The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

Ellen Datlow, Brandon Sanderson (credit: Ceridwen via Wikimedia Commons), Carmen Maria Machado, and Lavie Tidhar (Kevin Nixon. © Future Publishing 2013)

DRAGONS, ZOMBIES AND ALIENS praises Ellen Datlow’s NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR.

Anthologies are, by their nature, hit-or-miss, but I can honestly say that most of the stories in here were very good. There was suspense, creeps, and a couple of them even managed to be funny. It made me laugh one minute and squirm in my seat the next, which was undoubtedly very confusing to anyone who happened to be in the room with me at the time.

My favorite top five stories from NIGHTMARES are:

“The Atlas of Hell” by Nathan Ballingrud
“Ambitious Boys Like You” by Richard Kadrey
“Our Turn Too Will One Day Come” by Brian Hodge
“Sob in the Silence” by Gene Wolfe
“Strappado” by Laird Barron

I recommend this book to everyone, even those who, like me, honestly aren’t that interested in horror literature. It’s well worth the read.

On the Portuguese site NOTICIAS DE ZALLAR, Nuno Ferreira enjoys Brandon Sanderson’s Hugo Award winner THE EMPEROR’S SOUL.

Much remained to be seen of the relations that could come between them, even because they are characters that, developed, surely marked more than they already did. Which, for me, was enough.

Forgery is yet another magic system to join Brandon Sanderson’s super-original creations. The author got the idea by observing a technique of carving Chinese stamps in a museum in Taiwan , and it turned out. This novella has one more story full of potential and would like to see, in a brief future, a correlation between the story of THE EMPEROR’S SOUL and that of Elantris, since they occur in the same world.

Rating: 8/10

(Translation from the Portuguese, courtesy of Google)

On HIPINION, there is an entire thread devoted to Carmen Maria Machado’s short story “The Husband Stitch,” which appears in Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman’s THE NEW VOICES OF FANTASY.

by Catullus » Sat Jan 27, 2018 4:50 pm

I’m going to put a general warning that there are some uncomfortable scenes and moments in this, and that it has sexual imagery etc.

https://granta.com/the-husband-stitch/

I’ve never read it before and I am still not over it. I love it and yet it made me feel wildly uncomfortable and yet its familiar at the same time.

Somehow it captures something about being a woman that I don’t know that I’ve seen before. It’s very cis-focused, and white, though there’s something to it that serves as a critique of that.

I somehow like that I know the ending of the story and yet it still comes as a cruel surprise in a way.

I’d love to hear people’s takes.

by big zorb » Sat Jan 27, 2018 5:01 pm

oh whoa i remember this. it’s a really fantastic story. the control in the writing i remember thinking was really remarkable–there are a million places where it would be easy to lose control of the narrative/tone/voice/themes but she doesn’t. she holds it all together. excellent stuff.

by Catullus » Sat Jan 27, 2018 5:05 pm

I think it’s just that the writing immediately feels slightly dangerous and yet familiar. I can tell what you mean by controlled. It’s like no part of it is unnecessary and all of it advances to fold together nicely, which is kind of a rarity in writing.

The pay off is both heartbreaking and also you get this sense of righteous anger that makes you want to share it, so naturally that makes it something I love because ya’ll know I love being angry for righteous reasons heh

At the Polish site LUBIMYCZYTAĆ.PL, Lavie Tidhar’s John W. Campbell Award winner CENTRAL STATION is nominated for the best science fiction book of the year.

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

Cover by Nihil

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more on THE EMPEROR’S SOUL, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Alexander Nanitchkov

Design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about THE NEW VOICES OF FANTASY, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Camille André

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about CENTRAL STATION, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton