like the setting, a lot of this was lost in the meandering.
Thoughts:
I’m super bummed on this one, I can’t lie. I’ve adored Molly Tanzer in the past, their work was fun and unique. But this one lacked so much that I was frustrated more than I was invested, and I was left wondering what the point was. We have a crew of humans off to fetch artwork from a museum planet that protects and houses it. The aliens took it after helping humanity save themselves, and then wouldn’t give it back. Sound familiar?
This one is directly inspired by the back and forth around the Elgin Marbles (I recommend looking it up). The long and short is that the marbles are being held outside their native land by the British who do not want to return them. In the same mode our characters are seeking our human artwork. There is a lot that could be unpacked from this. Unfortunately we spend the bulk of this story meandering through the memories and relationship (or lack thereof) that our PoV character has with a cloned individual.
We get lost in this frankly, and it ruins the overall scope of the story. Our main character is hung up this man, who seems to care little for them. So the narrative is following them chasing him around and getting caught up in this seemingly meaningless fetch quest. The world is sketched out and there is a lot of potential but it fell so very flat for me. A bummer.
Source: NetGalley, thank you so much to the publisher!
Plot: A crew of humans attempting to take back protected artwork from curating aliens (and a lot of meandering through memories).
Characters: The worst part of this? The main character had so little to them, and the others weren’t great.
Setting: I wish we had more details about the setting and aliens but sadly no. A lot of potential.
Science Fiction: Again like the setting, a lot of this was lost in the meandering.
Thoughts:
I’m super bummed on this one, I can’t lie. I’ve adored Molly Tanzer in the past, their work was fun and unique. But this one lacked so much that I was frustrated more than I was invested, and I was left wondering what the point was. We have a crew of humans off to fetch artwork from a museum planet that protects and houses it. The aliens took it after helping humanity save themselves, and then wouldn’t give it back. Sound familiar?
This one is directly inspired by the back and forth around the Elgin Marbles (I recommend looking it up). The long and short is that the marbles are being held outside their native land by the British who do not want to return them. In the same mode our characters are seeking our human artwork. There is a lot that could be unpacked from this. Unfortunately we spend the bulk of this story meandering through the memories and relationship (or lack thereof) that our PoV character has with a cloned individual.
We get lost in this frankly, and it ruins the overall scope of the story. Our main character is hung up this man, who seems to care little for them. So the narrative is following them chasing him around and getting caught up in this seemingly meaningless fetch quest. The world is sketched out and there is a lot of potential but it fell so very flat for me. A bummer.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
And Side By Side They Wander by Molly Tanzer is a sci-fi story about a group of humans traveling through space to an interstellar art museum with the intention of 'stealing back' Earth's treasures -- loaned centuries earlier to the alien race pivotal to saving the planet from humanity's mismanagement. Actually based on a real-life situation, as the author explains in the afterword, there are some interesting concepts and ideas mentioned about the nature of society in 'post-scarcity' Earth, but at novella length not much opportunity to really explore and expand upon them.
This review is based on an advance copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley for that purpose. The book will be available on May 19, 2026.
The story is character-driven and cerebral -- readers take note: the book blurb hints at an Ocean's 11 heist romp set in space, but that really isn't what you're getting -- although, again, the novella length makes it difficult to become truly invested in anyone except the protagonist.
Unaware it was a novella until noticing how quickly I was moving through it, in the end I found the story serviceable and thought-provoking. I hope future readers find this to be true as well. I give it 3 stars, which in my review system is a "A good read, worth a reader's time in my opinion. I enjoyed it."
This review is based on an advance copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley for that purpose. The book will be available on May 19, 2026.
The story is character-driven and cerebral -- readers take note: the book blurb hints at an Ocean's 11 heist romp set in space, but that really isn't what you're getting -- although, again, the novella length makes it difficult to become truly invested in anyone except the protagonist.
