https://youtu.be/OLS_7RnWwAs How might a love letter to the gothic genre look? It might, first, be in the novel form: nothing less would capture its grandiose themes, its dark and brooding atmosphere. Then, there must be a house. Not just any house will do. You know the type: a tangle of rust-covered metal gates and fence,... Continue Reading →
The Short Story Reader #128 – Born a Ghost by Nadia Bongo
Previous | Next What a beautiful, tragic human tale Nadia Bongo tells! "Born a Ghost" follows a small ghost girl's life from birth until her twelfth year. This story is a kind of ontology of the ghostly life across this period, a magical tale that hides reality under a thin layer of fiction. It's not... Continue Reading →
The Short Story Reader #127 – Spread the Word by Delilah S. Dawson
Previous | Next This psychological horror packs the punch of peak Stephen King, and its subject matter is reminiscent of the master storyteller's own interests. A strange, religious obsession befalls the dads of Will's new friends, transforming them, turning them violent and cruel. Will's no hero, he's just arrived to town after his own share... Continue Reading →
The Short Story Reader #126 – Nothing of Value by Aimee Ogden
In "Nothing of Value," Aimee Ogden renders a future in which teleportation throughout the Solar System has become commonplace. What are the ethical and moral implications of what is called "transit" and involves the translation of information across vast amounts of space, information rearranged in just the way it was sent out in the first... Continue Reading →
Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree is Cozy Fun with a Necromantic Edge! | Book Review
My Legends & Lattes review! The Dark Lord's Legends and Lattes review. https://youtu.be/qbuMDknoeao Travis Baldree's Legends and Lattes was the cosy fantasy the book-reading world needed in 2022; but does its prequel show that Baldree, former games developer and full-time narrator, can catch lightning in a bottle twice? The short answer: Yes. Yes, it does.... Continue Reading →
The Short Story Reader #125 – Dandelions by Martin Cahill
Previous | Next What happens when strangers from the stars come and their physiology interplays with ours in so unique a way as to invite nothing but murder. Martin Cahill's "Dandelions" is a flash piece that offers a refreshing reimagining of the alien invasion. Never mind that was exactly what they wanted to happen, what... Continue Reading →
Água Viva by Clarice Lispector | A Short Vignette of My Experience
“I know what I am doing here: I am telling of the instants that drip and are thick with blood.” I read Clarice Lispector's work Água Viva at what might have been the most serendipitous time, during personal heartbreak that saw me submerged into a well of grief. It proved slippery to get out of,... Continue Reading →
What I Talk About When I Talk About Books In November – Part 2
Previously on What I Talk About When I Talk About Books In November... Hullo again! Time to cover a few more of the by-gone reads of yestermonth! Last time, I went on a Greek play binge! This time around, I reckon it's time to cover a few weirder reads from the Ancient and Medieval world,... Continue Reading →
The Short Story Reader #124 – Morag’s Boy by Fiona Moore
Previous | Next Once upon a time, some four months ago, I reviewed a little story by Fiona Moore called "The Spoil Heap". Imagine my shock when the very first story in Clarkesworld #207 is a standalone sequel, once more featuring my favourite postapocalyptic techie Morag! Now older, Morag is asked by her family to... Continue Reading →
Tyranny, Prophecy, and Freedom in Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound
You can find my previous essay on a Greek tragedy (Medea) here. I wrote this for a university class, and I figured I might as well share it with you lot. Aeschylus creates one of Greek tragedy’s most sympathetic figures in Prometheus Bound’s eponymous protagonist. The titan Prometheus’s choice to defy Zeus for the sake... Continue Reading →