My eyes were her eyes. My lips were her lips and my shoulders, too, were hers, and so the world was geometrically composed, and everything I ever was or would become was threaded in me already, and manifest in her.this is helicopter parenting with a SF edge; where cloning/parthenogenesis enables a mother's micro-meddling with her daughter by way of her physicality; using her own body as a template to create new life, picking away at the unsatisfactory bits, building new ones, reshaping her daugh...

4.5 starsThis short story was fun, more than anything. Sci-fi Roman Empire is an unusual setting as well, so bonus points there. In terms of plot, the mother-daughter mad scientist relationship bent reminded me of both The Girl with All the Gifts and The Body Electric. You can read it online here.

3.85 stars. A very unusual mother-daughter relationship and more in this SF short story. Free to read on tor.com (use link provided by GR, or: http://www.tor.com/2016/04/20/the-des...).

I really enjoyed The Destroyer by Tara Isabella Burton. It’s set in a futuristic version of Rome ruled by Caesar and stars a daughter created by her scientist-mother. The world building is pretty interesting, which makes me sad that it isn’t longer. The mother had a lot of hubris because of her intellect which makes her make a lot of modifications to the daughter she created. I liked the main protagonist’s struggle for individuality and the portrayal of her relationship with her mother. My only

What a great mix of history and futuristic science fiction. A well imagined world. A treat to read!

My eyes were her eyes. My lips were her lips and my shoulders, too, were hers, and so the world was geometrically composed, and everything I ever was or would become was threaded in me already, and manifest in her. 3.5 stars. These Tor shorts are perfect little bite sized treats of sci-fi.Read it here: http://www.tor.com/2016/04/20/the-des...

An ambitious genius in futuristic Rome (which is like ancient Rome, only high-tech) makes her perfect clone-child, only to go on to want to make her into something more. And more. And more.I loved the first two acts of this one, narrated by the manipulated clone-child/cyborg. The setting is vivid, the emotions raw as she's pushed by her mother's abuse. The third act lost me a little as I wasn't quite sure what had just happened to transition between the two scenarios, or how the clone-borg ends

Well that was a fast read, I’m surprised it’s so short, not a bad short story mind you especially towards the beginning had a real connection mother daughter, reality and overlaid with mad scientist mom and daughter who becomes her biggest science project, great setup good ideal but the execution how the story plays out is too truncated too compressed for the writing because when it’s that short a story each word every sentence counts. I’m afraid it just didn’t carry enough pathos mother daughte...

Premise: In a fantastic Rome, a scientist creates a daughter through parthenogenesis. The resulting story is about the bond and love of mother and daughter. How each builds each other up and tears eachother down.Thoughts/Feelings: I'm a sucker for complicated family dynamics and even moreso where there aren't any easy answers. I enjoyed this and thought the setting was interesting if trippy.

4.5 it’s another excellent #scifi short that blew me away. Again my main issue is that is was that I wanted more! More story, more details, more background. Again I’m hoping this is the beginning of something! Beautiful writing and a very cool ending. I heartily recommend!

Whilst the writing itself is good I found this little story to be much too short to allow any emotional investment in either of the main characters - or even for me to feel any connection between them despite the parthogenesis - the premise is an interesting one though but not one that obviously inspired Ms Burton to expand upon this sketchy outline.

This was a bit of a weird short story. Some of it worked for me and some of it did not. The big drawback was that I never really managed to get emotionally invested with either of the two characters.The setting of the story was also a little weird. Original in feel as it was sort of an alternate history sci-fi Rome. Think ancient Rome in the future! It was definitely fresh in feel but still never quite worked for me. This was the tale of a genius mother who pushes her daughter to become the perf...

The Destroyer by author Tara Isabella Burton is a short story you can read for free on the Tor.com site https://www.tor.com/2016/04/20/the-de...In a futuristic, fascistic Rome, a brilliant, unstable scientist proves that she can transcend the human body’s limitations. The test subject? Her own daughter. A mother-daughter mad scientist story, “The Destroyer” asks how far we’ll go to secure our own legacies — and how far we’ll run to escape them.Great story! I loved the idea of Ancient Rome combin...

★★★★☆ (4/5)A selection of my favourite passages from the book • Long before my mother destroyed the world, her experiments were quieter, more contained. They did not obliterate continents. They did not rack up the dead • and everything I ever was or would become was threaded in me already, and manifest in her. • Like them I had the power to disappoint her. • There is a caesura between all that was and all that is, between the city I loved and the city that I know now, between my mother’s city an...

I'm taking a science fiction short story class this semester, and for extra credit, we can read unassigned stories on our own and respond to them. I chose this one, and damn, I'm so glad I did. I connected to it more than any of the other stories I've read for that class, and it's the only story that has made me truly excited for sci fi. I didn't know sci fi could be like this.This is a story unlike all the other classic SF I've read. It's based on a mother-daughter relationship in a futuristic,...

This was super bleak but also had some fascinating insights into mother-daughter relationships and familial expectations. The setting was fascinating and incredibly well-developed, given how short this story was compared to others in the Tor collection.

Dang, it was a good read. The writing is neat, the concepts are cool, especially the concept of "parthenogenesis," and the world-building is pretty good. I really liked the juxtaposition of ancient Rome and futuristic technology.

This is a tough one for me to score and review. As with the previous tales in the collection, the quality of the writing and construction show that these stories are indeed Some of the best. Here we have have a story told from the POV of the daughter of a scientist - born from self-cloning, and then pressured into being constantly enhanced into something more than human. Her mother is clearly brilliant, driven and insane and this leads to my issue with the piece; I loathe mad-scientist stories.

This is a very well written thought provoking sci-fi short.It will not take a long time to read it and you definitely should - https://www.tor.com/2016/04/20/the-de...

Didn't like the concept really. The genius mind women who make a baby a girl of her own from herself and at the same time make guinea pig of her. For me it just didn't make any sense. That girl didn't want to be a robot but her mom made it & at the end reach the Caesar (The Leader). Though the ending got that little bit surprise and I do like by knowing what will be final fate of that cruel mother...2 from me out of 5...