Title: Rabbit Test and Other Stories
Author: Samantha Mills
Pages: 256
Release: April 21, 2026

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A diverse array of stories, each engaging and lively, brimming with heart and an urgent sense of purpose. In “Strange Waters,” a fisherwoman is lost to time. The currents sweep her centuries beyond her known present day. She seeks out new “timestreams” that might return her to what she understands as the present, while her arrivals and departures create ripples across time.

“Laugh Lines” is a lean tale about a translucent rabbit-baby, adopted by a spider-mother, which examines adoption and disability advocacy. “The Limits of Magic” explores, well, the limits of magic. It’s a beautifully constructed high fantasy about a woman bearing the weight of expectation amidst the tumult of war.

Samantha Mills’s stories run the gamut of SFF genres and subgenres. Not every story worked or kept me fully hooked, but the ones that did were truly fantastic.

Favorite stories: “Strange Waters,” “Rabbit Test,” “The Limits of Magic”

★★★½

My thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.