(Near-Future SF) Penny uses a
technology that lets her share some of her daughter’s pain from a congenital
joint problem.
|
(Horror) Helen comes to Meersee in
Germany to be a governess for her friend’s nephew. The child is young and
peculiar, the staff are old and peculiar, and more peculiar things turn up by
the minute.
|
(SF Adventure) Nata’s one of the best
smugglers, in space and because of the war, she’s in great demand. This
latest deal, though, pays so well for so little work there’s got to be
something fishy about it.
|
(Colony Planet SF) Since the Combine
all but abandoned Sloe, scavengers are important, and Fox is a good one. Her
latest mission could be her best yet, provided she survives it.
|
(Mainstream) In 1888 a woman suffering
a hideous deformity was murdered in London. Today, her descendent wants to
find the culprit.
|
(Eldritch Horror) Delilah makes some money modeling,
and Crispin offers twice what anyone else does. He never lets her look at the
works in progress, though. He has his reasons.
|
(Horror) A Canadian man returns from a
near-fatal accident in the far north, but his wife notices something’s not
quite right with him now.
|
(Surreal) A.S. returns from life in a
simulation to check on the sister and abusive father he left behind.
|
(Horror) A Hollywood producer is
haunted by a starlett he loved who disappeared 40 years earlier.
|
(Space Opera; Machineries of Empire) A
Heptarchate undercover mission lead by one of Jedao’s friends has gone
missing, so Jedao goes undercover to try and rescue them.
|
(SF) A woman approaches the narrator
to help her smuggle a special package to the human survivors of an alien
virus that could make people something more than human.
|
(High Fantasy; Stormwrack) Gale and
Parrish solve a mystery involving a dead merman, a missing magical artifact,
and their captain, who only wants to retire in peace.
|
(Apocalypse) A fatal illness that
causes people to relive the best moments of their past sweeps the world.
|
Microbiota and the Masses: A Love Story
by S.B. Divya Time: 23m (ShortStory)
Issue: Tor.com 01/11/17
(SF Romance) For medical reasons,
Moena lives isolated from the world, although she’s made a microbiome that
works for her. Then she falls in love with a man from outside her bubble.
|
(Dystopia) Lenae and Shirelle are just
high school girls with no futures, but they fantasize about fighting the
corporations who keep people down, and they find a unique way to do it.
|
(Contemporary Fantasy) Ansel feels guilty
about his little sister’s disappearance six months ago, and his search for
her leads him into the world of a board game their family played.
|
(Hard SF) We read the log books that
survive from two human colony ships which arrived at Tau Ceti e. We know
things didn’t go well, but we don’t know why.
|
Shape Without Form, Shade Without Color
by Sunny Moraine Time: 14m (ShortStory)
Issue: Tor.com 05/31/17
(Horror) She can’t see the birds, but
she can hear them, and they’re telling her to do terrible things.
|
(Climate Apocalypse Horror) As the
seas have risen, terrible things have come crawling out of them. Jersey wants
Mir to come with him and move inland, but she won’t go without her disabled
father.
|
(Superhero SF; Wild Cards) Michael
“Drummer boy” Vogali seeks vengeance
on the terrorists who maimed him and killed most of his band and many of his
fans.
|
(Hard SF) Jingru Lee researches animal
life on Earth-IX, and she wants to understand the strange “thermal flashes”
that randomly cook plants and animals in scattered locations.
|
The Future of Hunger in the Age of Programmable
Matter by Sam J. Miller Time: 21m (ShortStory) Issue: Tor.com 10/18/17
(Near-Future SF) Otto and Trevor host
a party where some friends demonstrate the latest in polymer toys. Otto meets
Avram, who won’t be good for their relationship. But it’s the toys he should
be worried about.
|
(Dystopia) Fon works in the Ministry
of Merit, coming up with ways devout citizens of Bankim can “make merit” for
the next life. She’s good, but her boss keeps taking the credit for her hard
work, and she wants a little something in this life.
|
(Horror) ‘Nisha only has five hours to
get across New York to her dead aunt’s apartment before the city comes to
throw away all her stuff. She’s not even sure it’s worth it, but they said
her aunt was a witch…
|
The Last Novelist (or A Dead Lizard in the Yard)
by Matthew Kressel Time: 19m (ShortStory)
Issue: Tor.com 03/15/17
(SF) Reuth has come to a beach resort
on Ardabaab to try to finish his last novel before he dies. A young girl
distracts him, then inspires him.
|
(Fantasy) Tom takes a job as an
indexer in a library that exists outside of space and time for the purpose of
collecting books and manuscripts (among other things) that were lost.
|
(SF Pastiche) When Zena’s brother
disappears into a mysterious forest on her family property, she goes looking,
and she finds that not all of the Martian invaders perished at the end of the
War of the Worlds.
|
(Apocalypse) As civilization is dying
on Earth, a woman building a monument on Mars by remote control gets a
message from a Mars colony long thought to be dead.
|
(Space Opera) Shemesh returns from his
mission on planet Kadesh to face inquisition by the Exiliarch. What really
happened when he met the heretic there?
|
The Scholast in the Low Waters Kingdom
by Max Gladstone Time: 22m (ShortStory)
Issue: Tor.com 03/29/17
(Space Opera) The Scholast fell to
earth in the Low Waters Kingdom and called on them to prepare to defend
themselves from an invasion from another world.
|
(Young Adult SF Adventure) A scientist
at the museum slipped Violet an ancient Martian rock just before the
authorities arrested her. She and her friends are determined to decipher the
writing on it, but it’s not in any known language.
|
The Virtual Swallows of Hog Island
by Julianna Baggott Time: 16m (ShortStory)
Issue: Tor.com 01/25/17
(Virtual Reality) Archer designs
virtual worlds that help people with their therapy. He despises his boss, who
has an unhealthy interest in one patient and neglects the others.
|
(Dark Fantasy) Hiding from her own
problems, Winona volunteers at the local ornithological museum after she hits
a bird with her car.
|
(Horror) The king’s only son is a rude
and brutal child, and his new wife, a witch, hates him passionately.
|
(Apocalypse) The narrator is a writer
who finds a story on his porch. A story that enters his body, grows out of
the top of his head, and destroys the rest of the world. Then things get
strange.
|
(Near-Future SF) Adam has 70% of the
memories of the man who created him, but something vital is hiding in that
missing 30%.
|
(Space Opera) Xin’s orderly life on
Eighth Colony changes forever when she ushers a mutilated body through the
portal.
|
(Exoplanetary SF) On planet Isach, the
native Kites are enthusiastic converts to Islam, but they’re dying from a
virus that the local Muslims suspect was planted by the neighboring Christian
colony.
|
(Superhero; Wild Cards) The wildcard
virus turned Noel into a shapeshifting, teleporting hermaphrodite. Although
retired from the spy business, he reverts to old habits when someone tries to
frame him for murder.
|
Rocket Stack Rank™ (RSR) aims to help casual SF fans find and discuss great original short fiction. It reviews science fiction and fantasy short stories, novelettes, and novellas, and publishes articles of interest to fans.
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
2017 Tor.com
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