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gilmoremk's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not usually one for short story anthologies, but this one caught my eye, and it was well worth the gamble. Smith is definitely a gifted writer, with an amazing ability to evoke emotions and leave a story in your head long after you're done reading it. The horror stories were by far the best, as horror lends itself better to the suggestion and incompleteness that is inherent in a short story. The stories that touched on other genres were still good, but they just didn't feel "fleshed out" enough for me. My favourite story was "By Her Hand, She Draws You Down", and it's worth getting this book for that story alone.
kim_mcdougall's review against another edition
5.0
Beautifully created worlds. Highly recommend this book. Each story left me with something to think about days later.
shalot's review against another edition
5.0
This is a collection of short stories that was almost perfectly geared to my reading tastes. I only had one story that didn't really appeal to me, but the rest had me very intrigued. I would read a story or three in a sitting because I just wanted to enjoy reading this book over a longer period of time instead of diving straight through it. I'll probably be re-reading this in the near future because I enjoyed it so much.
theartolater's review against another edition
4.0
I've talked a bit in other reviews about how short stories don't always do the trick for me, but Chimerascope really did a good job of balancing out some of the experimental excesses of short fiction with some high-quality writing. A number of these are award-nominated, and many of them truly deserve it, especially a number of the science fiction tales that were put out there along the way.
As always with these, there's not a ton to say and a lot of it needs to be taken at face value when it comes to compilations. It's less weird and more science fiction on a whole, and it's worth a read if you're into short works in that area overall.
As always with these, there's not a ton to say and a lot of it needs to be taken at face value when it comes to compilations. It's less weird and more science fiction on a whole, and it's worth a read if you're into short works in that area overall.
rosepetals1984's review against another edition
4.0
Douglas Smith offers a brilliant collection of sixteen short stories, all award-nominations or winners. I understand this is his second published short story collection, but for me, this is my introduction to the author.
Where some authors may offer reflections upon similar themes, Smith's short stories are certainly fitting to their respective title, giving a range of distinct characters in various situations that are colorful, sometimes whimsical, sometimes horrifying in the realm of speculative fiction.
I think with the variant tones within the work, its easy to be pulled into the stories in themselves, some striking those of different flavors more than others. For me, some of the strongest stories came across in the award-winning "Scream Angel", which depicts an interesting variation of addiction in a drug where lust and violence produce the same exhilration, the sweet, but melancholic "The Red Bird", the potent horror "By Her Hand, She Draws You Down" (one of my personal favorites), and even the tantalizing allusions within "The Dancer at the Red Door". Probably the only story in this collection that didn't strike me as much as the others was "New Years Eve" - which draws upon the Y2K fears before the turn of the millenium, but even that I found to be well written for its respective genre.
I think those who want a strong collection of short stories in the realm of fantasy/sci-fi with wonderfully imaginative settings, characters, and the ability of those stories to stick with you should give this collection a go. I'm definitely going to look into Smith's work beyond this as well.
Overall score: 4/5
Where some authors may offer reflections upon similar themes, Smith's short stories are certainly fitting to their respective title, giving a range of distinct characters in various situations that are colorful, sometimes whimsical, sometimes horrifying in the realm of speculative fiction.
I think with the variant tones within the work, its easy to be pulled into the stories in themselves, some striking those of different flavors more than others. For me, some of the strongest stories came across in the award-winning "Scream Angel", which depicts an interesting variation of addiction in a drug where lust and violence produce the same exhilration, the sweet, but melancholic "The Red Bird", the potent horror "By Her Hand, She Draws You Down" (one of my personal favorites), and even the tantalizing allusions within "The Dancer at the Red Door". Probably the only story in this collection that didn't strike me as much as the others was "New Years Eve" - which draws upon the Y2K fears before the turn of the millenium, but even that I found to be well written for its respective genre.
I think those who want a strong collection of short stories in the realm of fantasy/sci-fi with wonderfully imaginative settings, characters, and the ability of those stories to stick with you should give this collection a go. I'm definitely going to look into Smith's work beyond this as well.
Overall score: 4/5
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