Annalee Newitz

Elizabeth Bear

Sam J. Miller

Catherynne M. Valente

Usman T. Malik

Sarah Pinsker

E. Lily Yu

Lavie Tidhar

Daniel Polansky

Peng Shepherd

Kate Elliott

Matthew Kressel

Carrie Vaughn

Kathleen Jennings

G. V. Anderson

Cheri Kamei

Glen Hirshberg

'Pemi Aguda

Jasmin Kirkbride

A. T. Greenblatt

Cooper Shrivastava

A collection of some of the best original science fiction and fantasy short fiction published on Tor.com in 2021. Includes stories by: 'Pemi Aguda G. V. Anderson Elizabeth Bear Kate Elliott Aliza Greenblatt Glen Hirshberg Elsie Kathleen Jennings Cheri Kamei Jasmin Kirkbride Matthew Kressel Usman T. Malik Sam J. Miller Annalee Newitz noc Sarah Pinsker Daniel Polansky Peng Shepherd Cooper Shrivastava Lavie Tidhar Catherynne M. Valente Carrie Vaughn E. Lily Yu At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A Tor.com Original

Some of the Best of Tor.com 2021

Across the vast expanse of the Great Deep float billions of shattered universes known as the Shards. Populated with vengeful demons and tormented humans, the Shards need Earth just as plants need water to survive. Earth itself is held together by 36 righteous people, 36 hidden saints known as the Lamed Vav. Kill but a few Lamed Vav and the Earth will shatter, and all the Shards that rely upon it will die in a horrible cataclysm. Daniel Fisher is abducted on his wedding day by the demon king, Ashmedai, and he learns he is a Lamed Vavnik, one of these hidden righteous persons upholding the world. The demon Mashit has usurped the throne of demonkind from Ashmedai and has been murdering the Lamed Vav in order to collapse the Earth and bring its great power raining down on all the demon-populated Shards. On a desert-covered Shard teeming with monstrous creatures, pursued by a fearsome demon army, Daniel and Ashmedai, saint and demon, must team up to defeat Mashit before she destroys all of existence with her insane plan. In order to survive, Daniel must ally with evil Ashmedai. Yet who but a saint—a Lamed Vavnik—can save the world? “A surreal and exotic adventure in a unique mythological setting. Scary, exhilarating fun!” - N.K. Jemisin, Hugo award-winning author of The Fifth Season. “A fantastic twist on Jewish mythology...a radical reinvention of Jewish faith and folklore, not to mention the portal fantasy..."One city’s rubble is the next city’s foundation,” Kressel writes. Not only does that simple, profound idea underpin King of Shards’ plot, it’s the method to the book’s majestic, resonant, reality-twisting madness.” — NPR Books “King of Shards is an imaginative, intelligent, and soaring debut that mixes Jewish folklore/mysticism and modern-day social politics. The result is a unique spin on epic fantasy that is both timeless and timely, and a hell of lot of fun. You’ll want to follow Daniel and Rana through the Shards. Trust me.” —Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil’s Rock. “Kressel draws heavily on Hebrew legend and biblical lore to build a robustly imagined fantasy world…Kressel advances his plot briskly through a series of alliances, betrayals, separations, and reunions, and the veiled motives of several of his characters keep his story pleasingly unpredictable. His skill at extrapolating traditional religious lore into the stuff of fantasy bodes well for future books in the series.” — Publishers Weekly “With surprising twists and a deep and detailed universe, King of Shards, the first in a trilogy, is likely to be remembered for more than its Jewish roots.” - Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog

King of Shards

Neil Clarke

Maggie Clark

Clarkesworld is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art. Our May 2014 issue contains: Original Fiction by Matthew Kressel ("The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye"), Maggie Clark ("A Gift in Time"), and E. Catherine Tobler ("Migratory Patterns of Underground Birds"). Classic stories by Howard Waldrop ("Night of the Cooters") and Andy Duncan ("Beluthahatchie"). Non-fiction by Ed Grabianowski ("From Wooden Legs to Carbon Fiber Hands: How Technology Improves Prosthetic Limbs"), an interview with L. E. Modesitt, Jr., an Another Word column by Bud Sparhawk, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

Clarkesworld

"The Last Novelist (or A Dead Lizard in the Yard)" by Matthew Kressel is a science fiction story about a dying writer who is trying to finish one final novel on the distant planet he settles on for his demise. His encounter with a young girl triggers a last burst of creativity. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Last Novelist (or A Dead Lizard in the Yard)

Ken Liu

Ken MacLeod

Pat Cadigan

Robert Reed

Clarkesworld is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art. Our November 2014 issue contains: Original Fiction by Matthew Kressel ("Cameron Rhyder's Legs"), Robert Reed ("Pernicious Romance"), and Ken Liu ("The Long Haul From the ANNALS OF TRANSPORTATION, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009"). Classic stories by Pat Cadigan ("Cody") and Ken MacLeod ("The Vorkuta Event"). Non-fiction by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (Drugs in Science Fiction), an interview with Jo Walton, an Another Word column by Wesley Chu, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

Alex Shvartsman

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Tatiana Ivanova

Jamie Wahls

Teng Ye

Inaugural issue of a new science fiction magazine with an added focus on international fiction and translation.Ranging from lyrical to humorous, from optimistic to jaded, from earthbound to interstellar, these stories offer six very different glimpses into the future. Matthew Kressel's "The History Within Us" takes place during the final stages of the heat death of the universe, where a ship filled with refugees of different species is huddled near one of the last burning stars, and that star is about to go nova.Tatiana Ivanova's satirical "Impress Me, Then We'll Talk About the Money" imagines the consequences of unscrupulous pharmacologists creating drugs that allow people to fulfill their deepest desire, which is to change.In "Earthrise," Lavie Tidhar examines what it means to be an artist in a futuristic society where humanity has colonized the solar system.In Alvaro Zinos-Amaro's "e^h" human colonists encounter a region of space in which their junk DNA mutates, revealing information encoded there by aliens.Teng Ye's "Universal Cigarettes" is a tongue-in-cheek tale of a grandiose marketing stunt with a dark twist reminiscent of Philip K. Dick's work.In the Nebula Award-nominated "Utopia, LOL?" by Jamie Wahls, a modern-day human wakes from cryogenic suspension in a utopian future overseen by a benevolent computer.

Future Science Fiction Digest, Issue 0

Inaugural issue of a new science fiction magazine with an added focus on international fiction and translation. Ranging from lyrical to humorous, from optimistic to jaded, from earthbound to interstellar, these stories offer six very different glimpses into the future. Matthew Kressel's "The History Within Us" takes place during the final stages of the heat death of the universe, where a ship filled with refugees of different species is huddled near one of the last burning stars, and that star is about to go nova. Tatiana Ivanova's satirical "Impress Me, Then We'll Talk About the Money" imagines the consequences of unscrupulous pharmacologists creating drugs that allow people to fulfill their deepest desire, which is to change. In "Earthrise," Lavie Tidhar examines what it means to be an artist in a futuristic society where humanity has colonized the solar system. In Alvaro Zinos-Amaro's "e^h" human colonists encounter a region of space in which their junk DNA mutates, revealing information encoded there by aliens. Teng Ye's "Universal Cigarettes" is a tongue-in-cheek tale of a grandiose marketing stunt with a dark twist reminiscent of Philip K. Dick's work. In the Nebula Award-nominated "Utopia, LOL?" by Jamie Wahls, a modern-day human wakes from cryogenic suspension in a utopian future overseen by a benevolent computer.

Future Science Fiction Digest Issue 0

Matthew Kressel

About

Books

Join the club