u/Nidafjoll

I've played a lot of the Total War Warhammer games. I just love them. And the fantasy creatures and races is a huge part of that. So I've considered getting into the novels, with the amount of Easter Eggs in the games and the just generally cool lore of the world. And I'm generally familiar with the lore, from all the text and quests and interactions of the game.

But my general impression of the world is: Awesome Lore, Shit Books. Or, some okay books, but a lot of "paycheck until my real series takes off" author efforts. So I ask, what are the Warhammer Fantasy books actually worth a read?

I've heard good about the William King books, so I'll probably check out his Gotrek and Felix ones. But what's next? I do want fantasy, not 40k. I know Tachikovsky's coming out with one, so I assume it'll be good, but what's the prereq? I've heard Dan Abnett's 40k is the best, but is his fantasy too?

I was thinking the other day about some subgenres (or just trends if you want) which spawned as a result of a particular book's success, wherein the original book is superior to those which followed. And not just by dint of being original, but by having a more nuanced take than those which came after.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt is the book which made me start thinking about this. Although almost single-handedly spawning the Dark Academia genre/trend, it feels like many of the books which followed it got the "romantic scholasticism, maximalist and hedonic lifestyle" part and missed the "beautiful exteriors can hide a rotten core, insular and monomaniacal focus can lead to ethical and moral distortion."

Similarly, with Neuromancer by William Gibson (though this is more commonly a flaw of the movies and games which followed in my experience), many of the cyberpunk media focus on the "CYBER" and forget about the "punk." They take all the cool aesthetics and cybernetic modifications and such, and leave out the horrors on unregulated capitalism, people will destroy what they cannot control themes.

I even think Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is another example. Not for a genre per se, but for a trope. P&P is (at least as much as I've read) one of the first really popular books to use the "brooding, Byronic man transformed by love" trope which is so popular in a lot of romance and romantasy. But I think it's not just the aloof, powerful, brooding love interest that makes it work (as is the case in many Enemies-to-Lovers romances) but the fact that Lizzy and Darcy have to get over their Pride and Prejudices and actually look at and understand each other as people before the romance really starts.

Other examples I thought of are Perdido Street Station (that it's not just the creativity and number of details that make it feel like a living city, but the Marxist politics Mieville has woven in the background) and A Court of Thorns and Roses (which actually has a decent balance between fantasy plot and romance/smut, unlike some other romantasy I've since read).

But there are any other examples people can think of? Do others feel this way also?

Vurt by Jeff Noon is a very weird novel, a gritty, grimy weird dystopia somewhere vetween cuberpunk and biopunk. I enjoyed it quite a lot. It's among the weirder things I've read, not in the sense of "I don't know what the hell is going on," but in the sense "I fully get what's going on and it's weird as fuck."

It's set in a dystopian near-future Manchester, with rampant crime and drug use, with dog people, robots, shadow-people, drug-snakes, and all the possible combinations thereof. There are shadow-cops, fractal bullets, and nanobot dreadlocks. Alongside conventional drugs, there are Vurt feathers, different coloured feathers (each colour a different type, pleasant or pornographic or educational, some legal and some not) which you tickle the back of your throat with, which transports people into the Vurt.

The Vurt is some kind of collective dream space or perhaps another dimension with its own rules. People can make Vurt feathers with specific content, but there are also Vurts which change on you and can't be exited from, or which if you die in the dream you die in real life. Things or people can also, intentionally or not, be swapped with items or aliens from the Vurt.

The plot is that Scribble, the main character, lost his sister (>!and lover!<) to a rare feather (one of the dangerous ones) where she was swapped with an alien blob Thing from the Vurt, and is trying to get her back with his gang. The gang (really more a group of teenage friends) call themselves the Stash Riders, and are mostly a organized around finding food and drugs, as well as Scribble's sister. Their search for another of this rare and illegal feather and threatening/bargaining to find it lead to encounters with cops, shadows, gangs of dog-people, and other dangerous figures.

One of the things I like about this, as well the sheer weirdness and creativity, was the writing. It was very structurally interesting, with excellent fever dream imagery (frequent because of half the book being going on or recovering from drug trips) and frequent short, fragmentary sentences when the protagonist is in altered mind states. Especially once our protagonist ends up entering the Vurt through other means without even taking drugs. Almost slam poetry feeling in places. The chapters are also interspersed with epistolary snippets from Game Cat, an initially mysterious figure who seems to be one of the few people to understand and manipulate the Vurt, halfway between an advertiser and advisor for its use, who gradually becomes a character too.

