Fantastic short story from Kath's point of view, as the old world comes to an end. Fascinating to see what they've managed to keep at this juncture, very cool to see how the decisions on what they want to hold onto are made. This is more solidly apocalyptic than the mystery stories in Bannerless and The Wild Dead, but the storytelling remains riveting.

Love that Kath is in a same sex relationship, too -- the themes of children/banners/breeding and survival are so strong in the other books, but Vaughn's world is both casual and accepting of sexuality and it's nice to read. ( )

Quick post-apoc read, def a lead in to a novel. Which I will now be reading... ( )

I am slowly working through the Tor.com archive of original fiction, and can I say -- I am SO GLAD this is a prequel as I wanted to know more about what exactly happened! ( )