Tor.com, July 2022
“The Sisters of Saint Nicola of The Almost Perpetual Motion vs the Lurch” by Garth Nix
“In Mercy, Rain” by Seanan McGuire
“Grow” by Carrie Vaughn
“This Place Is Best Shunned” by David Erik Nelson
Reviewed by Kevin P Hallett
There are four entertaining first publication stories at Tor.com for July, including three novelettes and a Wild Cards short story.
“The Sisters of Saint Nicola of The Almost Perpetual Motion vs the Lurch” by Garth Nix
In this SF novella, novice Maralinda, goes to fight against the latest Lurch invasion. The Sisters of Saint Nicola send their steam-driven cannon to fight the Martian Lurches, and Maralinda is chosen to be one of four sisters catapulted in a glider at the Lurch’s spacecraft.
The sisters are in a friendly race with the druids of a nearby fighting forest. The winner can claim the Lurch treasure, provided they can defeat them. The glider will give the sisters an advantage of a few minutes, but it would be tantamount to a suicide mission for the four volunteer sisters.
The glider lands beside the Lurch craft, and Maralinda wades into the fight fearlessly. Soon her steam-powered gun powers down, so she resorts to her sword. Lurches overpower and kill her fellow sisters. Still, Maralinda fights on, but the enemy is forming their most effective weapon, and time is running out for the sisterhood.
Nix set this steampunk story in England. Though the plot’s pace was slow initially, it picked up steam when the battle began and was an interesting read.
“In Mercy, Rain” by Seanan McGuire
As twelve-year-olds, Jack and her twin sister Jill pass through a magical portal in this fantasy novelette. Jill becomes a daughter to the vampire master in this world, while Jack assumes the role of apprentice to Dr. Bleak, who can resurrect the dead.
By age fifteen, Jack has cobbled together her own living pony from various equine parts. She is well on the way to becoming the next mad resurrector whenever Dr. Bleak decides to retire.
One day, a couple brings their beautiful daughter, Alexis, to Dr. Bleak’s laboratory in the windmill. Alexis, died instantly when she kissed a phantom. But with no sign of thunder, the doctor says he can’t rekindle life in Alexis’s teenage body, which is a pity since Jack quickly falls in love with the beautiful body lying on the cold slab.
This story was mired in molasses until the dead body came to breathe new life into the plot.
“Grow” by Carrie Vaughn
For Maryam, this short fantasy started after puberty. She could pull in electrical power to make herself bigger. And unlike other wild cards, her strength remained proportional to her size. Still, she waited until after her A-levels before experimenting with her abilities which would surely make her an ace.
At first, no one recognized the near-naked girl, who was fifteen feet tall, and she was able to shrink back to obscurity. But that changed when she decided to show off in front of a Royal. Now the British government and press were interested, and she had to run. However, she couldn’t put that genie back into the bottle.
This appealing and unusual story was fun to read.
“This Place Is Best Shunned” by David Erik Nelson
An abandoned church is the setting for this disturbing horror novelette. Allie and her lover, Rooster, are traveling cross country when they stop at a derelict church half hidden by a hollow in a West Virginia forest. It looks good for pictures to add to their collection of places to shun.
But when they look in the windows, they see the bare dangling feet of tens of women recently hanged from the rafters. One is still alive. Almost too late, Allie realizes the legs were tentacles and the church a trap set by a monster.
They escape from the church, only to find the tentacles coming toward them still. When they run back into the forest, the church itself comes after them. And it’s faster than they are.
The author crafted this unusual plot to hold the reader’s attention until the end.
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