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Elephants and Corpses

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The corpse-jumping body mercenary Nev is used to filling other people's shoes. When his assistant Tera recognizes the most recent waterlogged cadaver they bought off the street, though, he finds that his new body is carrying more trouble than he bargained for.

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

23 pages, ebook

First published May 13, 2015

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748 people want to read

About the author

Kameron Hurley

94 books2,465 followers
Kameron Hurley is the author of the upcoming science ficition thriller These Savage Stars (2026), The Light Brigade, and The Stars are Legion, as well as the award-winning God’s War Trilogy and The Worldbreaker Saga. Hurley has won the Hugo Award, Locus Award, Kitschy Award, and Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer. She was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Nebula Award, and the Gemmell Morningstar Award. Her short fiction has appeared in Popular Science Magazine, Lightspeed and numerous anthologies, and appears in two collections: Future Artifacts and Meet Me in the Future. Hurley has also written for The Atlantic, Writers Digest, Entertainment Weekly, The Village Voice, LA Weekly, Bitch Magazine, and Locus Magazine. Her most popular essays, including the viral hit "We Have Always Fought" are collected in The Geek Feminist Revolution. She posts regularly at KameronHurley.com. Get a short story from Kameron each month via: patreon.com/kameronhurley

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5 stars
122 (24%)
4 stars
242 (48%)
3 stars
106 (21%)
2 stars
24 (4%)
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10 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews
Profile Image for karen.
4,012 reviews172k followers
March 24, 2019
Bodies are only beautiful when they aren’t yours.

another fine, free tor short. these things are great because they allow you to sample authors completely risk-free! because it takes a special kind of author to be able to pull off a story whose concept revolves around a "corpse-jumping body mercenary," and i think for the most part, hurley nailed it.

she does a good job defining exactly what the heck a corpse-jumping body mercenary is (it's pretty much what it sounds like - a guy who can jump into any body he wants, provided it's dead and not too badly decomposed), and she fleshes out the world and characters well. there were a couple of times where i became confused - just some difficulty following dialogue and mixing up the two characters, but that's likely on me, and not the fault of her writing.

but it's a strong story, with interesting characters, solid problem-resolution, and a wholly original premise. also, a trumpeting miniature elephant named falid.

it feels good to be back on the tor train!



i know i have a lot of catching up to do!



read it for yourself here:

http://www.tor.com/2015/05/13/elephan...

come to my blog!
Profile Image for Jessica ❁ ➳ Silverbow ➳ ❁ .
1,293 reviews9,000 followers
September 20, 2017
Reviewed by: Rabid Reads

Nev is a body mercenary, a kind of necromancer who actually inhabits the bodies he reanimates. And he doesn't just reanimate them, he truly brings them back to life. The body. Not the (spirit of the) deceased. And he seems to revive them into better shape than they had ever been in their original incarnation.

Normally I would hate this kind of story, b/c while I hate all Dead Things, this type of scenario is what I hate the most of all the Dead Things.

BUT.

This was the second time I'd read ELEPHANTS AND CORPSES, and my love for it remains unchanged.

We don't know how old Nev is, b/c as long as there are corpses nearby, a body merc will never die, but we know that he's significantly older than his fifty-one-year-old body manager, Tera.

You: What's a body manager? o.O

Me: I had the exact same thought.

Body mercs apparently keep a stable of corpses, both for versatility (they are mercs after all) and for self-preservation. A body manager . . . helps maintain the collection. I think.

It's a twenty-five page story, there's only so much world-building, etc.

But more importantly, they also help their merc retain their humanity.

When all your human connections are long dead, and you primarily deal in death, you can become . . . detached.

Tera keeps Nev from becoming some kind of sociopath alien thing.

And Hurley conceys all of this, while dropping you into the middle of a crisis, and punching you right in the FEELS several times over. It took a page or two to adjust to the grossness of the concept, but the gross was quickly overwhelmed by the urgency that then somehow managed to spiral into heart-clinching introspection on what it means to be alive.

All in a few short pages. *tips hat*

You can read it for FREE here:

http://www.tor.com/2015/05/13/elephants-and-corpses-kameron-hurley/

Jessica Signature
Profile Image for Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽.
1,880 reviews23.3k followers
July 18, 2016
Final review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:

Nev has the ability to jump from a dying body into a nearby dead one, as long as he’s actually touched the dead body. He keeps a cache of dead bodies on hand so he’s never stuck for something for his soul to jump into. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s some demand for body mercenaries like Nev, ranging from soldiering to a cheap party tricks to giving a grieving spouse a few more moments with their deceased loved one.