Unaware it was a novella until noticing how quickly I was moving through it, in the end I found the story serviceable and thought-provoking. I hope future readers find this to be true as well. I give it 3 stars, which in my review system is a "A good read, worth a reader's time in my opinion. I enjoyed it."
November 21, 2025
And Side by Side they Wander is a phenomenal novella, with two novels' worth of ideas. Post-scarcity has been achieved thanks to the intervention of friendly aliens...and all they want in exchange is humanity's artistic heritage for a long-term loan. But worry not, the Acropolis and everything else has been replaced with identical copies. But that's not all--there's androids and clone children of a billionaire, a swath of the the US taken over by a fungus that has created weird mushroom doppelgängers of both places and people, a second species of alien, and a misfit crew including an art historian and a karate expert who can unfold herself into several people looking to do a smash-and-grab on the alien museum. A museum which has been facing budget cuts?
By turns philosophical, humorous, and profound, and limned with explorations of Walter Benjamin's theories of art in the age of mechanical reproduction and the notion of the "aura" of original art that cannot be copied with any kind of reproduction, ASbStW is the SF novella you have to read in 2026.
I was very pleased to read a pre-production copy (aura?) earlier this year, but I have pre-ordered a hardcover anyway because it is a must-have for my real, physical (not virtual!) shelf.
By turns philosophical, humorous, and profound, and limned with explorations of Walter Benjamin's theories of art in the age of mechanical reproduction and the notion of the "aura" of original art that cannot be copied with any kind of reproduction, ASbStW is the SF novella you have to read in 2026.
I was very pleased to read a pre-production copy (aura?) earlier this year, but I have pre-ordered a hardcover anyway because it is a must-have for my real, physical (not virtual!) shelf.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
When you see that I gave this two stars, it will give you the impression that I did not enjoy this book, but that is very far from the truth. This is a book that I think had a lot of potential but just missed the mark.
From the summary, you get the impression that this is going to be like Ocean's Eleven mixed with The Expanse, but that's simply not the type of book it is. And that's okay! Instead of an action filled book, this is much more of an introspective read, think something written by Emily St. John Mandel. The issue is that this book lacked the polish and characterizations that St. John Mandel's book have. With maybe fifty extra pages spread throughout the book to delve further into the characters and actually let them interact with each other and the world around them, I feel like this would have jumped up in rating. It is a short read, but with some more development, I feel would be a great book for book clubs.
Thank you Netgalley and Tor for providing me an ARC to review.
From the summary, you get the impression that this is going to be like Ocean's Eleven mixed with The Expanse, but that's simply not the type of book it is. And that's okay! Instead of an action filled book, this is much more of an introspective read, think something written by Emily St. John Mandel. The issue is that this book lacked the polish and characterizations that St. John Mandel's book have. With maybe fifty extra pages spread throughout the book to delve further into the characters and actually let them interact with each other and the world around them, I feel like this would have jumped up in rating. It is a short read, but with some more development, I feel would be a great book for book clubs.
Thank you Netgalley and Tor for providing me an ARC to review.
May 20, 2026
I am now retired but when I was "out and about" doing my thing as a professor I had little time for pleasure reading. But I found ways to fit pleasure reading in by stacking up on novellas. Novellas saved and maintained by love of reading for pleasure. And now and then they still do.
Tanzer's "And Side by Side They Wander" is a novella that zings. Short, of course, yet zinging with science fiction intrigue; clones, a six-spirit "person," a synthetic human, an alien pilot no one is able to completely understand, and a space age heist of art.
That's the zinger. This novella turns out to be a thrilling meditation on art. Is a true copy of a painting still art, still as powerful as the original? Is a true copy of a Da Vinci as important as the original? How do we know the difference? Do we? Can we?
Even with those questions swirling, this is an action packed novella. I read this thing in one evening. I was enthralled and satisfied.
Highly recommended.
Tanzer's "And Side by Side They Wander" is a novella that zings. Short, of course, yet zinging with science fiction intrigue; clones, a six-spirit "person," a synthetic human, an alien pilot no one is able to completely understand, and a space age heist of art.
