Review: The usual reaction for short stories - some good, some not so
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 24, 2013
For zero dollars down, this baker's dozen of science fiction/fantasy stories is good value.Of course, as with any anthology, you are unlikely to be universally wowed and so it was, for me, with "Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2012 Edition: A Tor.Com Original"."Dormanna", the opening short by Gene Wolfe, for example, was well written - as Wolfe stories generally are - but it failed to light my fire. Couldn't really see the point to it, to be honest. But it was followed up by Rachel Swirsky's "Portrait of Lisane da Patagnia" with its novel spin on magical powers and that I did enjoy. And Michael Swanwick's "The Mongolian Wizard" was fun, with another take on magic setting up a parable for our troubled world.And so it went."The Ghosts of Christmas" by Paul Cornell was troubling on a number of levels. The science of it did not make a lot of sense - time travel but only to some few minutes on exactly the same day each year past or future? And then there was the bleakness of the situation and character, with a trite sense of redemption at the end. It felt clumsy overall and did not appeal to my high-tech tastes.Rick Berry's "The Finite Canvas" was more to my taste, set on a future Earth ravaged by global warming and economic poverty after a diaspora to space. The interplay between a doctor trying to get by and a patient who wants pain and punishment was engrossing.Kathryn Cramer's "Am I Free to Go?" was also high-tech, but in a different direction as a low-key, personal rebellion against the Privatised State plays out in the characters head. There are some challenging ideas here about Big Brother vs. Personal Liberty and Cramer makes it a thoughtful journey without resorting to diatribe.I also enjoyed Pat Murphy's "About Fairies", which is soulful and intimate. Set in San Francisco, it is somewhat fantastical, but told in such a matter of fact way that Jennifer, Murphy's protagonist, makes it likely that fairies do exist. I especially liked the observation that "there are things that only cats can see". Who knows, maybe when they give their "full attention to a patch of empty air for hours at a time" they really are protecting us from the little people?Adam-Troy Castro writes on the nature of evil in "Our Human". Outcast bounty hunters on a vile planet hunt a reprehensible Human wanted across the known Universe, and the end to their journey is both fitting and thought provoking.Then we come to Elizabeth Bear's "Faster Gun". It's another time travel story, which I initially felt was set in our past but thinking it through it must be a parallel Earth - close, but not quite ours. Or not and she's just not fussed with the implications of what goes on? It did not detract from my enjoying it, but I felt it missed on the elements that make this type of confrontational story both tense and rewarding, which has the unassuming/reluctant hero stepping forth to smite the sinful.Really, if you like fantasy or sci-fi short stories, load this up on your Kindle because none of the shorts here are terrible, it's just that they are not outstanding examples of their genre. But for zero dollars down, love them or loath them, you can't really lose!