2019 Hugo award finalist for Best Short Story
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this story, after all, eww, I didn't even know dentures had ever been made with human teeth (through from the Mount Vernon side, there is no proof that Washingon ever had ones made of real teeth, and he definitely never had any made of wood).
The author tells us nine stories from nine different slaves, each of which provided a tooth (willingly or otherwise) used by George Washington in his dentures. And whenever he used one of them it would affect him in different ways. When he used the one from the blacksmith he'd hear the sound of the forge for example.
Although this story is short, and the magic system is really just a side aspect, I thought it was amazingly done. Just dropping a few hints here and there allowed me to imagine this alternate history world (including "odontomancers" I mean an author would have to be creative to come up with "tooth magic"!). There were enough tidbits dropped in the worldbuilding I could imagine a whole novel set in this world. I'd like to see more about this tooth trade, are some teeth more expensive because they give different experiences, where depending on what you feel like you can insert a tooth to make you happy, make you nostalgic, make you brave, etc. I wouldn't want a whole novel about teeth of course, but it could expand on the concept as part of the background of the overall narrative. We also have army regiments manned by wizards and werewolves, and rifles are ensorcelled. An amazing amount of information packed into such a small space, masterfully done.
And kind of hard not to have a cynical laugh at the slavers not taking advantage of a portal from which you could pull slaves whenever you felt like it because the prices would drop.
| 
