Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea

by Sarah Pinsker

[empressbrooke]

I can't be truly objective about this book - Sarah is my friend. I remember when she sold her first story, and when she received her first award nomination. And now she has her first book release and every time award nominations for SFF awards come out my question isn't whether she was nominated but rather which story of hers was nominated this time.

But I can be objective enough to know that this collection competes with some of the best. I've read plenty of SFF short story collections - including Ted Chiang and Connie Willis and NK Jemisin - that swept me off my feet left me dazzled, and Sarah's belongs in their ranks. Sarah immediately drops the reader in the middle of a fully realized world and tells a story that is achingly human despite the fantastical settings, as all the best SFF does. Like all the greats, she creates so much with so few words, doing more in two dozen pages than many authors do in entire novels. These stories are sticky - the ones I read in the past stayed in the corners of my brain and the ones that are new to me are already sneaking up on me when I'm busy at work or reading other things. I can't recommend this collection enough.