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The Chains That You Refuse is Elizabeth Bear's 2006 first short-fiction collection, gathering twenty stories from the early part of her career. The collection includes the Hugo-nominated novelette Two Dreams on Trains and Tideline (which won the Hugo for short story the year after publication), plus a substantial range across hard SF, urban fantasy, and noir-tinged Lovecraftiana.
Bear's short fiction is consistently the strongest part of her catalog. She is one of the few writers who can move from a hard-SF orbital-mechanics story to a New Orleans drowned-city ghost piece to a Norse mythology retelling within the same collection without losing voice. The Lovecraftian short Stay is one of the better 21st-century mythos pieces. The eponymous The Chains That You Refuse is the structural heart of the collection.
Recommended for short-fiction readers, for SF and fantasy completists, and for anyone looking for books like The Chains That You Refuse in the multi-mode contemporary SF collection tradition (Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others, Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners). Four stars and an excellent entry point into Bear's catalog.
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