Art by Yuko Shimizu
My story, Beauty Belongs to the Flowers, concerns a classic love triangle in a near-future Japan: a girl, a boy, and his robot. Miho could certainly win back Ichiro. All she needs is a little hair dye. And some plastic surgery. A bit of pore-sealing, a touch of bone shaving, and she could be like Aimi, the perfect manga doll. If only Miho wasn’t a flat-broke teenager. But she needs to make a move fast. If her father, body ravaged by pharmaceutical nanos gone wild, dies, he’s going to take the whole family down with him.
Beauty Belongs to the Flowers received an honorable mention in Gardner Dozois’ The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Writing for Locus Magazine, Dozois called it “A sad and poignant story about generational conflict and culture shock.”
Buy it in the collection, Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2011 (I get a little kickback!
Or put a few more shekels in my pocket and buy it on its own!