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Quandary Aminu vs The Butterfly Man
When an illicit trade deal goes wrong and Quandary is blamed for it, she goes on the run to avoid the crosshairs of a bioengineered killer that only lives for 24 hours. If Q can evade it for that long, she just might survive.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
35 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 21, 2022
1 person is currently reading
136 people want to read
About the author
Rich Larson
199 books251 followersRich Larson was born in Galmi, Niger, has studied in Rhode Island and worked in the south of Spain, and now lives in Ottawa, Canada. Since he began writing in 2011, he’s sold over a hundred stories, the majority of them speculative fiction published in magazines like Asimov’s, Analog, Clarkesworld, F&SF, Lightspeed, and Tor.com.
His work appears in numerous Year’s Best anthologies and has been translated into Chinese, Vietnamese, Polish, French and Italian. Annex, his debut novel and first book of The Violet Wars trilogy, comes out in July 2018 with Orbit Books. Tomorrow Factory, his debut collection, follows in October 2018 with Talos Press.
Besides writing, he enjoys travelling, learning languages, playing soccer, watching basketball, shooting pool, and dancing kizomba.
His work appears in numerous Year’s Best anthologies and has been translated into Chinese, Vietnamese, Polish, French and Italian. Annex, his debut novel and first book of The Violet Wars trilogy, comes out in July 2018 with Orbit Books. Tomorrow Factory, his debut collection, follows in October 2018 with Talos Press.
Besides writing, he enjoys travelling, learning languages, playing soccer, watching basketball, shooting pool, and dancing kizomba.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
December 14, 2022
WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
this explanation/intro will be posted before each day’s short story. scroll down to get to the story-review.
this is the SEVENTH year of me doing a short story advent calendar as my december project. for those of you new to me or this endeavor, here’s the skinny: every day in december, i will be reading a short story that is 1) available free somewhere on internet, and 2) listed on goodreads as its own discrete entity. there will be links provided for those of you who like to read (or listen to) short stories for free, and also for those of you who have wildly overestimated how many books you can read in a year and are freaking out about not meeting your annual reading-challenge goals. i have been gathering links all year when tasty little tales have popped into my feed, but i will also accept additional suggestions, as long as they meet my aforementioned 1), 2) standards.
GR has deleted the pages for several of the stories i've read in previous years without warning, leaving me with a bunch of missing reviews and broken links, which makes me feel shitty. i have tried to restore the ones i could, but my to-do list is already a ball of nightmares, so that's still a work-in-progress. however, because i don't have a lot of time to waste, and because my brain has felt scraped clean ever since my bout with covid, i'm not going to bother writing much in the way of reviews for these, in case GR decides to scrap 'em again.
i am doing my best.
merry merry.
DECEMBER 4
an absolutely perfect fucking story. if you like murderbot, you're gonna love butterfly man.
for me, this was extra sweet because i love rich larson, yet i wasn't crazy about his most recent novel, Ymir*, which lukewarm response was purely a genre-not-for-me situation. but this, THIS!!! i loved every moment of it. it is on the longer side of the tor-short spectrum, so carve out enough time that you won't be interrupted by the hard limits of your commute, your lunch hour, your child's afternoon nap and GET INTO IT. if a whole story cycle about these characters set in this world existed, i would be a happier person.
* Ymir was actually the last book i was able to review before covid ate my brain and left me with a cavern of head-pudding instead. that was in JULY! beezus christ.
read it for yourself here:
https://www.tor.com/2022/09/21/quanda...
2022:
DECEMBER 1: PORGEE'S BOAR - JONATHAN CARROLL
DECEMBER 2: SKELETON SONG - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 3: JUDGE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING MANUSCRIPT - LAVIE TIDHAR
FROM THE BEFORETIMES:
2016 short story advent calendar
2017 short story advent calendar
2018 short story advent calendar
2019 short story advent calendar
2020 short story advent calendar
2021 short story advent calendar
this explanation/intro will be posted before each day’s short story. scroll down to get to the story-review.
this is the SEVENTH year of me doing a short story advent calendar as my december project. for those of you new to me or this endeavor, here’s the skinny: every day in december, i will be reading a short story that is 1) available free somewhere on internet, and 2) listed on goodreads as its own discrete entity. there will be links provided for those of you who like to read (or listen to) short stories for free, and also for those of you who have wildly overestimated how many books you can read in a year and are freaking out about not meeting your annual reading-challenge goals. i have been gathering links all year when tasty little tales have popped into my feed, but i will also accept additional suggestions, as long as they meet my aforementioned 1), 2) standards.
