Tag Archives: Anthology

Review: “Space Brides LLC” edited by Dana Bell

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“Tired of those lonely dark nights? No one in your settlement suitable? We are here to help! We will help you find the bride or husband to keep you company, raise your children, and be your partner building a dream together.”

The concept of this anthology from Wolfsinger Publications caught my eye. The idea of Space Brides LLC – a matchmaking agency designed to help people find love on the frontier of space – has great science fiction potential.

This book of 15 mini romantic space operas, edited by Dana Bell, certainly delivers on that. We visit moons, asteroids, caverns, planetary installations and digital worlds. We travel on warp starships and space trains. We meet humans, aliens, vampires and clones. It’s a feast of imagination, and while all of the tales bring something to this colourful party, there are a handful of stories that lingered in my memory after reading.

“Gravity” by Sage Kelly features Jake, a man whose sister has died. He is taking her three lively children (and their pet ferrets) to Mars in the hope of marrying into a farming family to secure them a stable future. Upon arrival however, he is devastated to discover that his betrothed has bailed on the arrangement, leaving her furious dad and brother to sort out the mess.
This is a warm story, thick was pathos, and perfectly evokes the rewarding chaos of domestic life, pets, children and family dynamics.

I loved “Runaway Bride” by Harriet Phoenix. It’s narrated by a skilled and adventurous young woman, Kasih, who is on the run and carrying a mysterious bag of which she’s very protective. She signs up with Space Brides and discovers an interesting prospect on the Saturn moon of Titan: a society where everybody is married to each other as one big collective.
This is one of my favourites of the anthology. It’s well written with a tight plot, full of interesting cultural concepts and fully-rounded characters, and delivers a superb pay-off regarding the contents of Kasih’s bag.
As Harriet Phoenix’s story was also one of my favourites in the recent Terrors from the Toy Box from Phobica Books, she is definitely a writer to watch.

I also loved “A Spectrum of Secrets” by Eric Taveren. This is the tale of Alice, a woman who works for Genetech – a cash-strapped genetics company – and whose young son is terminally ill with cancer. When she sees the profile of Jake, a brilliant scientist, on the Space Brides database, she realises that he might have the skills to cure her son.
With no intention of marriage, Alice travels to stay with Jake in a remote installation deep beneath the ice-crusted sea of the Jupiter moon Europa, and immediately starts to feel guilty about the deception. Especially when she realises she has genuine feelings for him.
This piece shines with slick storytelling, and draws us in immediately. The development of Alice and Jake’s awkward relationship is convincing, and the plot saves some eerie reveals before culminating in a taut and surprising finale.

I really enjoyed “Lapin Chasseur” by Jennifer Roberts. Here we find lunar-dweller Clarissa, who travels all the way to Pluto as part of a holiday trip. But upon arrival, she discovers with horror that she’s been cunningly set up by her horrible twin sister: Clarissa’s journey is a one-way ticket, and she’s actually there to marry a Plutonian mushroom farmer called Doug in the caverns deep beneath the planet.
After a tense start, this becomes a sweet and life-affirming tale that easily draws us into Clarissa’s plight. It has a strong sense of place, a weaving plot, and very relatable attention to detail despite the sf setting. Several of the characters shine with humanity, contrasting the villainous elements, and it saves some twists to conclude on a satisfying note.

The bulk of “Hope Among the Stars” by Luke T. Barnett is in the form of correspondence between Agnes, a previously rich but now impoverished woman from Ganymede, and William, a successful businessman on Mars. They are very much the traditional lady and gentleman, so their written courtship gushes with manners and etiquette. But when disaster strikes during Agnes’ space journey to him, the story takes a surprising and dark turn in which most unladylike behavior will be required for Agnes to survive.
This story stands out with its epistolary structure, quaint characters and drama. We are gently guided into rooting for Agnes and William, and the story constantly keeps us guessing as to how it’s all going to pan out.

The last story – “She’s a Bit Green” by Bogna Jordan – finishes the book on a high. Here we meet Voymir, a soldier who undertakes dangerous missions in a flying suit of armour. After he is seriously injured after an attack on a pirate base, his Space Brides match turns up in the form of Nimfa: a winged and green-skinned woman who is used to a life of racism and rejection.
Both broken in very different ways, the characters and their mutual reticence are believable, and their feelings really power this hopeful tale of recovery and longing.