Very weird, quite gross and grimy and messy, but super creative and unique. I also don't think I've read a book set in Manchester before, despite being England's second city (insert pissed off Brummies here). It's usually just London. All in all, a worthwhile read and far from the usual fare.

Lots of CW for this one: substance abuse, violence, >!incest!<, >!bestiality!<.

Vurt by Jeff Noon is a very weird novel, a gritty, grimy weird dystopia somewhere vetween cuberpunk and biopunk. I enjoyed it quite a lot. It's among the weirder things I've read, not in the sense of "I don't know what the hell is going on," but in the sense "I fully get what's going on and it's weird as fuck."

It's set in a dystopian near-future Manchester, with rampant crime and drug use, with dog people, robots, shadow-people, drug-snakes, and all the possible combinations thereof. There are shadow-cops, fractal bullets, and nanobot dreadlocks. Alongside conventional drugs, there are Vurt feathers, different coloured feathers (each colour a different type, pleasant or pornographic or educational, some legal and some not) which you tickle the back of your throat with, which transports people into the Vurt.

The Vurt is some kind of collective dream space or perhaps another dimension with its own rules. People can make Vurt feathers with specific content, but there are also Vurts which change on you and can't be exited from, or which if you die in the dream you die in real life. Things or people can also, intentionally or not, be swapped with items or aliens from the Vurt.

The plot is that Scribble, the main character, lost his sister (>!and lover!<) to a rare feather (one of the dangerous ones) where she was swapped with an alien blob Thing from the Vurt, and is trying to get her back with his gang. The gang (really more a group of teenage friends) call themselves the Stash Riders, and are mostly a organized around finding food and drugs, as well as Scribble's sister. Their search for another of this rare and illegal feather and threatening/bargaining to find it lead to encounters with cops, shadows, gangs of dog-people, and other dangerous figures.

One of the things I like about this, as well the sheer weirdness and creativity, was the writing. It was very structurally interesting, with excellent fever dream imagery (frequent because of half the book being going on or recovering from drug trips) and frequent short, fragmentary sentences when the protagonist is in altered mind states. Especially once our protagonist ends up entering the Vurt through other means without even taking drugs. Almost slam poetry feeling in places. The chapters are also interspersed with epistolary snippets from Game Cat, an initially mysterious figure who seems to be one of the few people to understand and manipulate the Vurt, halfway between an advertiser and advisor for its use, who gradually becomes a character too.

Very weird, quite gross and grimy and messy, but super creative and unique. I also don't think I've read a book set in Manchester before, despite being England's second city (insert pissed off Brummies here). It's usually just London. All in all, a worthwhile read and far from the usual fare.

Lots of CW for this one: substance abuse, violence, >!incest!< >!bestiality!<

Aislinn's Dragonship abilities, specifically Asur Fire, is the most broken thing yet in the entire game. It's like 3 Ikit Claw nukes per battle. Even if I hide all my other units and use one unit to bait it out, it will deal 3/4 of that unit's health and break it. And unlike Ikit's nukes, it's undodgeable; the AoE is so large that even if I start moving as soon as it casts, a normal ~30 speed infantry unit can't get out in time to avoid lost half its health. And you're only able to dodge one, because his army will keep advancing and find your hidden units, and then the AI will cast the other 2 on top of the main fight.

It's incredibly unfun. It makes any fight a cakewalk for the AI unless you're Doomstacking single entities. Other factions with powerful abilities, like Chaos Dwarfs and Tamurkhan, don't hold a candle to this. Those make fights against them difficult, not impossible. Helpfully, because of Sea Lanes, if you're not playing an order faction, he can teleport over and declare war on you and you have to sail 15 turns to go try and get to his home region. It's not like this is an endgame challenge either; he's rocking this stuff by turn 40, while I might have 2 midgame stacks.

I'm genuinely considering looking for mods to turn off particular factions just to get rid of Aislinn. And yet CA apparently considers this fine and hasn't changed it from previous patches and doesn't seem to plan to.