One day Nev and his assistant Tera purchase a newly dead body for his collection, and wind up with a lot of unexpected trouble from others who want the same body for their own purposes. A mixture of love and revenge impel Tera and Nev to pursue the matter further, rather than slinking away safely. This decision soon gets the two of them into a deep load of trouble, or perhaps into hot water … or maybe just deep water.

Kameron Hurley weaves in some interesting details about this world that, while they aren’t directly pertinent to the story, add depth and complexity to it. There’s Falid, a sweet miniature elephant that is the only living thing Nev really cares for, and the fact that in this society only women are allowed to own property. Although Nev has lived in a woman’s body and apparently was originally born as one, he chooses to live as a man. Additionally, there are insights regarding attachment to others, and what it really means to be alive, that give this fantasy adventure tale some unexpected depth.

Free online: http://www.tor.com/2015/05/13/elephan...
Profile Image for Trish.
2,394 reviews3,750 followers
May 15, 2017
As with many of tor.com's short stories and novellas, I stumbled over this today thanks to the review of another member. The cover design drew me in (as is the case with most of tor.com's stories).

This story is about a mercenary that can jump from one body of a deceased person to the next, making him/her effectively immortal. However, as his body manager (basically a help) points out: being alive is not the same as living and being alive in the biological sense also isn't enough.
After they purchase a body, all hell breaks loose and Nev, through heartbreak, discovers his humanity.

What struck me was the world-building. The world depicted here is a mixture of ancient and steampunk scifi. Old and new. The future of religions is being addressed and there was a war not too long ago, too, by which the author portrays two ways people can be lost (chucked out of society when they are no longer useful, as well as the usual problem with cults) on top of the protagonist's struggle.

Really rather beautiful despite (or because of) the grittiness.

You can find the free story *here* .
Profile Image for ♛Tash.
223 reviews226 followers
July 22, 2015
In 6,828 words Kameron Hurley tells us a story of a corpse-jumping body mercenary Nev, his blunt partner, an all-female cult after Nev's latest acquisition and a miniature elephant. One would think that there's too much going on, but Hurley pulls off a decent high fantasy, with interesting characters and solid world-building, given the number of words.

"...but living people need to care about things. Keeps you human. Keeps you alive. And that’s my job, you know. Keeping you alive. Not just living.”


Yes, even after all that, Hurley still manages to somewhat imbue the story with existential contemplation of what it truly means to be alive.

I think a One Republic gif is in order
Profile Image for Stefan.
321 reviews280 followers
November 21, 2017
"Bodies are only beautiful when they aren’t yours."


A 25 pages - or 10 minutes - short story by Kameron Hurley, one of the most talented authors in fantasy genre today.
And she delivers with this very original story about a corpse-jumping mercenary and his everyday life in trading and inhabiting those corpses.
Now, what could one exactly achieve with such capability you may ask.
Well, you would be surprised.
If you're talented enough, you could use such predicament to your advantage and develop business around it. Something Nev, our main protagonist, certainly did.
For example, family can pay you to inhabit a corpse of their recently deceased member so that they can properly say their goodbyes etc. Opportunities are endless, indeed.
It’s why Nev had fallen in love with bodies in the first place. When you spent time with the dead you could be anyone you wanted to be. They didn’t know any better. They didn’t want to have long conversations about it. They were vehicles. Transport. Tools. They were yours in a way that no living thing ever could be.
But one day, when you stumble upon a high-ranking corpse, you could jeopardize your entire... let's say life savings work.