Special mention also goes to Dana Bell for “Had My Reasons”: an immersive piece that shows us the potentially dangerous side of love with a not-quite-human on an asteroid.
And G.A. Babouche’s “The Titan and the Princess” is a fun and compulsive read that asks if love can flourish between a spirited, jaded princess and a proud alien king.

Of the stories with strong conceptual approaches, credit to Laura Hilse for the clever romantic thriller “Romance of the Algorithm” which shows us the Space Brides process, and explores how the AI used by such agencies could pinpoint things that mere humans might miss.

Despite the niche theme, Space Brides LLC has plenty of variation and we meet all manner of characters looking to find their soul mate. As well as all the above, we meet a Venusian witch,  a troubled clone who is running out of chances, and a purple-eyed alien general. We see collapsing Neptune mines, exclusive lunar hotels, virtual realities, and a shootout in a Martian tomato farm. Niche themes can become samey, but this anthology deftly avoids that pitfall.

As I usually read horror, and the darker and more bleak side of science fiction, Space Brides LLC was a pleasant and refreshing change of tone. The clashes of culture and creed make for some colourful romances and thrillers, and there are several heartwarming stories that show love against the odds. And while that might be a well-beaten trope, it’s a harmless one to indulge sometimes.

A neat concept thoroughly explored, this an enjoyable escapist book.

Available from Wolfsinger Productions here, and through Amazon Kindle stores.

Review: “Terrors from the Toy Box” – Phobica Books

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Hot on the heels of their excellent Heavy Metal Nightmares, Phobica Books have produced another quality themed anthology in the form of Terrors from the Toy Box.

The blurb promised “devil dolls and terrifying teddies, abominable action figures and gruesome games all lying in wait for the opportunity to be free to wreak terror” and it certainly delivers on that.

Some of the tales are obviously supernatural whereas with others, the horror is of the non-magical variety and born from obsession or the darkness that lurks inside people. Sometimes it’s both, and I enjoyed being kept guessing as each story began, as well as wondering what horrors were about to be unleashed when a toy made its appearance.

There’s a good range of styles from the selected authors and the chills are delivered in different ways be that malevolent atmosphere, gruesome shocks or emotional clout. There are also some interesting and subtle concepts that throw shade on the wider world as a whole.

Although I enjoyed all the fiction in this book, here are a handful of those that really stood out for me.

“Faux Joe” by M.J. McClymont is narrated by Tommy, a man concerned about his old friend Joe: a lonely character obsessed with his immaculate and pristine action figure collection. Joe believes his plastic figures to be perfect in every way, and Tommy slowly realises that his troubled friend has concocted a grim plan to improve his life by achieving this supposed perfection for himself. Relatable feelings collide with body horror to create a very compulsive read, and the final line concludes it perfectly on a wry and ominous note.

“Pooky” by Tim Jeffreys concerns Bethany, a girl who cajoles her divorced parents into buying her an old but collectible teddy bear, and it’s not long before things take a spooky turn. A voice seems to be heard talking to Pooky from Bethany’s room, and the child herself speaks of another girl in the house. It has emotional depth for what is one of the shorter pieces in the anthology – merging the stressful domestic troubles of the family with the lurking supernatural – along with some very haunting moments, and a nicely gauged pay off.

In “A Decent Guy” by Wil Forbis, we meet Bennett: a successful family man whose son has a new action figure called Justice Man. But we soon learn that Bennett, who is a loving father and a “decent guy” around his family and community, has a dark and sadistic side that must be assuaged by violence of the most disturbing kind. An increasingly unpleasant descent, the story is crafted into something ultimately very satisfying, all neatly bookended by its own theme.

“Enid’s Dollhouse” by Harriet Phoenix begins with a fairly benign tone as we find young Enid, a girl who loves to collect dolls and play with them, rebuffing her parents’ gentle attempts to dissuade her from expanding her growing collection. This is a very cleverly structured piece. At first there are things that don’t quite seem to make sense, but then everything falls into place, and there’s a cold and terrifying moment of realisation for the reader. With shades of The Twilight Zone, I immediately re-read it and got to enjoy the subtle nuances and pre-reveal attention to detail in a completely different way. Brilliant stuff.