I finished Welcome the Damned by Astraea Long a few days ago, and wanted to write a review for it because it's self-published book with only 8 ratings. I single-handedly increased the ratings by 14 %. >:) How I found out about this book I have no idea-- I think I may have seen it on a Goodreads giveaway or something? Here's the blurb:

>Dyvris is a city of survivors. With the end of the world nearing, fires burn down schools, hurricanes devastate small towns, and rising oceans swallow up the coasts. Those without money to fall back on look to the sinister city that lies between the searing desert and the crumbling mountains, where a man named the Scavenger will make a deal with them. A place to stay and a new business to run, in exchange for any information that he asks for.
>Dyvris is a city ruled by criminals. The Scavenger, a notorious killer and thief, runs an organization called the Aconites, which has power over every business in the city and its suburbs. The Scavenger has an equally deadly partner, whose metal claws never hesitate to break a neck or rip out an organ. The Scavenger also has a little spy, whose black heart will infect anyone that gets close to it.
>They’ve been sinners since the first crimes they committed; they’ve been damned since the moment they were born. When the people in power made survival a game, the Aconites decided to win, starting with their monopoly on poison weaponry. They live in a secure mansion hidden in the mountains, never short on money or any luxuries they desire.
>Until they discover that the government has been secretly experimenting on working class neighborhoods with the intention of developing mind-control drugs. Their failed attempts slaughter innocents all over the country with no warning or pattern.
>It’s only a matter of time before the experiments creep into the mountains and find the Aconites.

The first paragraph of the blurb is a little bit deceiving. While that's the background of the book's world, the book's not about any of that. This is very character-driven book. The book is about Zero, a spy/seductress/manipulator, Rovis (the Scavenger) the leader of the criminal gang the Aconites, and Tal, a genius inventor/brutal enforcer, and the three's complicated relationships and histories. I think this book is YA (at least, the author calls herself a YA author), and, as is sometimes the case in similar books, it requires a little suspension of disbelief that these characters are what the book tells you they are. Zero is an excellent spy, who can successfully infiltrate top secret government branches in under a year, and also a top-tier hand-to-hand combatant, who's able to read people like a book and seduce anyone, and speaks 5 languages; Tal is a genius inventor, designing multiple devices for his gang including never-before seen things like multidirectional energy shields, as well as an incredibly strong, fast enforcer who can scare people with just a smile... All at the ages of 17-20.

Some of these things feel a little silly, and the book is very melodramatic and edgy... and yet it still works. I think because it's earnest about it. There's no ironic winks to the audience or jokes about it. Though I haven't read them myself, it reminds me of how I hear people talk about Jay Kristoff's works. The closest comparison I can make from things I know is Repo! The Genetic Opera. That same way in which it's objectively a little silly and melodramatic and edgy... and yet it works. And though these characters are unrealistically skilled badasses at a lot of things, they're not flawless self-inserts. The characters each have a lot of trauma in their backstories, and the book doesn't shy away from addressing it. In fact, arguably one of the main thrusts of the story is addressing how their traumas and backgrounds have led them down their current paths and how it continues to mess up their current interpersonal relationships. Similarly, things don't always go our characters' ways; though they're skilled, they mess up, and there are significant consequences.

And relationships is the main appeal of the novel. While the promised evil government experiments are there, they almost feel like a background element; they take a background seat compared to the character drama. Each of these characters have complicated, usually traumatic backstories, and each often take a part in the others' stories. But they also have secrets they've hidden from one another; sometimes to protect the others, sometimes to protect themselves, sometimes because they can't bring themself to express it. And while the story revolves around these main three characters, there are also lots of other interesting side characters, each of which is less detailed but also interesting in their own right. Of things I've read, it's most similar to The Atlas Six by Olivia Blake. It hits a lot of similar notes, while being quite different in the framing.

One other detail I really appreciated was the queerness of it. It's never the focus of any character's characterization, but most of the cast are some flavour of queer. Zero, for instance, is an asexual aromantic; which is why she's such a good spy and seductress. She flirts and uses her charms and body to manipulate people into leaving themselves vulnerable, and then is able to discard them with no qualms when she gets what she wants. But neither is she a sociopath; she has very dear, important friendships with a lot of characters. A lot of the other queer details are in the background. When it comes up, it often comes up casually. It's off-handedly mentioned that a male character used to date a man, or the characters used for one character are xe/xem/xir. Some of the identities are ones you don't get to see as often too; it has aromantic characters who aren't asexual, as well as asexuals who aren't aromantic, as well as characters who's sexuality is ambiguously queer.

This being a self-published book, though, there were a definitely a few flaws. The one which was most apparent to me were occasionally a few quirks with the grammar. The book is written in third person present tense. Present tense already isn't my favourite, and it's even odder in third person. It is consistent with it's use of the tense, only ever going to past tense for long ago flashbacks, but it does lead to some awkward phrasings sometimes. I remember one sentence very early on that jarred me: "They just got out of the shuttle after work, and now Caitlyn is dragging her along at a faster pace." There were few enough I'm tempted to call them lack of a professional editor though, rather than a feature of the writing. And as I've mentioned, some things just feel a little silly- the expert thieves are called "Sleightists," the xenophobic country is called "Pureland," people have nicknames like "The Ace of Crowns," "Lithium," and "The Scavenger."

