Reviews

In Our Own Worlds #2: Four LGBTQ+ Tor.com Novellas by Lina Rather, Kai Ashante Wilson, Seanan McGuire, Katharine Duckett

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zoes_human's review

3.0

An excellent collection of novellas. Seanan McGuire's Every Heart a Doorway and Lina Rather's Sisters of the Vast Black were exceptional, and Katharine Duckett's Miranda in Milan lagged not far behind. The story concepts of all three were intriguing and the characters nuanced. Very pleased with this anthology overall despite the last tale being one I DNFed.

INDIVIDUAL NOVELLA COMMENTS AND RATINGS

Miranda in Milan
Katharine Duckett
3 stars
This historical fantasy is a sequel to Shakespeare's The Tempest that centers the experience of Miranda. She has come "home" only to find that her past is not what she thinks. Despite a romantic subplot strong enough to qualify the story as a romance, the protagonist is so well-developed and the story spiraling around the affair so intriguing that I was well caught up regardless.

Every Heart a Doorway
Seanan McGuire
5 stars
What happens to children after they return from their trip through a portal into a magical land? Can life ever return to normal? Do they want it to? Nancy has been sent to a special boarding school by her parents who believe that she is delusional. But the school is not quite what it seems, and when a body turns up, everyone's life may be in peril. Clever and magical, this novella speaks to the longings within us all.

Sisters of the Vast Black
Lina Rather
4 stars
In a space-faring Catholic convent, the sisters dedicate their lives to providing aid and services to far-scattered colonies, but there are more secrets among these women than one might suppose. Soon the biological turmoil of their living ship and the fate of one group of settlers will bring everything out into the open. A compelling story full of complex characters deciding how to best live their truth.

The Sorcerer of the Wilds
Kalashante Wilson
1 stars
DNF 20%
Around 1/5 of the way through this, I simply couldn’t tell, or bring myself to care, where this story was going. The lengthy descriptions of GI life in a fantasy setting were of no interest to me at all.

moonlit_shelves's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

thistlechaser's review against another edition

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4.0

This book contained four novellas:
- Miranda in Milan by Katharine Duckett. A retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. I couldn't get into it at all and stopped trying a few pages in.
- Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire. This one was AMAZING. Set in our world, now and then doorways into other worlds open for certain children. Sometimes the doorways later open again and they are returned. There are secret schools for those kids, since they're now so different and can no longer fit in to our world. So so so so good. I can't wait to read the rest of the books in the series.
- Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather. This was such a strange story, but I really enjoyed it. Set in the distant future, nuns set out on living space ships to tend to groups of people around the universe. I don't generally enjoy stories about real world religions, but this one was so interesting. The living ship was a fascinating "character" as well.
- Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson. I'm not sure how this even got onto a "best" list. It really needed an editor (author used semicolons so often and every time wrong). Story didn't hook me at all (seemed to be set in the past, but the characters all used very modern, urban slang), so I dropped it.

ninetalevixen's review against another edition

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bekahmccue's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

Content Warnings

virginiareads's review

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4.0

Since this is a collection of four novellas I got from Tor (500 pages--it's a book!), I've averaged the rating to 4 stars.

I loved Every Heart a Doorway and will be looking for everything written by Seanan McGuire. I really liked Sisters of the Vast Black, too. It took me a while to get into Miranda in Milan. I liked some aspects of Sorcerer of the Wildeeps but that was definitely my least favorite story.

vortacist's review

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

zetasyanthis's review

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5.0

I just finished reading Every Heart a Doorway, and I am crying now, for pain and love and heart.

And Sorcerer of the Wildeeps.

Blew me away. <3

vkadic's review

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adventurous slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This book contains four different stories, from different authors and different genres, there is fantasy, mystery, science fiction, romance...

The first story, Miranda in Milan I overall liked it was a bit of supernatural a bit of mystery and a bit romance. The characters were okay for a very short story and there were interesting aspects I wished were maybe explored further.

The second story Every Heart Doorway really stuck with me. The mystery itself was okay, I was able to predict certain aspects of its but the whole premise of the story and the world is really interesting and unique and the characters were very developed and each of them is very distinct and interesting to read about.

Sisters of the Vast Black, the third entry, was I think my favorite out of the four. The premise of the story, the plot, the world it was super interesting! I really wished it was longer. The only thing that bothered me were that the characters voices were really undistinguishable from one another, each sister does have a unique personality but when the POVs switched it was hard to tell which one was I reading about. Still I do hope the author writes more in this world since I would be more than willing to read it.

The last of the stories in this book, The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps was the one I had most trouble with. I just couldn't get into it. The plot was weirdly structured, the writing style was hard to get into and I nearly gave it up but pushed myself trough it since there were interesting aspects of the story and the characters and I wanted to see it trough. I am not happy I did so. The ending was rather ambiguous (or maybe it escaped my comprehension abilities since I wasn't so engrossed with the story as I wished) and disappointing. All in all this particular story was not for me.

podanotherjessi's review

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4.5

Honestly, the tor.com ebook club is worth signing up for just for these released every June.

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