Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2012 edition

This is a stronger collection than the [b:2011 edition 13448605 Some of the Best of Tor.com Patrick Nielsen Hayden https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328116888s/13448605.jpg 18968570], perhaps because it was less self-consciously global - the stories were better, but had a narrower reach. There were no weak stories here. Some were no more than adequate, but a number were quite strong. The anthology came closer than 2011's to fulfilling the goal of a simple collection of good stories. In particular, I enjoyed:“Portrait of Lisane de Patagna”, by Rachel Swirsky, about a painter, her instructor, and magic. The ending could have been stronger, but the body of the story was well done. “The Mongolian Wizard”, by Michael Swanwick, about a steampunkish alternate Earth of wizards and espionage. I've not been taken with Mr. Swanwick's other work, but I found this very enjoyable. It suffers from giving a strong feeling of excerpt or prologue, but it does stand alone reasonably well.All in all, a good collection, and worth picking up (it's free).PS the information about the generic ebook edition is both wrong (pagination) and less full (contents) than the info for the Kindle edition.