All in all, I found this a rather good read. It was very fast-paced, and even if sometimes I felt the melodrama or edginess toeing my tolerance threshold, I always wanted to continue. The book does make you care about these characters, which is one the better things a book can do, and it was very good at ending chapters in a way which made me want to start the next. And I'm not a very character-driven reader, they're usually one of the least important things in a book for me. So I could see this working very well for those who are. I'm settling on a somewhat generous 4/5.

As well as Self-Published HM, this counts for Unusual Transportation HM, Duology Part 1 HM, and Author of Colour.

I read and loved Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda back when it came out, and I've always been a little sad that it never got much buzz around the parts of Reddit and Youtube I frequent. It has a decent number of ratings on Goodreads, but a sadly low average rating of 3.54.

I feel like people here might love it though; it's definitely weird/sad girl lit. I've wondered if the fact that it's not quite fantasy/horror, and not quite lit fic, but somewhere halfway between is why it never quite took off in either audience. It fits snugly in among things like Convenience Store Woman, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and Bunny imo.

I originally reviewed it way back when on r/fantasy, but here's an edited review, if people are interested. :)

---

I saw a vampire with a Japanese menu in her hand,
Walking through Kinsey in the rain,
(Sad, girl) Vampire of London!

...Okay, so it's hard to fit to the Warren Zevon tune.

I devoured Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda, starting and finishing it in two days. It was originally marketed as Woman, Eating: A Literary Vampire Novel, and while that subtitle seems to have been excised from the final product (I don't see any remnants of it in the physical book), it isn't an inapt description. The speculative element of the novel is the lightest touch, just the vampirism of Lydia (our main character) and her mother, but it provides an interesting piquancy to get/keep you interested, and allows a steady drip of interesting new tweaks as we explore the novel.

Woman, Eating is a relatively straightforwardly written novel, and not a typical vampire novel, either of the usual Urban Fantasy or Horror flavours; more Carmilla than Twilight or Dracula. The novel is mostly exploring the main character Lydia: her attempts to find a place for herself in the world and build relationships; her vampirism and her depression; her tumultuous relationship with her mother; and accepting/learning who she is despite the self-loathing she inherited from her mother. The vampirism in the book is a strong narrative tool to allow these explorations.

Lydia is a biracial, half-vampire, who moves away from home for the first time and tries to make a life for herself on her own. This novel heavily features Lydia's depression, isolation, and self-loathing. The three are inextricably linked, and portrayed very well in my opinion. The depression was very realistic and relatable (very similar to my own brand of it), and isolation is difficult to break both when you are depressed, and also everyone else is essentially walking, talking, Food. The other idea explored most in the novel along with Lydia's depression and her attempts to be a functional person and build a life in the Human world, is the double-edged blade of her relationship with her mother. Her mother has taught her to hate her vampire half, passing on her own idea that as vampires, they're inherently evil for having to drink blood to survive. The book depicts very well the strange relationship that evolves and the trauma you gain when someone loves you, says they do and appears to, and yet hates and teaches you to hate a part of yourself. As if you can hate a part and still unreservedly love the whole.

I thought both the portrayal of depression and the uncertainty of where you as a young 20-something are in life were very accurately and well done, and at just over 200 pages the novel was the perfect length to explore these topics well and richly, without dragging on either. There was very little that could be trimmed from this novel if one wanted to, I think, and nothing that needed to be. As a very character-focused, first person story, each scene with either painting Lydia for us as a character, or exploring her feelings and her relationships.

As well the obvious CW for depictions of mental health, as the main focus, I feel like this book also has a CW: Food/eating disorders. While Lydia doesn't have an eating disorder per se (I think; depends where each person draws the line), she very much doesn't have a good relationship with food/eating. A lot of her self-loathing comes from her need to consume blood, and one of the ways her depression manifests is denying herself blood to eat, both from the self-loathing and apathy. There's quite a bit of discussion of normal food and eating too, as Lydia longs to be able to eat human food, to connect to her Japanese human heritage and to pass as human, despite the fact that she can't physically digest it. She even watched mukbangs while not eating herself just to vicariously have the experience.

