Tor.com, August 2023
“Headhunting” by Rich Larson
“The Three O’Clock Dragon” by John Wiswell
“The Job at the End of the World” by Ray Nayler
Reviewed by David Wesley Hill
Reviewing short fiction is like panning for gold. You have to sift through a lot of dross to uncover a single gleaming nugget. In my experience it’s rare to come across even one excellent story in any given issue of a publication. Thus I was happily surprised to discover that all three stories published in the August edition of Tor.com are well written tales, clever and entertaining, and worth recommending to your friends. The first, “Headhunting” by Rich Larson, a cyber-noir novelette, introduces us to Amir, a down and out PI in a future Britain. Amir, unfortunately, is not only on his uppers, he’s suffering from macabre hallucinogenic episodes of unknown etiology. Worse, the easy job he’s given by his ex-partner, Bravetti—retrieving the mummified head of a mad monk burgled from the catacombs of St. Johan’s by Lester Bowright, nephew of the cathedral director—turns out to be anything but easy. One broken nose later, Amir finds himself in the fight of his life against an ancient enemy determined to enslave humanity and rule the world…. Recommended!
From science fiction we turn to urban fantasy with “The Three O’Clock Dragon” by John Wiswell. Reminding this reviewer of Heinlein’s “Our Fair City,” a whimsical tale about a sentient whirlwind who takes on City Hall, in this story Liza is a commuter train who is turned into a fire-breathing, thousand-foot-long dragon by an industrial alchemical spill. Although Liza is happy just riding the rails through Prosperity City, occasionally giving passengers a lift on her back between her spines, corrupt Mayor Waddington is determined to regain control of the urban transportation system, and barrages the dragon with tank and missile fire until Liza decides to fight back—by running for mayor herself. Delightfully tongue in cheek…. Recommended!
The last story of the month, “The Job at the End of the World” by Ray Nayler, takes us to a near future Earth beset by climatological collapse, where “fire season, tornado season, hurricane season” follow one another with increasing tempo. The narrator, a “resilience worker,” has toiled for thirty years building back homes and neighborhoods destroyed by catastrophe, and now he’s ready to retire. He’s built himself a little piece of paradise, a hardened little house near—but not too near—the sea in which to live out his remaining years. Yeah … sure. Donne had it right. No man is an island. It’s the height of hubris to assume any one of us can escape our common fate unless we start doing things differently. Trenchant, troubling, funny…. Recommended!