Bookish Item | Tor.com Short Stories

I recently read The Angel of Khan el-Khalili by P. Djèlí Clark, a short story in the Dead Djinn Universe. A little while ago I also read A Dead Djinn in Caïro and I have been a fan of P. Djèlí Clark ever since. But I’ve also been interested in the Tor.com short stories. So today I wanted to talk about that a little more!

I wasn’t always the biggest fan of short stories, usually I want more from them. But sometimes they can really surprise you! Authors can somehow bring a whole world to life and create some very interesting characters in such a small story. And after the short stories in the Dead Djinn Universe I wanted more. Not just more of that universe but also more short stories. So I started looking at some of the short stories available on Tor.com. Let me just tell you, there are a lot!! Haha. For now I compiled a small list of stories I’d like to read soon. Most are by authors I already know and love but not all of them!

An Easy Job // Sinew and Steel and What They Told You – Carrie Vaughn

This is a prequel to “Sinew and Steel and What They Told”. Graff’s official role is muscle for the Visigoth – but his personal mission is internally cataloguing all of his experiences to relay to the other beings from his home planet when they cross paths. His professional life rarely clashes with his identity, but when he realizes his newest job is to take down one of his kind, everything becomes a bit less simple.

Graff has been keeping a big secret from his closest friends, the captain and crew of a pirate-hunting starship. He expected to die before they ever discovered what he really is. But he’s not dead, and now he has to explain.

Warm Up – V.E. Schwab

It’s been 297 days since David died—and came back. He may have survived the avalanche, but the aftermath has been far worse. His wife moved out, taking his son with her, and a devastated David hasn’t left his house since, terrified of the mysterious new power that followed him home from the ill-fated expedition. After months in seclusion, David’s ready for a fresh start, and ventures out, determined to keep his power in check. But David’s power isn’t the one he needs to worry about.

“Warm Up” is an original short story set in the same universe as V. E. Schwab’s novel, Vicious.

The Witch of Duva – Leigh Bardugo

There was a time when the woods near Duva ate girls…or so the story goes. But it’s just possible that the danger may be a little bit closer to home. This story is a companion folk tale to Leigh Bardugo’s debut novel Shadow and Bone.

Men Who Wish to Drown – Elizabeth Fama

From the author of the upcoming novel Monstrous Beauty comes this undersea tale “Men Who Wish To Drown,” set in the same history.

Cited as the only extant firsthand record of a mermaid encounter in New England waters, this deathbed letter from a great-grandfather to his great-grandson is more likely an instructive fiction—a parable of regret. Supposedly corroborating the mermaid story, a ship’s log (in the collection of the Provincetown Historical Museum) of the schooner Hannah, which plucked Mr. Stanton from South Weepecket in 1788, indicates that the crew saw two figures on the island prior to the rescue, but failed to locate a second victim. However, regarding accuracy and reliability, this is the same crew under Captain John Merriweather that reported sightings of a ghost ship and not one, but two sea monsters.

~~James S. Rucker, Archivist, Family Collections, Falmouth Historical Society, 1924

Daughter of Necessity – Marie Brennan

By day she crafts; by night she unmakes. Surely somewhere, in all the myriad crossings of the threads, there is a future in which all will be well. Marie Brennan offers an intriguing new spin on a classic tale.

The Scholast in the Low Waters Kingdom // The Angelus Guns // A Kiss With Teeth – Max Gladstone

A stranger claiming knowledge of realms beyond the known world attempts to stop a war.

During a celestial civil war, an angel-like soldier searches for her missing brother in the Crystal City.

Vlad has grown distant from his wife. His son has trouble at school. And he has to keep his sharp teeth hidden.

These are nine of the short stories I’d like to read soon! And after that I just know there are more hidden gems on that site for me to find. It’s interesting to basically find a whole new treasure chest of stories this way haha. Do you ever read short stories? And what are your favorite places to read them? Let me know in the comments!

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