3.5
Fearful Symmetries
ByPublisher Description
A World Fantasy Award nominee, "this anthology . . . is a collection of some of the most talented horror and speculative fiction authors writing today" (
). It includes all-new stories by Laird Barron, Pat Cadigan, Brian Evenson, Jeffrey Ford, Caítlin R. Kiernan, Garth Nix, Michael Marshall Smith, Kaaron Warren, and other masters of all things spooky and suspenseful.
In tales that crisscross the boundaries of fear and imagination—from a haunted courtyard in New Orleans to a remote Arctic research station—swamp monsters, pool-cleaning robots, and cannibalistic spirits wreak chaos and terror across the pages. You'll be invited to a prom where a psycho hides inside a sparkly dress or rented tux; on a trip aboard a train to a destination that teems with ghosts; and into the darkest recesses of a human mind, the most fertile ground for the blossoming of true evil.
"Datlow's 'experimental' crowdfunded horror anthology is nicely unthemed. . . . This is an excellent anthology for horror fans, with a nice range of tones and styles and some intriguing new voices." —
"[
] not only goes beyond expectations, it raises the bar high above into the horror heavens. . . . A melting pot of distinct voices and styles that leave you wanting more." —
"One of the best horror anthologies I've ever read." —
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesFearful Symmetries Reviews
3.5
“If you're in the mood for short horror stories, Ellen Datlow will never steer you wrong. Her collections have led me to several of my favorite short story writers (John Langan, Laird Barron, Caitlín R. Kiernan) so I trust her taste implicitly at this point.
Notes on specific stories:
A Wish From a Bone by Gemma Files and The Atlas of Hell by Nathan Ballingrud -- both do some fantastic religious horror, which I always have a weakness for. These were great choices to open the book with.
The Spindly Man by Stephen Graham Jones -- usually I say that Jones is like Stephen King, in that he has great concepts but it's a toss up whether he's going to stick the landing. Funnily enough, this one brings in a character from a King story and does stick the landing.
Episode Three: On The Great Plains, In The Snow by John Langan -- no one else could bring in ghost dinosaurs and still manage to make a serious story out of it.
Catching Flies by Carole Johnstone -- for the first part of this story I was convinced the big reveal was going to be that the main character and her family were cannibals/conscious zombies, and I love that the truth of it was even weirder.
Highlighted Quotes:
"The future whispered to you before you even got there, and the past, well, the past was a chatterbox, it would tell you everything if you let it." -- In the Year of Omens by Helen Marshall
"The Usurper designs to answer my imprecations at one point. 'We are the next big thing.' This whisper issues from inside me; it oozes forth. The whisper is blood welling from a puncture. Sexless, dispassionate. 'We are Omega, we are Kingdom Come. We have always been, we will always be.' I receive a picture, muddy and flickering, of warm seas and green light, of trilobites and worms and moss. Dinosaurs have not been invented, but the devil is everywhere."
-- The Worms Crawl In by Laird Barron
"The only excuse I can make is that, when things descend into nightmare, you cling to the parts of the story you want to believe in."
-- Wendigo Nights by Siobhan Carroll”
“It's funny--I started the anthology craving more atmospheric ambiguity, and finished it wanting less ambiguity and more plot. Overall, though, an enjoyable collection.”
About Ellen Datlow
was editor of Sci Fiction, the multi award- winning fiction area of scifi.com, for almost six years. Previously, she was fiction editor of
for over seventeen years. She has won the World Fantasy Award seven times, two Bram Stoker Awards, the International Horror Guild Award, the 2002 and 2005 Hugo Award, and the 2005 Locus Award, for her work as an editor. Sci Fiction won the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Website. Datlow and Windling are the co-editors of over eleven original anthologies and of seventeen volumes of
.
Other books by Ellen Datlow
Caitlín R. Kiernan
Caitlín R. Kiernan is a two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award. Their novels include
and
and their prolific short fiction has been collected in numerous volumes, including
and
Kiernan is also a vertebrate paleontologist and currently a research associate at the Alabama Museum of Natural History in Tuscaloosa.
Other books by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Laird Barron
Laird Barron spent his early years in Alaska. He is the author of several books, including
and
His work has also appeared in many magazines and anthologies. Barron currently resides in the Rondout Valley writing stories about the evil that men do.
Other books by Laird Barron
Nathan Ballingrud
Nathan Ballingrud is the author of the collections
, and
. He is a two-time winner of the Shirley Jackson Award and has been shortlisted for the World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Awards. His novella “The Visible Filth” was adapted into the movie
, written and directed by Babak Anvari;
was filmed as
an anthology series for Hulu. His first novel,
, was recently published. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina.
Other books by Nathan Ballingrud
Gemma Files
Gemma Files, a former film critic, journalist, screenwriter, and teacher, has been an award-winning horror author since 1999. She has published two collections of short work; two chapbooks of speculative poetry; the “weird western” Hexslinger Series; a story-cycle; and the standalone novel
, which won the 2016 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel and the 2016 Sunburst Award for Best Adult Novel. Files also has several story collections and a collection of poetry forthcoming.
Other books by Gemma Files
Terry Dowling
Terry Dowling has been called “Australia’s finest writer of horror” by
magazine.
series featured more horror stories by Dowling in its twenty-one–year run than any other writer. Dowling is author of
(International Horror Guild Award for Best Collection, 2007),
,
, and
. He can be found at www.terrydowling.com.
Other books by Terry Dowling
Stephen Graham Jones
Stephen Graham Jones is the
–bestselling author of more than forty novels, collections, novellas, and comic books, including
and the Indian Lake Trilogy. Jones received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and has won honors ranging from the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award to the Bram Stoker Award. Jones lives and teaches in Boulder, Colorado. Visit his website at stephengrahamjones.com.
Other books by Stephen Graham Jones
Kaaron Warren
Shirley Jackson Award winner Kaaron Warren has published five novels and seven short story collections. She’s sold two hundred short stories to publications big and small around the world and has appeared in Ellen Datlow’s Year’s Best anthologies. Her novel
won three major Australian genre awards. She has lived in Melbourne, Sydney, Fiji, and Canberra; her most recent works are “The Deathplace Set” in
, and
, a novella. Warren won the inaugural Mayday Hills Ghost Story Competition.
Other books by Kaaron Warren
John Langan
John Langan is the author of two novels and five collections of stories. For his work, he has received the Bram Stoker and This Is Horror Awards. He is one of the founders of the Shirley Jackson Awards. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with his family and certainly not too many books.
Other books by John Langan
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