“Rabbit Test” by Samantha Mills was a stunningly good science fiction/historical fiction story. Published in Uncanny in 2022, it was inspired by the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe V. Wade, and looked at women desperately seeking reproductive knowledge and options throughout the centuries and into the future. It won the Nebula, Locus, and Theodore Sturgeon awards for Best Short Story; it also won the Hugo, but Mills rejected that after the awards shenanigans of 2023 came to light.
That was basically what I knew Mills for before this collection. I’d heard that her Compton Crook-winning debut science fantasy novel, The Wings Upon Her Back, was also great, but somehow it never made it to the top of my TBR pile.
Upon seeing that Mills has a collection of her short stories coming out soon, I eagerly signed up to read and review Rabbit Test and Other Stories. I discovered that she’s written some other really great stories that I’d already read or heard from online magazines, but I hadn’t realized she was the author. Seeing all these great stories together really reinforces what an excellent and versatile author Mills already is, and increases my excitement over her potential for future amazing stories and books.
The collection’s 256 pages comprise an Introduction by Meg Elison, 13 stories, an Afterword by Mills, and Story Notes about each selection. They range from science fiction to fantasy (sometimes seeming to be one and then appearing to be the other) and from somewhat abstract to deeply personal. Many of them include themes of sacrifice and of family separations and attempted reunions, either through external strife or miscommunication and choices of sacrifice. All of them are moving, and some of them are breathtaking.
“Strange Waters” is one of the stories that had made a strong impression on me before, although I’d forgotten the author’s name. It’s about a woman sailing the seas of time, accidentally separated from her own era and children, and trying again and again to make it back to them. How far will she go in this quest?
“Adrianna in Pomegranate” is one of the most moving stories, about some people who’ve undergone a terrible loss, and one of them realizing that the other is doing something even more terrible to try to fix it. The story is achingly bitter, but in the end, there’s hope for a different kind of recovery.
“A Shadow Is a Memory of a Ghost” is about people who resent each other and try to shield their children from the problems of the past, yet warp them with different forms of damage through their sheltering, stifling love. Luckily, children are resilient and sometimes find their own solutions.
“Spindles” is a great little story about a little princess fleeing monsters and trying to save her kingdom and get back to her mother, the queen, with the aid of a stalwart Bear. There’s a twist that I had started to suspect partway through, but it’s beautifully executed. I love this story so much! But like many of these stories, I can’t really delve into its excellence without spoilers, so I won’t.
“Four of Seven” is a science fiction story about capitalist dystopia, with a protagonist who has had some advantages in life but finds them (and herself) insufficient to help her siblings escape from corporate debt. She thinks that her parents were right and all you can count on is family, but the presence of strikers and protesters as a plot point in the story, while she struggles to get her sister to the hospital, shows that at least some people are working collectively instead of just focusing on their own short-term survival.
“Kiki Hernández Beats the Devil” is a very satisfying story that basically does what the title says. With her trusty guitar and her devoted hellhound, the legendary Kiki runs into unexpected obstacles while saving communities that had made bad deals with devils.
“Anchorage” is a really interesting story. At first, I thought it was about a spaceship that had secretly become sentient and was trying to save its people while avoiding revealing itself, and then it turned out that this was about something else.
I really enjoyed the mixed of stories in this collection, with its bending of genres and tweaking of expectations. But while playing with different types of stories, Mills really focuses on people, their perceptions and values, and their choices. She has some really important things to say about people and the families and societies that they build, through her interesting and entertaining stories.
Rabbit Test and Other Stories by Samantha Mills will be released April 21; you can preorder here.
Content Warnings: Sexual/gender discrimination and oppression; self-sacrifice; family strife; offscreen deaths of relatives; apocalypses; alien perspective.
Comps: Every Galaxy a Circle, by Chloe N. Clark.
Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this collection for review from the publisher via NetGalley.