GR has deleted the pages for several of the stories i've read in previous years without warning, leaving me with a bunch of missing reviews and broken links, which makes me feel shitty. i have tried to restore the ones i could, but my to-do list is already a ball of nightmares, so that's still a work-in-progress. however, because i don't have a lot of time to waste, and because my brain has felt scraped clean ever since my bout with covid, i'm not going to bother writing much in the way of reviews for these, in case GR decides to scrap 'em again.
i am doing my best.
merry merry.
DECEMBER 4
an absolutely perfect fucking story. if you like murderbot, you're gonna love butterfly man.
for me, this was extra sweet because i love rich larson, yet i wasn't crazy about his most recent novel, Ymir*, which lukewarm response was purely a genre-not-for-me situation. but this, THIS!!! i loved every moment of it. it is on the longer side of the tor-short spectrum, so carve out enough time that you won't be interrupted by the hard limits of your commute, your lunch hour, your child's afternoon nap and GET INTO IT. if a whole story cycle about these characters set in this world existed, i would be a happier person.
* Ymir was actually the last book i was able to review before covid ate my brain and left me with a cavern of head-pudding instead. that was in JULY! beezus christ.
read it for yourself here:
https://www.tor.com/2022/09/21/quanda...
2022:
DECEMBER 1: PORGEE'S BOAR - JONATHAN CARROLL
DECEMBER 2: SKELETON SONG - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 3: JUDGE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING MANUSCRIPT - LAVIE TIDHAR
FROM THE BEFORETIMES:
2016 short story advent calendar
2017 short story advent calendar
2018 short story advent calendar
2019 short story advent calendar
2020 short story advent calendar
2021 short story advent calendar
September 23, 2022
I've read several of Larson's stories now and they've all been consistently great. This is seat-of-your-pants sci-fi, equally thrilling and chilling, infused with sharp dialogue, a wild imagination and just the perfect amount of humor and sentimentality.
May 14, 2023
3.5-ish?
This short? novelette? novella? (idk what the word count is, and the supposed page counts for all these tor.com shorts are worthless) is exactly what the GR description says.
It's very visual. I imagine it would make a good movie. But...
It really never gives you any reason to give a shit about the MC. I felt more for one of the throw away characters at the beginning than our actual protagonist or anyone else in the story.
The one with the chimp, Meat and Salt and Sparks, was way better, and apes creep me out. Hopefully whatever I read next by the author is more like that.
* Ok, I copied and pasted the text from tor.com into a word processor and it's about 15k, which puts it near the longer end of "novelette" length by SFWA standards.
This short? novelette? novella? (idk what the word count is, and the supposed page counts for all these tor.com shorts are worthless) is exactly what the GR description says.
It's very visual. I imagine it would make a good movie. But...
It really never gives you any reason to give a shit about the MC. I felt more for one of the throw away characters at the beginning than our actual protagonist or anyone else in the story.
The one with the chimp, Meat and Salt and Sparks, was way better, and apes creep me out. Hopefully whatever I read next by the author is more like that.
* Ok, I copied and pasted the text from tor.com into a word processor and it's about 15k, which puts it near the longer end of "novelette" length by SFWA standards.
December 16, 2022
Thought I would try something different. Maybe I need to just push through, but DNF due to the casual drug use. It may not be glamorized by the end of the story, but it felt like it was in the beginning and I didn’t want to continue with the story. It is written well, but not what I would like to continue reading.
2, I would have finished if it wasn’t for the drug use which could be triggering and needs a warning, stars.
2, I would have finished if it wasn’t for the drug use which could be triggering and needs a warning, stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2023
An excellent little story, very different from my normal fare. Fascinating, violent, funny, touching, and probably a few other adjectives that don’t normally go together. Read it here if you’re interested: https://www.tor.com/2022/09/21/quanda...
