Wednesday, January 3, 2018

2017 Tor.com

A Burden Shared by Jo Walton  Time: 10m (ShortStory)  IssueTor.com 04/19/17
(Near-Future SF) Penny uses a technology that lets her share some of her daughter’s pain from a congenital joint problem.
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [2]  Recommended By: RHorton:4
A Human Stain by Kelly Robson  Time: 32m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 01/04/17
(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.
Angel of the Blockade by Alex Wells  Time: 31m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 09/06/17
(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.
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [3]  Recommended By: RHorton:5
Bourbon, Sugar, Grace by Jessica Reisman  Time: 28m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 06/07/17
(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.
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [2]  Recommended By: JMcGregor:4
Come See the Living Dryad by Theodora Goss  Time: 29m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 03/08/17
(Mainstream) In 1888 a woman suffering a hideous deformity was murdered in London. Today, her descendent wants to find the culprit.
Crispin's Model by Max Gladstone  Time: 26m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 10/04/17
(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.
Dark Warm Heart by Rich Larson  Time: 20m (ShortStory)  IssueTor.com 04/12/17
(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.
Ecdysis by Julianna Baggott  Time: 08m (ShortStory)  IssueTor.com 03/22/17
(Surreal) A.S. returns from life in a simulation to check on the sister and abusive father he left behind.
Excerpts from a Film (1942-1987) by A.C. Wise  Time: 32m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 03/21/17
(Horror) A Hollywood producer is haunted by a starlett he loved who disappeared 40 years earlier.
Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee  Time: 47m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 02/15/17
(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.
Hexagrammaton by HanuΕ‘ Seiner2  Time: 33m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 05/10/17
(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.
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [2]  Recommended By: RHorton:5
Losing Heart Among the Tall by A.M. Dellamonica  Time: 27m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 02/22/17
(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.
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [3]  Recommended By: RHorton:4
Mental Diplopia by Julianna Baggott  Time: 15m (ShortStory)  IssueTor.com 04/11/17
(Apocalypse) A fatal illness that causes people to relive the best moments of their past sweeps the world.
(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.
Party Discipline by Cory Doctorow  Time: 50m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 08/30/17
(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.
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [3]  Recommended By: JMcGregor:4
Red by Ramsey Shehadeh  Time: 14m (ShortStory)  IssueTor.com 05/24/17
(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.
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [4]  Recommended By: RSR:4
Sanctuary by Allen M. Steele  Time: 17m (ShortStory)  IssueTor.com 05/17/17
(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.
(Horror) She can’t see the birds, but she can hear them, and they’re telling her to do terrible things.
Sweetlings by Lucy Taylor  Time: 29m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 05/03/17
(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.
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [2]  Recommended By: JMcGregor:5
The Atonement Tango by Stephen Leigh  Time: 50m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 01/18/17
(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.
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [4]  Recommended By: RSR:4
The Awakening of Insects by Bobby Sun  Time: 23m (ShortStory)  IssueTor.com 04/26/17
(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.
(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.
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [3]  Recommended By: RHorton:4
The Greenest Gecko by Ploy Pirapokin1  Time: 21m (ShortStory)  IssueTor.com 02/01/17
(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…
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [2]  Recommended By: JStrahan
(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.
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [3]  Recommended By: JMcGregor:4
The Library of Lost Things by Matthew Bright  Time: 19m (ShortStory)  IssueTor.com 08/23/17
(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.
The Martian in the Wood by Stephen Baxter  Time: 55m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 08/02/17
(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.
The Martian Obelisk by Linda Nagata  Time: 19m (ShortStory)  IssueTor.com 07/19/17
(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.
The Old Dispensation by Lavie Tidhar  Time: 22m (ShortStory)  IssueTor.com 02/08/17
(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?
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [2]  Recommended By: GDozois:4
(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.
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [4]  Recommended By: RSR:4 RHorton:4
The Tablet of Scaptur by Julia Keller  Time: 31m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 11/01/17
(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.
(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.
The White-Throated Transmigrant by E. Lily Yu  Time: 11m (ShortStory)  IssueTor.com 06/21/17
(Dark Fantasy) Hiding from her own problems, Winona volunteers at the local ornithological museum after she hits a bird with her car.
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [3]  Recommended By: RHorton:5
These Deathless Bones by Cassandra Khaw  Time: 09m (ShortStory)  IssueTor.com 07/26/17
(Horror) The king’s only son is a rude and brutal child, and his new wife, a witch, hates him passionately.
This World Is Full of Monsters by Jeff VanderMeer  Time: 33m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 11/08/17
(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.
Uncanny Valley by Greg Egan  Time: 44m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 08/09/17
(Near-Future SF) Adam has 70% of the memories of the man who created him, but something vital is hiding in that missing 30%.
Waiting on a Bright Moon by JY Yang  Time: 33m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 07/12/17
(Space Opera) Xin’s orderly life on Eighth Colony changes forever when she ushers a mutilated body through the portal.
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [1]  Recommended By: CPayseur
When Stars Are Scattered by Spencer Ellsworth  Time: 43m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 04/05/17
(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.
Other Reviews  RSR Mini-Review [5]  Recommended By: RSR:5
When the Devil Drives by Melinda Snodgrass  Time: 43m (Novelette)  IssueTor.com 07/05/17
(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.

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