“Lillybet Lollipop” by Scotty Milder is a superb take on the old creepypasta theme. Here, a young man named Mark stumbles across a dusty and obsolete gaming console at a garage sale, along with the game of the title: an ultra-rare cartridge that was swiftly withdrawn from circulation after supposedly terrible things happened to the people who played it. This is a gripping and deftly structured read – switching between Mark’s experience with the malignant game and transcripts of an urban legend podcast about Lillybet Lollipop – as the author takes us on a dizzying and violent journey into madness.

“Kia stood a few steps behind the yellow line, clinging to her little brother’s hand, two over-stuffed rucksacks by her legs, and seriously considered letting go of him and walking out in front of the train that was rapidly approaching.”
Thus begins “A Sister’s Love” by Annie Knox, hooking me in from the start. Kia is a girl on the run with her younger brother Kevin after she has murdered their father for reasons that we don’t initially know. Desperate and out of her depth, she tries to protect him and find somewhere to stay, but is increasingly frustrated by how the young lad seems to talk to someone through various toys. A convincing portrayal of fragile and broken human psyches, this tragic spiral has pathos by the bucketload. It packs several heart-breaking punches, and is definitely the most memorable and powerful tale in the anthology for me.

Although these were my favourites, all the stories bring something to the party. For example, opener “Ma Gentry’s Dream Catcher” by Richard Beauchamp is thick with the evocative atmosphere of its rural witchcraft setting and “Little Red Case” by J Benjamin Sanders Jr has some masterful scenes of unnerving anticipation delivered by a haunted dollhouse. “Uncanny” by Mia Dalia nails the uncanny valley concept, and “A Toy For Zubin” by Galen Gower brings both dark humour and an insidiously nasty tone to the possessed toy trope.

There is much to like about Terrors from the Toy Box. The pieces are often character driven, which is something that can be overlooked elsewhere due to a prime focus on scares or ideas. Without investable or realistic protagonists, short fiction is difficult to care about, and Phobica Books clearly recognise that.

What I also enjoyed is that with such a childhood-related theme, nostalgic feelings inevitably abound, and some of the tales inspired wistfulness for times or toys that weren’t even mine which is a solid and impressive feat.

This is one of those books that I constantly wanted to get back to whenever forced to put it down because real life was dragging me away. Thanks to Phobica Books for the escapism, and I will definitely be keeping a close eye on their future output.

Phobica Books

Review – Tales From The Smoking Room, edited by Benedict J Jones and VC Jones

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This anthology from Hand of Danjou press is exactly what the title suggests: a collection of macabre and startling stories from the brandy and cigar-smoke ambience of a Victorian-era gentlemen’s club.

It contains 7 tales, most of which are 1st person and favour an appropriately traditional style of storytelling, often finding the narrator lounging in a leather armchair of the smoking room, the witching hour upon him…

Tales from the smoking room

The opening tale is Stephen Bacon’s “The Strangled Garden”. This features a country garden walled-off after the unexplained disappearance of a child, grown into an impenetrable tangle of vines and lurking darkness. The baleful atmosphere and period language are faultless – the work of a very meticulous writer – and the inevitable adventure into the garden builds to a classic finale.

“Room Three” by Matthew Crossman is a very dark, downbeat story of madness and a family curse, and also contains the single most creepy and disturbing line of dialogue in this anthology. I may have actually shuddered.

Matthew Harding uses a tried and tested trope with “Iron Ape”: the discovery of a scientific artefact that goes hideously awry. But it’s an intelligent story, evocatively told, and the mechanical monstrosity of the title has a palpable presence of violent power even before the threat is actually unleashed.

“The Decent Thing” by V.C. Jones is a single-page flash piece that leads nicely into “Parlour Games” by Mike Chinn. Here, a sinister Russian brings the after-dinner entertainment to a smoking room familiar with illusion and grand-guignol, but not quite expecting the terrors that will arrive when the clock chimes midnight.

The second flash piece is “Serendipity” by Trudi Topham, a gruesome but light-hearted Vault of Horror style story of graverobbery and reanimation. Finally, the proceedings are closed with”A Game of Billiards” by Craig Herbertson. This is an engaging and neat finale regarding a colonial-era love-squabble that concludes with brutal retribution.

While the quality of the stories is good, “Tales from the Smoking Room” is clearly published from a home printer and would’ve been improved by keener editing. There are several errors and the font is strangely peppered with gaps and too small for A4, but for £2 (Yes, that’s £2) it’s tremendous value for money. Light your cigar, have the butler pour you a large glass of port, and enjoy.