Tag: Weird Fiction

“The Dancer” & “The Speckled God”: Two from Unsung Signals

December 2, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Penelope D’Silva is a world-famous dancer, perhaps the best alive. But attendance at her performances is dropping, even as her filmed performances continue to sell out. What can be done to recapture the magic of live performance – and how far will Penelope go to find it? The Review: This short is an episode of Black Mirror waiting to happen. I don’t mean that to say the story reads like a film treatment – it doesn’t, at all – […]

Categories: Fiction • Tags: Advance Review, Book, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Horror, Marc Joan, Rab Ferguson, review, Reviews, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Speculative, The Dancer, The Speckled God, Unsung Signals, Unsung Stories, Weird Fiction

The Ballad of Black Tom

November 4, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Charles “Tommy” Tester is a hustler in Harlem in 1924. He takes care of his dad and makes an okay life for himself – but after he delivers a most mysterious package, he becomes increasingly caught up in a world of strange happenings. After he’s invited to play a white man’s party in Queens, he disappears – only to reappear as something far darker and far less himself… The Review: I was reading the transcript of a […]

Categories: Fiction • Tags: A Visit to October Country, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, H.P. Lovecraft, Horror, Literature, Lovecraft, New York, Novella, review, Reviews, The Ballad of Black Tom, The Horror at Red Hook, Tor Publishing, Victor LaValle, Weird Fiction

Intimations

August 22, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: A house that holds its own weather systems. A woman, struggling to come to terms with love and motherhood. An apocalypse of things disappearing. An attack by lobsters. These are just a few of the strange, lovely, curious tales in Alexandra Kleeman’s first collection. The Review: Alexandra Kleeman’s You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine remains one of the single most affecting reading experiences I’ve ever had. The oddity of the story, of the voice, of the way it […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature, Short Stories • Tags: Advance Review, Alexandra Kleeman, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Intimations, Literature, review, Reviews, Short Stories, Weird, Weird Fiction

The Last Days of New Paris

August 15, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: It’s 1950 and the war still rages in Paris – but it’s no longer just Nazis and Resistance fighters. A Surrealist bomb has remade Paris and peopled the streets with Surrealist art made manifest. In this impossible city, a young Surrealist fighter named Thibaut meets an American photographer named Sam who believes that these are the last days of New Paris – for something else stalks these streets as well… The Review: Anyone who has ever gazed upon […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Literature • Tags: Alternate History, Art, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, China Miéville, Culture, Fantasy, Fiction, Literature, Paris, Reviews, Speculative Fiction, Surrealism, Surrealist Fiction, The Last Days of New Paris, Weird, Weird Fiction, World War II

Veniss Underground

June 29, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Sometime far in the future, in a city called Veniss, a young would-be-artist named Nicholas is down on his luck. He seeks a favor from a friend, an introduction to a powerful figure – and disappears. When his sister gets worried, she asks that same friend – Shadrach, her former lover – to look for him. So begins Shadrach’s journey into the depths of Veniss’ underground – a journey that will take him to the mouth of some […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Literature, Sci-Fi • Tags: Balzac's War, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fantasy, Fiction, Jeff Vandermeer, Novella, Reviews, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Veniss, Weird, Weird Fiction

Leena Krohn: Collected Fiction

February 5, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: The first major collection (in English) to take a career-spanning look at the works, both major and minor, of Leena Krohn. Strange cities, robots, clones, a “paradox archive”, a deadly plant, and more populate the tales collected here and the whole presents a truly unique voice in all its many timbres. The Review: It’s easy to believe, for Americans and perhaps for members of English-speaking society at large, that we have available to us all that we will ever […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Literature, Sci-Fi • Tags: Ann VanderMeer, Anna Volmari, Anselm Hollo, Bethany Fox, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Cheeky Frawg, Eva Buchwald, Fiction, Finland, Finnish Fiction, Gold of Ophir, Herbert Lomas, Hildi Hawkins, J. Robert Tupasela, Jeff Vandermeer, Leena Krohn, Literature, Reviews, Tainaron, Translation, Vivii Hyvönen, Weird Fiction

Iron Council

January 22, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: A railroad sets out from New Crobuzon and goes rogue, setting off across the continent in pursuit of an ideal of freedom. Time passes and the train turns to myth – but with war tearing apart New Crobuzon from within and without, a small band of adventurers sets out to bring the train home. The Iron Council is needed… The Review: I don’t know why I’m so ambivalent about this book. On the surface, it should deliver […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction • Tags: Bas-Lag, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Cartography, China Miéville, Fantasy, Fiction, Iron Council, New Crobuzon, Politics, Reviews, Revolution, Trains, Travel, Weird, Weird Fiction

Looking for Jake and Other Stories

December 24, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Rogue streets that fight each other, creatures from the edge of consciousness, apocalypses of various forms, and a socialist Christmas are just some of the strange delights in China Miéville’s first collection. The Review: Pound for pound, there are few authors more inventive than China Miéville. I could (and have, many times) go on about the ways in which he’s impressed me previously… but seeing as short stories are often a great way to get introduced to a writer, let’s […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Literature, Sci-Fi • Tags: Bas-Lag, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, China Miéville, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Looking for Jake, Looking for Jake and Other Stories, Mystery, Reviews, Sci-Fi, Short Stories, Thriller, Weird, Weird Fiction

The Bestiary

December 21, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Compiled by Ann VanderMeer, The Bestiary presents just that: a collection of short writing about strange creatures, one for each letter of the alphabet (as well as ‘&’ and an invisible letter). The Review: I think sometimes that there isn’t quite enough wonder in the world, particularly of the magical variety. I don’t necessarily mean the magic of wand-waving wizards and the like (although they’re not excluded) but the sort of magic that comes from a moment’s turn […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Short Stories • Tags: Amal El-Mohtar, Animals, Ann VanderMeer, Bestiary, Brian Conn, Brian Evenson, Cat Rambo, Catherynne M. Valente, China Miéville, Corey Redekop, Creatures, Cryptids, cryptozoology, Dean Francis Alfar, Dexter Palmer, Eric Schaller, Fantasy, Felix Gilman, Fiction, Gio Clairval, Grimoire, Jeff Vandermeer, Joseph Nigg, Karen Heuler, Karen Lord, Karin Lowachee, Karin Tidbeck, Lisa L. Hannett, Micaela Morrissette, Michael Cisco, Michal Ajvaz, Research, Reza Negarestani, Rhys Hughes, Richard Howard, Rikki Ducornet, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Science, Short Stories, Stephen Graham Jones, The Bestiary, Vandara Singh, Weird Fiction

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Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books