4 stars
This arc was provided by Netgalley and Tachyon Publications in exchange for an honest review
If you ever needed a manual on how to write a good short story, this collection would well and truly suffice.
Each story is bursting with imagination; exciting prose; thought-provoking vision. These stories are the cream of the crop, truly fine examples of what make speculative fiction so fascinating. Every piece has a crisp, literary quality to its writing, perfectly melded with the surreal ideas and themes explored within them.
Some favourites were: 'Fugue State' by Brian Evenson, an unnerving glance into a future afflicted by a violent amnesiac plague; 'Escape from Spiderhead' by George Saunders, a brutal look into the ethics of scientific research; the short but incredibly touching 'Help Me Find My Spaceman Lover' by Robert Olen Butler; the amusingly inventive 'Reports Concerning the Death of the Seattle Albatross Are Somewhat Exaggerated' by W.P Kinsella about an alien posing as a baseball mascot; and 'Beautiful Monsters' by Eric Puchner, a fairytale-esque sci-fi which depicts a world where no one is supposed to grow up.
I will certainly be reading more work from the authors showcased in this collection, and also more from Tachyon Publications' backlist: after releasing this and the wonderful 'Central Station', they are swiftly becoming one of my favourite publishers!
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