Tor.com, October 2022
“How the Crown Prince of Jupiter Undid the Universe, or, The Full Fruit of Love’s Full Folly” by P H Lee
“Of all the New Yorks in all the Worlds” by Indrapramit Das
“Skeleton Song” by Seanan McGuire
Reviewed by Kevin P Hallett
There are three entertaining first publication stories at Tor.com for October.
“How the Crown Prince of Jupiter Undid the Universe, or, The Full Fruit of Love’s Full Folly” by P H Lee
In this short fantasy, the Crown Prince of Jupiter sees a miniature painting of the Princess of the Sun and falls in love. No one can dissuade him from his hopeless love, and he pines away in his palace.
Finally, the Crown Prince’s aunt, who is a witch, directs him to the inner planet Earth to seek out the Witch Ursula. And so, the Prince begins a long journey. At each step of his quest, they try to convince him to give up before sending him on. And despite the warnings that all will end badly, he pushes on.
Lee created a whimsical tale that was easy to read and surprisingly entertaining.
“Of all the New Yorks in all the Worlds” by Indrapramit Das
Siddarth is a student of multiversal time travel in this short SF story. He is in the fifth NYC he’s visited. He’s here to meet Aditi, the alternative version of the girl he loved in an earlier New York City. The previous Aditi broke up with him a week before he had to jump to a different NYC.
He didn’t know what to expect from this alternative Aditi. The two of them stumbled through the first meeting as the current Aditi knew about the previous version of herself. The two of them talked between longer uncomfortable silences, and slowly they came to an understanding.
This otherwise nicely crafted story lacked an essential element to leave the reader caring about the outcome.
“Skeleton Song” by Seanan McGuire
The inhabitants of Mariposa are skeletons in this short fantasy. The sick and dying sometimes fall through a door from the living into Mariposa. Here they die, and when the flesh has decayed from their bones, they live again as a skeleton with no memory of when flesh covered their bones. One day, the Princess of Mariposa sees such a boy fall through a door. But she heals him, so he can remain flesh and blood.
The boy falls in love with the princess, who loves him back. However, she is only awake at night, and he feels the hatred of the other skeletons in the palace. He dreams of becoming accepted but fears the loss of memory if he dies to become a skeleton. The princess helps him find the path to fulfill his dreams if he dares to take it.
This enticing tale gave no clue how it would play out.
You can follow Kevin P Hallett’s writing on www.kevinphallett.com. There are links to join his mailing list for a weekly newsletter on the recent release of his debut novel, the Defender of Vosj.