"Another surprising thing happened when I came to 'Cerbo en Vitra ujo' by Mary Robinette Kowal. What started out as an almost light-hearted piece that could’ve been ‘romance in space’ suddenly dovetailed into dark regions... Suffice to say the conclusion is unprecedented and I cannot say more than this. Only readers with a strong stomach may apply."

“Mary Robinette Kowal’s Icelandic-inspired Bound Man is a gem, featuring derring-do, swordplay and time travel. Well worth the price of admission.”

"...a gripping tale, blending sex and violence to an exciting conclusion.”

“For all its brevity and apparent simplicity, this story packs a strong emotional punch. Beautifully, quietly done.”

"Wonderful story. And a good, low-key, but chilling reading."

"Cerbo en Vitra ujo" by Mary Robinette Kowal is a chilling story about a naïve girl investigating the disappearance of her boyfriend.

"In “Portrait of Ari,” Mary Robinette Kowal presents the reader with vivid imagery and some very tight descriptive passages. She gives us a nightmarish scenario which hooks the reader in quickly, as reality flickers back and forth between two possible outcomes."

"I’m reluctant to say that Cerbo en Vitra ujo by Mary Robinette Kowal is my favorite story. I think perhaps to know for sure I’d had to read it again and I’m not planning to do that anytime soon. Cerbo sunk its scalpels into me and drug me along for a ride. I had a good idea close to the beginning where it was headed. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t take me there like a double mocha moolatte smothered in smooth chocolate. Oh yes, I slid right through Cerbo, landing at the end wrapped in goo and trepidation. And did I mention the author lives in Iceland?"

"Most successful is 'Bound Man,' Mary Robinette Kowal's stark re-humanization of the hero archetype. When the soldier-priest Halldór, hard-pressed by foes, chants the spell to summon the legendary warrior Li Reiko, he has no idea that he is in fact bringing her out of the past, separating her from her children and the life she knows and setting in motion the chain of events that leads to the development of his own culture. As she struggles to adapt to her new reality, Reiko's grief and anger stand in sharp contrast to the usual devil-may-care attitude of mythical heroes."

"My favorite story in this collection is 'Bound Man' by Mary Robinette Kowal. ... Written in lucid prose, this tale has the true feel of an epic. ... Kowal is a talent to watch."

"Another strong piece is Cerbo en Vitra ujo, the story of Grete and her attempt to find her lost boyfriend, Kaj, whom she fears is lost to the body harvesters. Mary Robinette Kowal’s story is based on skilful world creation, with a complex social hierarchy that is seamlessly woven together to underpin this tale. ... Terrific."

The "For Solo Cello, Op. 12" science fiction story is terrific. I read it twice. Nearly every sentence ties in to events that follow or precede, but without ever being ponderous. The story line is scary, emotional, reasonable and conflicting. I could almost anticipate what was coming, but I never quite got it right, which meant that I was seated on the edge of my chair in anticipation. Couldn't have been better.

"'Locked In' by Mary Robinette Kowal is a nasty bit of text wedged into this issue. The other stories were safe, but this one is downright dangerous. The hazard comes, not from technology spinning out of control, but people’s faith in technology being far misplaced. The true evil is in the people, not the tool. The darkness in this piece snuck up on me. This one is a powerful, short piece, not to be missed."

"Kowal does a nice job with this story — it’s short, to the point and elegant. It doesn’t stray from the base idea and its implications — and its results. The story is clearly based in works like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and other such period pieces, but it’s only vaguely a pastiche of such works. ... This was probably my favorite of the issue, even above the Nolan and Glass pieces."

"Horizontal Rain is a reasonably short short-story, fewer than 2700 words, but Mary Robinette Kowal packs a good deal of story into those 2700 words. Confusion, fear, fairy tales, trolls, death, driving, construction, meetings, phone calls, and a general sense of unease as the harsh Icelandic wind blows the rain sideways."

“Death Comes But Twice” by Mary Robinette Kowal is a style of horror (with a spike of science fiction) not seen often today. Obviously rooted in classics like Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Bram Stoker's Dracula, this tale of a medical experiment to ward off death addresses the reader directly and has a dark finale and the fine writing that readers have come to expect from Kowal."

"My favorite story was Mary Robinette Kowal’s 'Death Comes But Twice' (Summer), in which a man finds a way to be revived from death, hopefully to live forever -- but there is a terrible catch."

"[Cosmos's] fiction is consistently interesting -- always SF, often fairly near future focussed, as befits a popular science magazine in many ways. I really liked one of the 2007 stories, Mary Robinette Kowal's "For Solo Cello, Op. 12" (February/March), about a cellist who loses an arm, then gets offered a wrenching choice for a way to replace the arm. "

"The final story in [Gratia Placenti], Mary Robinette Kowal’s 'Tomorrow And Tomorrow' is yet another strong tale, concerning both a mother’s love and a husband’s hate. It is also a timely look at the idea of class systems and those who come from elsewhere; where, though being well educated and even well respected in their places or countries of origin, are forced to take menial jobs and face constant ridicule to survive in their new environment."

"Mary Robinette Kowal's Evil Robot Monkey is very short and bitterly moving, about an uplifted chimp."

“Mary Robinette Kowal’s Portrait of Ari is a bittersweet tale of a couple, one of whom is perhaps not quite human, and how that fact alters their happy relationship.”

"Early in 2007 the science-fiction imprint Solaris marked its launch with The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction. A year later, editor George Mann returns with a follow-up, this time featuring strong stories from Kay Kenyon, Michael Moorcock, Mary Robinette Kowal, Eric Brown and others. "

Mary Robinette Kowal’s “Evil Robot Monkey,” the shortest piece in this anthology [Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Vol. 2], is a smart tale about monkeys with implants and a cautionary tale of how intelligence can sometimes be very lonely.

"Concluding the anthology [Gratia Placenti] is Mary Robinette Kowal's futuristic "Tomorrow and Tomorrow", a tale of the desperate things people do for the sake of others, dare I say “for the sake of pleasing” others. Entrapped by her desires and wants as well as her responsibilities for her family, we watch as one mother falls deeper into the side of darkness for all the right reasons."

Mary Robinette Kowal's "Evil Robot Monkey" is an affecting snapshot in the life of a chimp with an implant in his head that increases his intelligence. Unfortunately for him, that lands him in the "hellish limbo" of being "too smart to be with other chimps, but too much of an animal to be with humans." He becomes the subject of ridicule of children in what is presumably a school where he spends his time behind a pottery wheel. The interesting premise is delicately overlaid with emotion by having a single human show the chimp some compassion, resulting in a quick-and-dirty sf short story that is both charming and memorable.