October 1, 2022
Best describe it as...a technological, bio-cyber punk ride in a shot glass!
August 26, 2025
The butterfly man, and the other near-future technology in this story is pretty cool overall. The hard drug use was off-putting and I did not like tha main character very much. Her dialogue was cringey and she came off as an annoying loser rather than the "loveable fuckup" that I feel the author was going for. That being said, the action scenes were really well written.
December 5, 2022
Bravo!
March 30, 2023
Definitely unique. Reminds me somewhat of del Toro's "the outside".
January 14, 2024
Well-written but I'm not a horror fan. Still, 3-star read. Horror fans will love it.
Story link: https://www.tor.com/2022/09/21/quanda...
Story link: https://www.tor.com/2022/09/21/quanda...
January 7, 2024
THIS WAS SO GOOD. i've had the tab open for literally months and just got around to it today and i ate it UP. i would read a novel about Q, this future earth, and the butterfly men. SO GOOD.
January 30, 2023
I need more adventures of Quandary and the Butterfly man!
October 1, 2022
I feel like Rich Larson has a little shared universe going on, because this feels a bit like it's set in the same setting as How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobučar. It's a dirty post peak capitalism setting that's pretty interesting. I liked the concept and execution very much in this story.
April 6, 2024
I’ve really become a huge fan of Rich’s work in the last couple of years. Check out his story “Painless” at Tor.com as well, it’s amazing. This is a wild ride. It was just so much fun, filled with a lot of originality and weirdness, so I wanted to do it for this class. Felt like a flavor and story we didn’t see a LOT this year. SYNOPSIS: When an illicit trade deal goes wrong and Quandary is blamed for it, she goes on the run to avoid the crosshairs of a bioengineered killer that only lives for 24 hours. If Q can evade it for that long, she just might survive. Quandry is a HOOT. So much fun to follow and root for across this story. (Great name, too.) I love the crazy ways they use drugs throughout this story—for pleasure, to get their heads straight, to ward off viruses. Love the addition of her baba, he’s a great twist and interesting element to the story. Genetically the butterfly man is closer to a flatworm. “Regrows organs. Breathes through its skin. No real skeleton, hydrostatic muscle.” Love the conversation with the BM in the back of the cab, about how he has changed, gotten bored, wants more. The line about pushing people CHEF’S KISS, just so funny and touching at the same time. LOL. Love the ending, the emotions Rich puts us through, sadness, and then laughter, and then contemplation. Just a brilliant story done so well. Love it. One of my favorite stories that I taught in my workshops this year.
December 30, 2023
Quandary Aminu has managed to get themselves caught on a hit list. And it's not just any hit man, it's a butterfly man - a genetically engineered killing machine. Can they manage to out run it's short life span of 24 hours, and use every trick in the book to outsmart it?
This was a lot of fun, fast paced and brimming with quick wit and fighting. Quandry is a great character with an interesting backstory that shines through all 30+ pages. I could read countless more about her relationship with Baba, the butterfly man and beyond. And the way Rich Larson can change my opinion about a genetically designed killer in so few pages says something for his writing skill. Great story, and one that left me desperate for more of this world and technology. It reminded me a bit of The Murders of Molly Southbourne for its interesting characters and use of genetic engineering to produce killing machines. Highly recommend.
This was a lot of fun, fast paced and brimming with quick wit and fighting. Quandry is a great character with an interesting backstory that shines through all 30+ pages. I could read countless more about her relationship with Baba, the butterfly man and beyond. And the way Rich Larson can change my opinion about a genetically designed killer in so few pages says something for his writing skill. Great story, and one that left me desperate for more of this world and technology. It reminded me a bit of The Murders of Molly Southbourne for its interesting characters and use of genetic engineering to produce killing machines. Highly recommend.
October 22, 2022
Quandary Aminu vs The Butterfly Man by author Rich Larson is a short story you can read for free on the Tor.com site https://www.tor.com/2022/09/21/quanda...
When an illicit trade deal goes wrong and Quandary is blamed for it, she goes on the run to avoid the crosshairs of a bioengineered killer that only lives for 24 hours. If Q can evade it for that long, she just might survive.