Certainly there's a novel material in this short story. One can only hope to read it some day.
Profile Image for Olga Godim.
Author 12 books85 followers
August 27, 2016
I’ve heard good things about this author, but I was doubtful. When I saw this short story on Tor.com, I thought it was a great opportunity to try a new author and see if we suit.
We don’t.
The story is engrossing – I couldn’t stop until I finished it – the world fantastic but surprisingly realistic, bleak and controversial, and the characters live and breathe on the pages. My problem with this tale is that I don’t like the characters and I don’t want to be in the gross and unjust world Hurley has crafted for her story. Everything is rotten in there: no beauty, no talent, no hope. If you like dark dystopia, this author might be for you, because the quality of writing is exceptional. This writer is, without a doubt, one of the best active in the genre today.
Profile Image for Divine.
409 reviews188 followers
May 24, 2020
One thing that I could commend this for, is its exceptional world building. It isn't every day that you could get a compact and believable setting for a short story, especially one that tackles high fantasy. I love the whole idea of body mercs and I just wished the author would write a full novel or series(!!!!) about this. Recommend for all fantasy readers out there.
Profile Image for Phoenix2.
1,262 reviews115 followers
May 16, 2020
The universe that this short story is presenting is so compelling that it should be made into a proper novel. The characters were intriguing, and, somehow, even though it's only about 30 pages long, the main one had an actual character development! Bravo to the author!
Profile Image for Alina.
867 reviews314 followers
December 14, 2016
Very interesting, I would have liked to read more of it. The minus for me was the sometimes ambiguous wording: wasn't always sure who's the character talking and for figuring who was the sister I had to go back some paragraphs.. (this made it worth for me more of a 3.5+)
Profile Image for Cathy .
1,936 reviews294 followers
July 31, 2018
Interesting story about a body mercenary—someone who can inhabit corpses, bring them back to life to use or jump to other corpses when needed. Good thing during a war, not so much during peacetime. Nar, our MC, procures a body that is more trouble than it is worth.

This was fun and a concept I hadn‘t come across before . My kind of humour, nice plot twists, some inventive swearing, a cute ending.

Can be found here:
Http://www.tor.com/2015/05/13/elephan...
Profile Image for max theodore.
652 reviews216 followers
June 26, 2021
there is SO MUCH going on in this relatively really short story -- elephants, corpse-jumping, dysphoria when the body Literally Isn't Yours, worldbuilding that i would straight-up read a whole novel about -- and all of it fucking slaps. elephants and corpses 200k novel when /j (but seriously read it it's so good and it's online for free)
Profile Image for SUSAN   *Nevertheless,she persisted*.
543 reviews109 followers
May 19, 2015
Loved this short story and really wish it had been a book.
Very original concept,great characters. Would read more by this author.
Profile Image for Sahitya.
1,177 reviews247 followers
April 24, 2020
The concept of a corpse jumping body mercenary might sound gross but in such a short story, the author gives great commentary on what it means to be alive and how much it takes to retain one’s humanity when all one deals with is death. I loved the blend of a fascinating world, interesting magic and some heartbreaking moments.
Profile Image for Tamara.
706 reviews227 followers
November 20, 2015
4.5 stars
To him, though, the body was beautiful, because it was dead. The dead didn’t kill your elephant or burn down your workshop. But the dead didn’t give you turtles, either. Or haul your corpse around in case you needed it later. And unlike the guild said, some things, he knew now, were not as dead as they seemed. Not while those who loved them still breathed.

You can read it for free here.

A very touching and solid short story about a corpse-jumping body mercenar and his body manager. Life, death, missing people you've lost etc...

I loved this short story and wish it was longer so that interesting ideas it had like 'body merc' and that cult called God’s could have developed and explained more properly..
Profile Image for Netanella.
4,746 reviews41 followers
August 16, 2022
Just as brilliant the second time around.

He’d been reborn a thousand times in just this way; a mercenary who could never die, leaping from host to host as long as there were bodies on the battlefield. He could run and fight forever, right up until there were no more bodies he’d touched. He could fight until he was the last body on the field.



I loved the world that the author created, and the relationship between Nev and Tara, the body mercenary and the body manager, and the care and feeding of animals as a way of preserving your humanity. Beautiful story - it reminds me of the phrase "exquisite corpse."
Profile Image for freddie.
706 reviews93 followers
May 12, 2018
“I don’t care much for people,” Nev said. “That was your mistake. You thought I’d care about the bodies, or Tera, or her sister, or any of the rest. I don’t. I’m doing this for my fucking elephant.”

I really, really enjoyed this. Definitely want to see more of this world because the little snippets revealed in this short story have me hooked!

This short story is available on tor.com, so I'd highly recommend you pop on over and give it a read! : )
Profile Image for E. .
337 reviews281 followers
July 16, 2019
★★★★⭐ | Body after body, war after war, fight after fight, Nev dealt with the consequences.

Read here

Nev as a body mercenary jumps from one dead body into another. One day he jumps into a wrong one and this and this effects in a series of events that force him and his assistant Tera to get revenge on some shady cult.

This is an interesting short story about life and death and the importance of both. People can get so lost in the dead and the death they forget to actually cherish life and the living.
But most importantly, this story is about a fucking elephant.

