Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2012

“Dormanna” is part of The Palencar Project, a five-story series curated by senior Tor Books editor David G. Hartwell. All five are based on a singular piece of art by John Jude Palencar and were released every Wednesday ths past March.“Portrait of Lisane da Patagnia” by Rachel SwirskyIllustration by Sam WeberThe line between art and magic is a treacherous thing.“The Mongolian Wizard” by Michael SwanwickIllustration by Greg ManchessA story of a very unusual international conference in a fractured Europe that never was. This story launched a new fiction series at Tor.com of stand-alone stories all set in a common world created by Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Michael Swanwick.“A Tall Tail” by Charles StrossIllustration by Greg ManchessThis year’s Tor.com birthday story, which began an annual Rocket Stories tradition for the site. The rockets in this story by Charles Stross are a little dark, and perhaps, a little too real.“The Ghosts of Christmas” by Paul CornellIllustration by Scott BakalThis year’s holiday story, provided by Paul Cornell, in which the reader is asked… which is harder: seeing your own future—or truly knowing your own past?“The Finite Canvas” by Brit MandeloIllustration by Rick BerryWe are marked by what we have been. And erasing either of those can have unpredictable consequences…“Am I Free to Go?” by Kathryn CramerIllustration by Scott BakalThe line between utopia and dystopia…is, often, who you are. Or who your neighbors think you are.“About Fairies” by Pat MurphyIllustration by Christopher Silas NealJennifer and her co-workers create fairy lands for a toy company, all the while cultivating their own personal fairy worlds….“Our Human” by Adam-Troy CastroIllustration by John Jude PalencarOn a savage backwater world, the last ragged survivors of an expedition to hunt down the infamous war criminal known as The Beast Magrison set off into an inhospitable wilderness in search of the alien village that may be sheltering this beast.“Faster Gun” by Elizabeth BearIllustration by Richard AndersonIt’s hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean, and a hundred times too big to be a ship. It looks like nothing anyone ever saw. And it’s crashed just outside Tombstone with something alive inside.