April marks a rather full month of short SFF releases from Tor dot com with three short stories and a novelette, a mix of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, all of it unfolding in the “real world,” though sometimes twisted by technology, sometimes touched by magic, and always heavy with a waiting darkness. The stories certainly lean on the dark side of things, revolving around exploitation, grief, and death. That might come in the form of a family who transforms when they die into heirlooms for their relatives to treasure and care for, or in the form of a military experiment targeting a person who can’t feel physical pain but can definitely experience other kinds. There’s artificial intelligences helping to facilitate social justice, and even a creepy dog who might hide a menacing secret. It’s an eclectic month of fiction, to say the least, offering a solid tour of how SFF approaches death, recovery, and hope. To the reviews!
It’s a rather full month of stories from Tor this April, and also one that leans heavily towards fantasy. From gifting someone prophetic penmanship to alternate histories with hippopotamus riders, from cities full of corruption and song to cold waters full of blood and bone, the pieces look at magic and people trying to find connections in a dangerous and mysterious world. Many of the pieces focus on relationships, on main characters in love or looking for love or falling out of love. Their partnerships might be full of violence, or full of hope, or full of music, but they all show people trying to find ways to be together. And it’s a rather sweet (and occasionally creepy) collection of stories, perfect for the first breath of spring. Let’s get to the reviews!
It's another full month from Tor dot com (partly because I missed one from the last day of October, but still), and if last year is a guide then things will probably slow down considerably going into the holidays. But for now there's lots to look at with four short stories, one tie-in short story, and one graphic story. The pieces range pretty far, from standard sci fi adventure to more surreal contemporary fantasy to much more raucous historical fantasy. And there are some real gems this month, even if a few of the pieces left me a bit conflicted as well. It's an interesting group of stories that I'm going to get to reviewing.