__________________________

insta | twitter | blog | booksirens | duolingo
Profile Image for Jen.
3,475 reviews27 followers
November 25, 2016
Really good but I had to dock a star for the elephant. NOOO!!! NOT THE BABY ELEPHANT!!!! Not cool!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Jason.
1,179 reviews289 followers
August 9, 2015
4 Stars

Elephants and Corpses: A Tor.com Original is a fantastic short story by one of my favorite authors today. Kameron Hurley writes fabulous dark fantasy filled with incredibly strong and female leads. In this short story she breaks from her normal female lead giving us a male mercenary that has the ability to jump from dying to Corpses nearby.

This is a fun and action packed adventure that shows what Hurley is capable as a writer. This is a great starting point for those unfamiliar with her writing. You will quickly become a fan.

A fun read.
Profile Image for Nadine in NY Jones.
3,162 reviews275 followers
January 2, 2016
This was really really great. I just LOVE when I stumble upon a fantastic free short on-line!

First lines (I LOVE kapow openers!!):
Bodies are only beautiful when they aren’t yours. It’s why Nev had fallen in love with bodies in the first place. When you spent time with the dead you could be anyone you wanted to be. They didn’t know any better. They didn’t want to have long conversations about it.


I just loved everything about this. I loved the weirdness and grittiness of the world, I loved how nothing was black or white, I loved how they treated "body mercs" as everyday creatures, I loved how women were in charge and men weren't and that's just the way it is, I loved the mystery of Nev's past (and hints that he was born as a woman but felt like a man), I loved the elephant, I loved the descriptions of the city right down to "the only thing illuminating the streets were the floating blue bodies of the nightblinders; beautiful, thumb-sized flying insects that rose from their daytime hiding places to softly illuminate the streets until nearly dawn."

And I loved the turtle.
Nev opened the box. A turtle as big as his fist sat inside, its little head peeking out from within the orange shell.

“What is this?” he asked.

“It’s a fucking turtle.”

“I can see that.”

“Then why’d you ask?” she said. “I can’t afford a fucking elephant, but living people need to care about things. Keeps you human. Keeps you alive. And that’s my job, you know. Keeping you alive. Not just living.”

“I’m not sure I—”

“Just take the fucking turtle.”

He took the fucking turtle.
You need to read this to find out how a short story can make a turtle into a sentimental tear-jerker ending.

I'll be reading more by this author.

Confession: part of the reason I read this is because my daughter's name is Neve. It works.

Read it yourself here: http://www.tor.com/2015/05/13/elephan...
Profile Image for Molly.
342 reviews130 followers
August 10, 2016
Rating, 3 stars

Original and gritty short.

That cover image may or may not be the reason of the slight sense of unsatisfaction with this story. I expected some classic, epic-y fantasy short ... and it was not at all what I ended to read. To tell the truth, I like to feel something, anything short of indifference for the main characters of a story, and here I felt nothing except sorrow for the poor little trumpeting elephant (far from the main lead). The ending is what raised the quality for me, thus the 3 star rating. I hoped this short was gonna be that little push needed to read Hurley's The Mirror Empire.... now I don't know.

Yet, not bad. Try it.

Link here: http://www.tor.com/stories/2015/05/el...
Profile Image for Gerhard.
1,314 reviews897 followers
December 20, 2017
Wow. There is more visceral horror and emotion packed into this brief story than in many novels. Hurley’s writing seems effortless. She evokes her characters with incredible nuance, including Falid the elephant. The world-building is just on the right side of obfuscation: without frustrating the reader, and leaving him/her wanting more. Much more. A great introduction to the WTF world of Kameron Hurley, who always soars when she flies in the face of genre convention.
Profile Image for Petra.
57 reviews18 followers
January 12, 2016
You can read this short story for FREE here:
http://www.tor.com/2015/05/13/elephan...

If you've never read anything by Kameron Hurley before, this is a great introduction to her work.

Gritty world, compelling characters, humour, action, profanity and some touching moments.

Also, Falid, the little trumpeting elephant, deserved better dammit!
Profile Image for mith.
931 reviews306 followers
May 14, 2015
I stumbled across this accidentally and thought, why not? It was a quick and enjoyable read and I really liked the idea of body jumping. I wonder if it's part of a series...
Profile Image for Celeste.
194 reviews165 followers
August 23, 2016
"What? Messes with your little idea of the world, doesn't it? That maybe who we are is in our bones?"
Profile Image for Rei ♡.
39 reviews4 followers
May 12, 2018
4/5 stars.

Bodies are only beautiful when they aren’t yours.


Very interesting premises. If this were to ever become a full fledged series, I'll gladly pick up the books.
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