That's the zinger. This novella turns out to be a thrilling meditation on art. Is a true copy of a painting still art, still as powerful as the original? Is a true copy of a Da Vinci as important as the original? How do we know the difference? Do we? Can we?
Even with those questions swirling, this is an action packed novella. I read this thing in one evening. I was enthralled and satisfied.
Highly recommended.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This was a fun little dip into science fiction, which I haven't been doing much of lately but greatly enjoy. It is a retelling - or is just inspired by, or based on, or heavily references - Orpheus and Eurydice, but told in front of a backdrop of a futuristic heist to steal back art from an alien race that is most definitely a thin onion-skin layer of allegory over the British Museum. Rag tag group of characters, varying species/biotech going on, space travel, it hits all the notes. Its one drawback is that everything apart from the heist and the love story feel very surface level. There's barely any character development, and actually come to think of it the heist itself is not very detailed either! But at just over one hundred pages, what can one expect. I still really enjoyed it as a little novella to be read in one sitting.
Thanks to TOR and NetGalley for the eARC!
Thanks to TOR and NetGalley for the eARC!
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
A very short novella (can easily finish in a long afternoon) that focuses on the worth of originals in a world of facsimiles. It's a fascinating science fiction setting and an intriguing premise that doesn't quite live up to its potential. Although it's fun, diverting, and though provoking, it never really answers the questions it asks.
For example, at the end, the Author quotes Walter Benjamin saying that a reproduction is always missing the original's "presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be." Yet, the author never explores other significant areas where copies fail to live up to the original: things like demonstration of creativity and skill.
Received this as a Goodreads Giveaway.
For example, at the end, the Author quotes Walter Benjamin saying that a reproduction is always missing the original's "presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be." Yet, the author never explores other significant areas where copies fail to live up to the original: things like demonstration of creativity and skill.
Received this as a Goodreads Giveaway.
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
I received this book from the publisher in a Goodreads giveaway.
I really enjoyed this one! And Side by Side they Wander is a heist novella in which a group from Earth tries to steal back humanity's best artwork from aliens who were originally holding on to the pieces for safe-keeping but won't return them. I was really engaged in the worldbuilding, but my one complaint is that it wasn't longer. While it's really well-plotted, because it was so short there wasn't time for the tension to build as much as it could have.
I really liked Tanzer's afterword; you can tell she loves art and has studied art history. (I laughed out loud at the aliens leaving Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party in favor of a Thomas Kinkade.)
I really enjoyed this one! And Side by Side they Wander is a heist novella in which a group from Earth tries to steal back humanity's best artwork from aliens who were originally holding on to the pieces for safe-keeping but won't return them. I was really engaged in the worldbuilding, but my one complaint is that it wasn't longer. While it's really well-plotted, because it was so short there wasn't time for the tension to build as much as it could have.
I really liked Tanzer's afterword; you can tell she loves art and has studied art history. (I laughed out loud at the aliens leaving Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party in favor of a Thomas Kinkade.)
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Art and artists matter. From the ink drawings in your favorite manga to the statues in your favorite park to the nail art on your fingers. And of course, the works living in your local and national museums.
It matters.
And in this beautiful little book, art in the future is the only thing that truly matters. It's our heart and soul, and artists are our moral compass.
This is the scifi art heist you didn't know you needed. A quick-paced read, a breath of fresh air, with a main character whose love of books and art - and other characters - makes Fennel the perfect (unreliable?) narrator.
"We're doing this for the art's sake, not for yours."
Also, this cover art is everything!
It matters.
And in this beautiful little book, art in the future is the only thing that truly matters. It's our heart and soul, and artists are our moral compass.
This is the scifi art heist you didn't know you needed. A quick-paced read, a breath of fresh air, with a main character whose love of books and art - and other characters - makes Fennel the perfect (unreliable?) narrator.
"We're doing this for the art's sake, not for yours."
Also, this cover art is everything!
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