Next SFF Author: Gena Showalter

Previous SFF Author: Martin L. Shoemaker

Series: Short Fiction

One Message Remains: Four innovative, deeply psychological stories

One Message Remains by Premee Mohamed

Yes, we are cruel. Yes, the world does not use that word as a compliment as we do.

Premee Mohamed is one of my favorite writers in the field. With 2025’s themed story collection One Message Remains she reminds me once again of why I like her work so much.

These four stories all take place either within the decadent, aggressive nation of Treotan, or in one of the nations it has invaded. Treotan, dying from within, still relies on its military and continues its invasions.

Murder by Memory: Intriguing setting but didn’t connect

Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite

Murder by Memory is a cozy mystery novella by Oliva Waite set on a generation spaceship. Unfortunately, despite the intriguing setting, this didn’t connect with me for a number of reasons: the brevity of the novella form seemed to work against the story, neither the mystery nor the solving of it was particularly compelling, and the novel was both a bit overly expository and too twee for me.

The HMS Fairweather has been journey through space for 300 years, carrying thousands of passengers whose minds are stored in the ship’s Library so when their bodies wear out or are damaged,

Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart and Other Stories: The eerie, the surreal and the beautiful

Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart and Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott

I loved GennaRose Nethercott’s novel Thistlefoot, one of the best books I’d read in a long time, so I followed it up with 2024’s story collection, Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart and Other Stories. This collection displays the beautiful, the eerie, the surreal, and the terrible, written in Nethercott’s precise, poetic prose that reminds me of the writing of Kelly Link.

The books contains fourteen stories.

Dark Feasts: Where’s the fun?

Dark Feasts by Ramsey Campbell

The last two books that I finished in 2024 had this in common: They were both collections that were chosen for inclusion in Jones & Newman’s excellent overview volume Horror: 100 Best Books (1988). I just loved Karl Edward Wagner’s In a Lonely Place (1983), as it turned out, and much enjoyed Lisa Tuttle’s A Nest of Nightmares (1986), although some of the stories in that latter volume had proven disappointing for me by dint of their ambiguity.

A Nest of Nightmares: A very fine collection of horrifying ambiguities

A Nest of Nightmares by Lisa Tuttle

And so, I have just come to the end of another lot of nine volumes from the remarkable publisher known as Valancourt Books. And what an ennead they were! In chronological order: Ernest G. Henham’s The Feast of Bacchus (1907), in which a pair of comedy and tragedy masks influences whoever comes into their orbit; L. P. Hartley’s Facial Justice (1960),

In a Lonely Place: Tennessee Dread

In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner

In any number of my book reviews here on FanLit, I have had cause to refer to editor Karl Edward Wagner’s famous Wagner 39 List. This three-part list, which originally appeared in the June and August 1983 issues of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine, enumerated the editor’s choices for the 13 Best Supernatural Horror Novels of all time, the 13 Best Nonsupernatural Horror Novels of all time, and the 13 Best Sci-Fi Horror Novels of all time;

The Last Dangerous Visions: Disappointing

The Last Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison & J. Michael Straczynski

Short story collections by their nature are hit and miss. The classic, almost unavoidable go-to review is calling a collection a “mixed bag” or noting only “some of the stories hit.” Honestly, I wish I could go that far with The Last Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison (kind of) and J. Michael Straczynski (kind of), but the disappointing reality is that most of these stories rather than some “didn’t hit” for me,

September 24th, 2024. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | A.E. Van_Vogt, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Cory Doctorow, Dan Simmons, David Brin, Harlan Ellison, J. Michael Straczynski, James S.A. Corey, John Morressy, Max Brooks, P.C. Hodgell, Robert Sheckley, Ward Moore | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

The Complete John Silence Stories: The doctor is in

The Complete John Silence Stories by Algernon Blackwood

For English author Algernon Blackwood, success as a writer came fairly late in life. Although today deemed one of the 20th century’s greatest purveyors of supernatural and “weird” fiction, Blackwood evinced little interest in the field until he was in his mid-30s. Up till that time, he had tried his hand in numerous professions – from a dairy farmer in Canada to a NYC journalist, from hotel operator to model, from personal secretary to bartender. It wasn’t until Blackwood turned 37 that his first short-story collection,

One Hundred Shadows: A haunting novella told in simple, spare prose

One Hundred Shadows by Hwang Jungeun (translated by Jung Yewon)

One Hundred Shadows (2024) by Hwan Jungeun (translated by Jung Yewon) is a haunting novella told in simple, spare prose. But don’t let that simplicity, and the surface gentleness of the style, fool you. This is a story that is sharp in its criticism of Korean society (really, capitalist society in general) even as it is tender toward its characters, one that is thoughtful and moving even as it is spartan in its dialogue and language. It’s the kind of book that passes quickly in terms of reading experience but lingers in the mind for some time after you’ve turned the last page.

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins: Clark is a master of the short novel form

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark

P. Djèlí Clark has in past works show himself to be a master of the short novel form, and that holds true with his newest, The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, a fast-paced mystery romp full of dark humor set amidst a twisting turning tale. I had a blast reading it and can’t imagine that reaction won’t be widely shared amongst those wise enough to pick it up.

That odd title (it gets explained in the opening scene) is the name of an assassins guild working in the port city of Tal Abisi.

Next SFF Author: Gena Showalter

Previous SFF Author: Martin L. Shoemaker

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