“Hello,” it says. “What was the happiest moment of your life?”
Wow, this was crazy good! Very imaginative cyberpunk that was intense and entertaining. I need to find me some more of this author.
5 Stars
When an illicit trade deal goes wrong and Quandary is blamed for it, she goes on the run to avoid the crosshairs of a bioengineered killer that only lives for 24 hours. If Q can evade it for that long, she just might survive.
“Hello,” it says. “What was the happiest moment of your life?”
Wow, this was crazy good! Very imaginative cyberpunk that was intense and entertaining. I need to find me some more of this author.
5 Stars
May 29, 2023
Quandary Aminu was handling an illicit trade when it goes bad, and the boss blames her for it. The result is a genetically engineered killer, known as the Butterfly Man, being grown and send to kill her. As the story progresses, and she runs to avoid the killer, a conversation with somebody she knows well leads to a conclusion about whom was behind the deal going bad. Now she wants to go after him.
November 5, 2022
CWs:
This had me in its grip start to finish. What an addictive story! The action sequences were perfectly described to keep my attention, something I don’t often get from short stories (or hell, sometimes not even from longer stories). I highly recommend it for people who enjoy sci-fi action. It can be read on Tor.com
This had me in its grip start to finish. What an addictive story! The action sequences were perfectly described to keep my attention, something I don’t often get from short stories (or hell, sometimes not even from longer stories). I highly recommend it for people who enjoy sci-fi action. It can be read on Tor.com
April 5, 2023
“Where do old people stash their shit, Baba? Floorboard? Ceiling tile?”
In whatever orifice is loose, but not too loose.
“You must really miss having an anus.”
I’ve got you. That counts.
I had lots of fun with this one - a quick-paced and engaging, slightly-on-the-longer-side short story, but definitely worth your time.
In whatever orifice is loose, but not too loose.
“You must really miss having an anus.”
I’ve got you. That counts.
I had lots of fun with this one - a quick-paced and engaging, slightly-on-the-longer-side short story, but definitely worth your time.
November 17, 2022
It's just good fun. Unlike a lot of Sci-Fi, especially traditional sci-fi from authors such as Isaac Asimov, it isn't focused on forcing a message onto the reader. It just lets you have a feel for it, with a fun story to boot.
February 1, 2024
It really sucked me right away. It was interesting and exciting. The only problem I have was that there was too much action for my taste. Especially in the climax, there is too much going on. This is the first I've read by the author, but I'll definitely read more.
December 20, 2022
Please make this a series, or a movie, or both.
January 1, 2023
An exceptional story about assassins.
January 31, 2023
Another great ride. I freakin’ love Tor Publishing! Action packed with great world building. That was a fun read!! I’m really going to need some further adventures of Quandary & Butterfly Man. 🤓👍🏻
December 27, 2023
A fun high octane shoot’em up that really needs a film treatment. Would have liked to seen a stronger character arc but overall it is visceral Larson fun as expected.
January 11, 2024
You know that animated short “The Witness”? This is MY The Witness.
July 14, 2024
Was für eine geniale Idee!! 🍜
September 30, 2022
Fight or flight.
Fight. Has to be.
Rich Larson's short fiction is an auto-read for me, and as usual, this is a completely original story with a chaotically imaginative cyberpunk bent. He creates such complete worlds in such a short space of time, and makes protagonists with no shortage of backbone.
Absolutely brilliant and available here: https://www.tor.com/2022/09/21/quanda...
Fight. Has to be.
Rich Larson's short fiction is an auto-read for me, and as usual, this is a completely original story with a chaotically imaginative cyberpunk bent. He creates such complete worlds in such a short space of time, and makes protagonists with no shortage of backbone.
Absolutely brilliant and available here: https://www.tor.com/2022/09/21/quanda...
April 23, 2024
Sometimes all you want is a short story about a sassy mercenary armed to the teeth and fighting a Terminator-style bioengineered killing machine. This story is nothing original but with 30-odd pages of adrenaline-fuelled action and a strange but sort of likable monster, it is enormously enjoyable to read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews