Publishers Weekly: Datlow fills this sprawling fourth annual collection with 26 richly envisioned short and mid-length works of speculative fiction from innovative online magazine Tor.com, an independent offshoot of Tor Books. Postapocalyptic futures include alien invaders in Ken Liu’s “Reborn,” earthquakes in Charlie Jane Anders’s humorous “As Good as New,” and a traveling carnival in Seanan McGuire’s “Midway Relics and Dying Breeds.” Adam Christopher’s “Brisk Money” turns traditional noir crime fiction upside-down. Kelly Barnhill’s “Mrs. Sorensen and the Sasquatch” and Max Gladstone’s “A Kiss with Teeth” are surprising love stories. Marie Brennan’s “Daughter of Necessity” tells the story of Odysseus’s wife holding down the fort at home, while Kathleen Ann Goonan’s “A Short History of the Twentieth Century, or When You Wish upon a Star” explores the life and times of a female astronaut. Tor.com welcomes longer works shunned by print magazines, a thrill for fans of speculative fiction novellas and novelettes. These uniformly excellent stories are all exactly as long as they need to be, and all the more powerful for it.
Mar 242015