by Samantha Mills (Author)
[STARRED REVIEW] "Brilliant."
--Publishers Weekly
A subversive debut short-fiction collection from one of the hottest talents in speculative fiction: 2025 Compton Crook Award winner and Pushcart Prize nominee Samantha Mills (The Wings Upon Her Back). These riveting stories range effortlessly from fantasy and science fiction to literary fiction, from the here and now all the way into the farthest reaches of space. The central tale of the collection is Mills' pivotal Nebula, Locus, and Sturgeon Award-winning story "Rabbit Test," which interrogates the past, present, and future of abortion rights. 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.
In her strange and emotional worlds, with stakes ranging from the epic to the personal, Mills creates ample room for humor and hope amidst tragedy and struggle.
Introduction by Meg Elison (
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Author Biography
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.
Number of Pages: 256
Dimensions: 0.8 x 8.4 x 5.5 IN
Publication Date: April 21, 2026
