Overview

This subversive debut short-fiction collection comes from one of the hottest talents in speculative fiction: 2025 Compton Crook Award and Pushcart Prize nominee Samantha Mills (The Wings Upon Her Back). The central story of the collection is Mills's pivotal Nebula, Locus, and Sturgeon Award winning story 'Rabbit Test,' which interrogates the past, present, and future of abortion rights in America. A time-traveling fisherwoman keeps landing on the right shore, but at the wrong time. A pair of witches fight over the gate between life and death. A new consciousness, intent upon seeing all the wonders of the universe, visits a floating library. A rock-and-roll legend squares off against a town full of devils. Humanity makes first contact but falters when put in charge of selecting the world's representatives. These riveting stories run the gamut of the genre, transitioning from fantasy to contemporary, and then into the farthest reaches of space. They take place in strange and emotional worlds, with stakes ranging from the epic to the personal, with ample room for humour and hope amid tragedy.

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9781616964511

Table of Contents

Reviews

Praise for the debut novel The Wings Upon Her Back 2025 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel Finalist Compton Crook Award Winner British Science Fiction Award LonglistGoodreads SciFi and Fantasy Book Club Selection Booklist Top 10 SF/Fantasy & Horror Debuts Parade Best Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books Washington Post 11 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books [STARRED REVIEW] ""A triumphant debut novel."" --Booklist [STARRED REVIEW] ""An absolute must-read."" --Kirkus [STARRED REVIEW] ""Intricate and intriguing."" --Publishers Weekly [STARRED REVIEW] ""Complex and haunting."" --Library Journal

""In Rabbit Test and Other Stories, Mills examines the human spirit with a sharp eye and a gentle heart. Her characters dare to love, hope and fight within systems that try to keep them in place."" --Eugenia Triantafyllou, author of Loneliness Universe Praise for The Wings Upon Her Back 2025 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel Finalist Compton Crook Award Winner British Science Fiction Award Longlist Goodreads SciFi and Fantasy Book Club Selection Booklist Top 10 SF/Fantasy & Horror Debuts Parade Best Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books Washington Post 11 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books [STARRED REVIEW] ""A triumphant debut novel."" --Booklist [STARRED REVIEW] ""An absolute must-read."" --Kirkus [STARRED REVIEW] ""Intricate and intriguing."" --Publishers Weekly [STARRED REVIEW] ""Complex and haunting."" --Library Journal

Book Riot Five Exciting Upcoming SFF Story Anthologies [STARRED REVIEW] ""Some of the most powerful stories in the brilliant, genre-spanning debut collection from Nebula Award winner Mills (The Wings upon Her Back) focus on the contentious relationships between generations. The stunning title entry, for instance, toggles between the past and the future to track the progress and deterioration of abortion access in the United States. Then there's the brief but impactful 'Laugh Lines, ' presented in the form of a eulogy for the narrator's mother that doubles as a paean to disability rights. These speculative pieces resonate deeply with the current moment, teasing out the many possible ways climate disasters and fascistic politics may shape humanity's future, all while keeping an eye to the communities that support each other behind the scenes. Elsewhere, Mills delves into fantasy, in stories that are no less pleasurable and heart-rending. In the haunting 'Adrianna in Pomegranate, ' a grief-stricken magician tries to reanimate his dead daughter, and his ex-wife must intercede before he succeeds, while the bittersweet 'Spindles' tells of an eight-year-old princess and her pet bear who embark on a quest to save their land from alien invasion. Even the shortest of these tales packs a powerful punch."" --Publishers Weekly ""Mills examines the human spirit with a sharp eye and a gentle heart. Her characters dare to love, hope and fight within systems that try to keep them in place."" --Eugenia Triantafyllou, author of Loneliness Universe ""Mills has crafted, diamond-like, a deft compression of worlds and time, multifaceted in its insights around power, systemic injustice, motherhood, trauma, bodily autonomy, and revolution."" --P. H. Low, author of These Deathless Shores ""A debut collection of exciting, subversive stories, including the title story, about abortion rights, which won the Nebula, Locus, and Sturgeon awards."" --Book Riot ""Samantha Mills' work is like a stained-glass window: beautiful, intricately crafted, and ready to let the light into the dark places of our lives."" --Aimee Ogden, author of What Any Dead Thing Wants ""Samantha Mills lifts you out of your everyday and guides you toward futures so blindingly bright you couldn't stand to look at them if she didn't show you how."" --Nisi Shawl, author of Everfair and Filter House ""Samantha Mills's stories have a palpable beauty and tenderness to them while also being sharp and sure as shivs.... A bold and burnished talent in the speculative fiction field."" --Maria Haskins, author of Wolves & Girls and Six Dreams About the Train ""An incredible collection. Mills's stories are equally human and trenchant, exploring the heart that beats inside worlds that cannot exist."" --John Wiswell, author of Someone You Can Build a Nest In ""A diverse array of stories, each engaging and lively, brimming with heart and an urgent sense of purpose."" --Speculative Shelf ""This was wonderful from beginning to end."" --Disciples of Boltax Praise for The Wings Upon Her Back 2025 World Fantasy Award Finalist Compton Crook Award Winner British Science Fiction Award Longlist Goodreads SciFi and Fantasy Book Club Selection Booklist Top 10 SF/Fantasy & Horror Debuts Parade Best Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books Washington Post 11 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy [STARRED REVIEW] ""A triumphant debut novel."" --Booklist [STARRED REVIEW] ""An absolute must-read."" --Kirkus [STARRED REVIEW] ""Intricate and intriguing."" --Publishers Weekly [STARRED REVIEW] ""Complex and haunting."" --Library Journal

Author Information

Samantha Mills's critically acclaimed first novel, The Wings Upon Her Back, won the Compton Crook Award for the year's best debut and is a nominee for the World Fantasy Award. In 2023, she received the Nebula, Locus, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Awards for her short story, ""Rabbit Test."" Her short fiction has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons, Escape Pod, and others, and was included in The New Voices of Science Fiction from Tachyon Publications and The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023. In the other half of her life, she is a librarian and trained archivist specializing in primary documents. Mills grew up in Southern California, where she still lives with her family and cats. When she isn't working, writing, or taking care of children, she's watching B movies, binding books, and crocheting stuffed animals.

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