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heathengray's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I didn't listen to Harlan. He says in the first few pages, not to read this book in one sitting. And while I couldn't do that, I feel like these stories deserve some time to breath after reading. Some I hadn't fully processed as I moved on to the next, and they stay with me.
Haunting is a strange word for stories that don't feature ghosts (well, maybe one or two). But they all linger in the mind. Harlan collected these under a loose theme of "New Gods" - when the old gods die, with what do we replace them? Each of these stories features a new god or gods, sometimes anthropomorphised. Almost none feature a happy ending.
I can't really describe some of these as it will give away the plots, most work of the premise of a perfectly normal day (and then something very strange happens), but of particular merit are:
The Whimper of Whipped Dogs is inspired by the real life murder of Kitty Genovese, and the (now debunked) claim that 38 people witnessed her death and did nothing (kicking off research into the supposed "Bystander Effect").
Neon is a rare early cyberpunk short about a man fitted with cybernetic prosthetics, and the strange force now stalking him.
Basilisk is a tragic horror of a soldier abandoned by his government after being infected by a strange lizard, then captured by the enemy, then court marshalled for breaking under interrogation.
Shattered like a Glass Goblin is a harrowing tale of a soldier in search of his girl, finding her in a squat so far lost into her journey with drugs. It gets quite Lovecraftian by the end.
Bleeding Stones is a gruesome tale of acid rain some how mutating New York's gothic gargoyles, bringing them to vicious life.
The Deathbird is a critique/retelling of genesis, partly written as a series of exam questions. It's very strange, and quite nihilistic.
I think this is worth several re-reads.
Haunting is a strange word for stories that don't feature ghosts (well, maybe one or two). But they all linger in the mind. Harlan collected these under a loose theme of "New Gods" - when the old gods die, with what do we replace them? Each of these stories features a new god or gods, sometimes anthropomorphised. Almost none feature a happy ending.
I can't really describe some of these as it will give away the plots, most work of the premise of a perfectly normal day (and then something very strange happens), but of particular merit are:
The Whimper of Whipped Dogs is inspired by the real life murder of Kitty Genovese, and the (now debunked) claim that 38 people witnessed her death and did nothing (kicking off research into the supposed "Bystander Effect").
Neon is a rare early cyberpunk short about a man fitted with cybernetic prosthetics, and the strange force now stalking him.
Basilisk is a tragic horror of a soldier abandoned by his government after being infected by a strange lizard, then captured by the enemy, then court marshalled for breaking under interrogation.
Shattered like a Glass Goblin is a harrowing tale of a soldier in search of his girl, finding her in a squat so far lost into her journey with drugs. It gets quite Lovecraftian by the end.
Bleeding Stones is a gruesome tale of acid rain some how mutating New York's gothic gargoyles, bringing them to vicious life.
The Deathbird is a critique/retelling of genesis, partly written as a series of exam questions. It's very strange, and quite nihilistic.
I think this is worth several re-reads.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Drug abuse
At least 3 of the Stories (The Whimper of Whipped Dogs, Bleeding Stones, Basilisk) feature very graphic murders, Bleeding Stones, a mass slaughter at a religious gathering. Shattered Like a Glass Goblin features some grim fantastical consequences of drug abuse.
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