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A review by nannahnannah
Worlds Seen in Passing: Ten Years of Tor.com Short Fiction by Irene Gallo
challenging
slow-paced
3.5
This is a massive anthology by Tor (obviously), a publisher I've recently come to appreciate, which feels incredibly belated, because Tor has been fantastic for a very long time now. Anyway, there are a whopping 40 short works in this collection, ranging from light fantasy to the hardest of sci-fi.
As always with anthologies, some stories are excellent and/or spoke to me, while others miss the mark. I might go and review some of the shorts that I especially love — or that I have on my to-read list, but trying to review them all would be ulcer-inducing.
Very few authors have more than one story, so it was wonderful finding new talent to later check out in more depth. I have one complaint, though: all the big-name authors that they advertise on the cover have stories in the first half ... and the second half drags a bit. Did they just want to make sure people read the more well-known or award-winning stories first in case they DNF'd it?
Highlights for me from this collection:
- The Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel by Yoon Ha Lee
- Elephants and Corpses by Kameron Hurley
- Reborn by Ken Liu
- The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal
As always with anthologies, some stories are excellent and/or spoke to me, while others miss the mark. I might go and review some of the shorts that I especially love — or that I have on my to-read list, but trying to review them all would be ulcer-inducing.
Very few authors have more than one story, so it was wonderful finding new talent to later check out in more depth. I have one complaint, though: all the big-name authors that they advertise on the cover have stories in the first half ... and the second half drags a bit. Did they just want to make sure people read the more well-known or award-winning stories first in case they DNF'd it?
Highlights for me from this collection:
- The Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel by Yoon Ha Lee
- Elephants and Corpses by Kameron Hurley
- Reborn by Ken Liu
- The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal