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November 1, 2016

Hard-hitting SLIPPING delivers powerful, beautifully written stories

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized clara bacou, collection, eddie generous, elizabeth story, femlitica, horror, jennifer muirhead, lauren beukes, Publishers Weekly, short stories, slipping, slipping: stories essays & other writing, unnerving magazine

Three fresh reviews for Lauren Beukes’ forthcoming debut collection SLIPPING: STORIES, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY praises the collection.

In this hard-hitting collection, South African author Beukes (Broken Monsters) mixes present-day realism with science fiction, and flash fiction with personal essays. These are not nice stories. The characters bleed and sometimes die; those who don’t have learned how to fight back.

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Whether they’re set in modern-day Johannesburg or on a planet circling a distant star, these powerful, beautifully written stories are always about today and the darkness of the human soul.

Jennifer Muirhead at FEMLITICA lauds the book.

I enjoyed reading ZOO CITY by South African author and journalist Lauren Beukes so much that I jumped at the chance to read this new collection of her short stories and essays.

I don’t normally read essays, but I found those in this collection fascinating, in part because they show where some of the ideas for Beukes’ fiction stories come from. In All the Pretty Corpses she talks about the deeply personal inspiration for THE SHINING GIRLS, a novel I have so far avoided because I suspected I would find the subject matter upsetting. It is the story of a serial killer who murders women, but in her novel Beukes’ aim was to take the focus off the killer and make the story about the victims; their lives, hopes and what they could have been, emphasizing that they were people, not just corpses.

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SLIPPING is a diverse and fascinating collection of stories and essays. It contained some of the most thought provoking pieces I have read in a long time. It made me impressed with Lauren Beukes’ range as an author and I will definitely seek out more of her books.

Eddie Generous of UNNERVING MAGAZINE reviews SLIPPING.

Distinctly Lauren Beukes, SLIPPING is a collection that ranges from the far reaches of otherworldly science fiction to straight literary and off toward a world mashed of fixtures between the two. Mostly dark and often grim, this is a full-bodied experience of the vast talents.

Crisp writing and concise plots rein the stories leaning toward muted disaster. Beukes touches on many subjects familiar to her longer stories, but does so with flash bolts that seem to glimmer and convey the message that she is fully deserving of the attention of the reader.

SLIPPING, as a collective, definitely some of Lauren Beukes’ finest work and, for me, her most entertaining publication to date. She adapts such a variety of voices and vices that it is difficult to explain as singular piece. Dread, action, sexuality, unsexing, fables, skillfully quiet terror, humanities valued and weighed —stories woven together smoother than should be likely given the variety in artistic expulsion.

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SLIPPING is a powerhouse of rich, demanding and surprising short works.

For more information about SLIPPING: STORIES, ESSAYS, & OTHER WRITING, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Clara Bacou

Design by Elizabeth Story

September 29, 2016

NIGHTMARES is one hell of a fun ride

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized anthology, brad k horner, british fantasy award, eddie generous, Ellen Datlow, for the love of words, Halloween, horror, nightmares, nightmares: a new decade of modern horror, ominous october, review, the doll collection, unnerving magazine

Ellen Datlow (credit: THIS IS HORROR)

Brad K. Horner on his eponymous site loves Ellen Datlow’s forthcoming anthology NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR.

Since this hasn’t been released yet, I’m going to skip all the spoilerish stuff and the Story by Story gush or other reaction, and instead pick out some of my absolute favorites and otherwise tease some of the best ideas and themes for the rest, because I’m gonna be honest… the whole book of horror tales was rather fantastic.

I mean, it should be. This was a cherry-picking of the last ten year’s best horror stories from some of the biggest non-stratospheric names in the business. Meaning it’s mostly underrated authors or authors that are up-and coming or are well on their way to becoming household names.

That being said, I was thoroughly creeped out, disturbed, amused, and even awed. Most of these did a very good job at keeping me on the edge of my seat, and some even managed to make me really squirm and and want to say, “Enough, enough” and a few made me want to go out and pick up everything that author has ever written and be thankful that this book let me in on the big secret of their existence. 🙂

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Now, just so you know, I loved almost all of these stories, and leaving some of these out actually kind of pains me. 🙂 I’m still anxious after reading this entire book. And that’s all because of the fantastic skills and the creepy dolls and the western zombies and the UF overdrive of hell infestations and good old fashioned roadtrip murder sprees. 🙂

Really, this one one hell of a fun ride. Anyone just looking for a good sampler or just a crazy good time could do FAR worse than this. 🙂

For UNNERVING MAGAZINE, Eddie Generous praises the book.

To describe this anthology collectively solid would be an understatement. Though not all tickled equally, all proved merit in garnering attention for a sampler of the traits befitting best horror fiction written in the last decade. Originality oozes from these tales (as does much blood, tears and cries) like flags risen in newly discovered dirt masses.

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The different shades of horror shared a quality of writing rarely met in a collection of shorts from such a variety of authors. Deep, rich scenery, multi-dimensional heroes and villains, scenes of strong atmosphere and believability, it is here and thick all over. The weirdness and newness of the voiced themes adds to the overall appeal in a way so rare it’s still bleeding.

In her own words, editor Ellen Datlow is an enthusiast of horror and enough so that, though not declaring it a best of, can put together volumes of her favorite short horror fictions spanning a decade and present it as something just like that. Nightmares, horror reprinted for works originally published from 2005-2015 is of the highest quality of anthology available.

FOR THE LOVE OF WORDS included, without comment, NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR among their Ominous October selections of books they plan on reading this Halloween season.

Congratulations to Ellen for her book THE DOLL COLLECTION winning the British Fantasy Award for Best Anthology.

For more info about NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Nihil

Design by Elizabeth Story