Tor.com 10/21, 10/28, 11/11, 11/18/20 While many of Locus‘s reviewers are deeply entrenched in 2021, I’ll be spending this month and the next wrapping up everything I can from 2020. The joy of online publication is the ease of getting content quickly, but it means I rarely get to see issues in advance. So please enjoy these last hurrahs of an otherwise insane year, and make sure to keep stories from the end of 2020 in mind when it comes time for award nominations and voting. October’s Brenda Cooper, “ Callme and Mink“. Julie is a robot who trains service dogs. Although she’s moved around a lot in this post-collapse future, she’s settled in a seaside town, where she’s been training a younger dog for some time when a local shopkeeper refers a wandering family to her. They have an ailing daughter, unable to walk on her own, and Julie decides that they’re a worthy fit for Mink. She takes the time to train the family on how best to handle and provide for the dog. There are nice touches as Julie has to maintain her own programming and figure out the best path for herself.