Excellent. I need to re-read this, soon, because I think I devoured it too fast, and there are stories leaving echoes in my mind that I need to trace.Elizabeth Bear's "Deriving Life" is one of them. I'd read Soibhan Carroll's "For He Can Creep" when it was first on the website, and still find it delightful... but then, I first encountered Jeoffry as a teen in the mid-60s when I was a member of a group performing Britten's "Rejoice in the Lamb". Mary Robinette Kowal's "Articulated Restraint" has

An incredible collection of short stories, the epub itself is currently free and these are also available free to read on the site. No reason not to give this a give if you lile well written speculative. Also, as someone who read the epub, this had the best organized table of contents I've ever seen. All the more important for a short story collection.Since all of the stories are well written, I'm just highlighting the ones I really enjoyed.* Deriving Life by Elizabeth Bear - A phenomenal spec f...

"Deriving Life" by Elizabeth Bear★★★✯☆Poignant, thoughtful themes; however, there were too many rhetorical questions and I had trouble connecting with the characters."For He Can Creep" by Siobhan Carroll★★★☆☆Fun idea, but the execution was more ... absurdist (?) than I would've preferred."Beyond the El" by John Chu★★★★☆Wonderful Taiwanese rep, vivid imagery, lovely magical realism. My only critique is that the ending felt like it was rushed for the sole purpose of narrative closure."Zeitgeber" b...

Very formulaic, two or three formulae. 1) the tragic child; 2) bullied outcast responding with excess force; 3) Gaiman-Whedon fairytales winking too hard. Portentous in all but five cases, mostly clumsily so. Glorifying bad decisions just because they are autonomous. Sprinkling of non-English languages, otherwise less knowledge than I look for. Good amount of very bad poetry too.I'd have stopped reading this about a quarter through, but I was looking for new writers. I figured that if Tor snagge...

This anthology is simply a nearly-alphabetical-by-author-name re-packaging of 24 individually released Tor.com science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories into a single download. One nice thing about that format is that each story has its own colorful cover page. There is no editor, per se, and so indexes tend to sort it unfairly by the name of the first included author – Elizabeth Bear. However, past releases of this anthology series have been attributed to Tor.com’s consulting editor Ellen Da...

I abandoned this book because it was just too weird. I didn't give it one star due to tossing it, because the writing and plot lines were well executed. Now I like weird. But these stories fell into what for me was the uncanny valley. I just couldn't recognize the characters' experiences, and I realized after a couple of stories I was feeling queasy trying to. Nope. To be fair, some stories further on in the book might have been more enjoyable, but I just couldn't get that far. Someone else migh...

4 stars, but variable story to story as all anthologies are. This one contains short fiction from some of my favorite authors as well as nominations for the Hugo and Nebula awards.“Deriving Life” by Elizabeth Bear - when cancer is sentient - 4 stars“For He Can Creep” by Siobhan Carroll - cat vs Devil - Hugo/Nebula nominee - 5 stars “Beyond the El” by John Chu - magical food prep - 3/4 stars“Zeitgeber” by Greg Egan - when circadian rhythms change - 4 stars“One/Zero” by Kathleen Ann Goonan - AIs a...

If You Take My Meaning - Charlie Jane AndersHearts in the Hard Ground - G. V. AndersonThe Night Soil Salvagers - Gregory Norman BossertThe Ashes of Around Twenty-Three Strangers - Jeremy Packert BurkeThe Ones Who Look - Katharine DuckettSolution - Brian Evenson Exile's End - Carolyn Ives GilmanThe Girlfriend's Guide to Gods - Maria Dahvana HeadleyWait for Night - Stephen Graham JonesThe Perfection of Theresa Watkins - Justin C. KeyLittle Free Library - Naomi KritzerHow Quini the Squid Misplaced

Do love anthologies. Didn't love all of this one. Most reinforced my understanding that a story in present tense is really going to suck. Apparently present tense is more liiiiiiterary and speeeeecial. And plot don't make it literary and special, so it gets jettisoned, and the focus is on wooooorld building and ham-handed stylistic touches.See, for example, "The Time Invariance of Snow," which was more than "meh." Present tense; plus we don't mark conversations, so they run right into the rest o...

Read the first third and had to give up. All of the stories read, ALL of them, were overlong, overslow, boring, unengaging and very, very low scifi. I don't know how that could happen: I regularly read Tor.com and enjoy most of its stories. There is just a tiny minority I do not... and they are all probably in this book. Who did the selection?I need to know, so as to avoid her in the future!

...Deriving Life by Elizabeth Bear 5☆For He Can Creep by Siobhan Carroll  5☆Beyond the El by John Chu 4☆Zeitgeber by Greg Egan 4☆One/Zero by Kathleen Ann Goonan 3☆Skinner Box by Carole Johnstone  4☆The Song by Erinn L. Kemper 3☆Articulated Restraint by Mary Robinette Kowal 3☆Painless by Rich Larson 4☆Seonag and the Seawolves by M. Evan MacGriogair 4☆Any Way the Wind Blows by Seanan McGuire 4☆ Blue Morphos in the Garden by Lis Mitchell 3☆His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light by Mimi Mondal 4☆...

Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2019This was a free collection on Amazon at the time that I stumbled across it while browsing science fiction selections. While I’ve always liked both Tor and Baen publications, I was amazed by how very much I enjoyed almost every short story and novella in this collection. Such high quality, and some authors that have been added to my TBR list.“Deriving Life” by Elizabeth BearMarq Tames is contemplating suicide or becoming a Host, unable to cope with being alone a...

This ebook was something outside of my comfort zone, but I thought I'd have a bash, anyway. I'm glad I did; many of the stories were a hard slog, but ultimately, the exercise was worth the effort. Futuristic sci-fi, incorporating new and advancing technologies (some recognisable, others completely random and fictitious) runs throughout the edition, which has been collated with some skill.The reason I only give the anthology 3 stars, though, is that I found many of the stories, whilst conceptuall...

3.5 stars

As with any anthology or collection of short stories I’m going to love some of the writing and I’m not going to connect with others. I expect this. With this collection I found myself enjoying nearly everything included. The ones that didn’t speak to me personally or that I didn’t connect with were still incredible pieces of writing. I really expect nothing else from Tor. This is an excellent collection to keep around when you need a little something to tide yourself over in between books, to di...

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com I will be updating this on the go, as I plan to read these short stories in between my other books. "Deriving Life" - Elizabeth Bear2 Stars - I couldn't really get in to the story, short as it was. I was intrigued by the premise, but it failed a little to convince me why these deriving life forms were necessary in the first place. Also, I had this strong feeling I'd read something like this at least once before, but couldn't remember ex

Lots of astonishingly good stories in here, some merely 'good', nothing I didn't enjoy. A wide range of authors and topics exploring lots of different kinds of SFF, and lots of difference aspects of humanity and our world(s). A few I'd read before from Hugo short lists, which were a delight to encounter again.

It wasn't until I reached 70% of the way through this short story collection that i stopped being disappointed with the collection as a hold because aside from 1 really good story and a few decent ones I thought most of the stories were pretty meh. And then i hit the 70% mark and read many good stories in a row and thought oh here they are! I have read many many authors who's work I had not experienced before that I will definitely be checking out now like River Solomon, S. L. Huang, and Karin T...

• “Deriving Life” by Elizabeth Bear – an alien symbiosis of love and death. Excellent.• “For He Can Creep” by Siobhan Carroll – ghastly picaresque nonsense.• “Beyond the El” by John Chu – sibling rivalry and complex meals. Good.• “Zeitgeber” by Greg Egan – timeslips disrupt family life. Very Good.• “One/Zero” by Kathleen Ann Goonan – refugees organise a better world with the help od an emergent AI. Very Good.• “Skinner Box” by Carole Johnstone – experiments in space. Dull, DNF.• “The Song” by Er...

Get your FREE download of some of the best science fiction and fantasy published in 2019, courtesy of Tor.com, which offers free access to original stories throughout the year on its website. Stories vary in length but generally are about 10-15 minute reads, perfect for taking a break from binge-watching “The Expanse” or the “Lord of the Rings” movies for the umpteenth time. Tor.com pays well and gets top authors to contribute stories, as well as exciting newcomers. This anthology offers a wide