I really enjoyed Woman, Eating, somewhere in the realm of 4.5-5/5 for me. It wasn't the most complex or subtle novel ever, but it wasn't trying to be- it explored what it wanted to very well and thoroughly, and didn't drag or prolong unnecessarily at any point. I think there are a lot of people here for whom this novel would hit the mark, and I feel like it deserves a lot of attention. :)

#Part 1 #Part 2

I'm back with another set of short fiction mini-reviews, of stories in The Weird anthology edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. With a larger break this time, because I got some new books for my birthday last month which I immediately read (new exciting shiny book > book in progress) and the excitement of r/fantasy's Bingo challenge starting. :)

&nbsp;
Window by Bob Leman (1980)- A story about an experiment that appears to open a window into the past, but turns out to be something far more sinister. An excellent revelation. 5/5

&nbsp;
The Brood by Ramsey Campbell (1980)- A story about a man who observes a strange old woman lurking on his street at night, who appears to be constantly taking animals in which are never see again, which he feels compelled to rescue. 4/5

&nbsp;
The Autopsy by Michael Shea (1980)- A story about a doctor called to autopsy some men killed in a mine explosion, one of whom may have been a cannibal, and finds one of the corpses isn't quite as dead as it should be. Really good-- I added Nifft the Lean to my TBR because I thought it was so good. 5/5

&nbsp;
The Belonging Kind by William Gibson/John Shirley (1981)- A man finds a fluid human mimic at a bar and become obsessed with them and their transformations. 3.5/5

&nbsp;
Egnaro by M. John Harrison (1981)- This was a strange one. It seems to be almost about an antimeme, an idea of a secret that everyone knows but you, infecting a used bookstore owner and his accountant's lives. Slippery and hard to grasp, as Harrison often is. 4.5/5

&nbsp;
The Dirty Little Girl by Joanna Russ (1982)- A story of a woman who encounters an oddly intelligent little girl, who she begins to take care of in small ways, who may be a ghost or something else... 4/5

&nbsp;
The New Rays by M. John Harrison (1982)- A story about a woman undergoing an unspecified, experimental treatment by being irradiated by "New Rays" in a shoddy, sketchy clinic, which also seems to create or involve blue homunculi of the patients, and this strange treatment's effect on her. 4/5

&nbsp;
The Discovery of Telenapota by Premendra Mitra (1984)- The story of finding a ruined shell of a city, very interestingly told (in second person future perfect). 4/5

&nbsp;
Soft by F. Paul Wilson (1984)- The story of a plague which causes the bones of its victims to liquify, and two partial victims surviving in NYC. Gross and scary. 4.5/5

&nbsp;
Bloodchild by Octavia Butler (1984)- Apparently Butler wrote this as a way of overcoming her fear of botflies? If botflies weren't already horrific, this would have made them so. I mean it was great. But it was horrific. 5/5

&nbsp;
In the Hills, the Cities by Clive Barker (1984)- Reread. I remember only thinking this was only okay when I first read it several years ago, but I didn't think that was the case at all this time. Shows how tastes change. This was great and horrific. 5/5

&nbsp;
Tainaron by Leena Krohn (1985)- I skipped, because I only just read it at the end of last year. It's a favourite though, I count it as the second-best thing I read last year. 5/5

&nbsp;
Hogfoot Right and Bird-hands by Garry Kilworth (1987)- A story about a woman who turns parts of her body into animal pets. Short, but weird and somewhat disturbing. 3.5/5

&nbsp;
Shades by Lucius Shepard (1987)- The story of a Vietnam vet returning to Vietnam as a reporter, to see a ghost captured by the Vietnamese of a soldier he knew. Really good- an excellent character portrayal, and examination of different kinds of "shades." 5/5

&nbsp;
The Functions of Dream Sleep by Harlan Ellison (1988)- The story of man, burdened with grief, who wakes up one night to find a maw on his side which closes and disappears. He seeks help through interpreting his dreams, which leads him a strange sort of quest. 4/5

&nbsp;
Worlds that Flourish by Ben Okri (1988)- The story of a man, living in an oppressed city as if in a dream, and the weird events that happen to him before and when he tries to flee. 4.5/5

&nbsp;
The Boy in the Tree by Elizabeth Hand (1989)- A very weird story, blending sci-fi and fantasy, about an autistic girl who is one of several empaths, who, twisted with drugs and training from childhood, are able to enter other people's dreams, and sometimes take them away as therapy. It's the story of this research institute being investigated (because sometimes the patients die) and of the head researcher's trauma. An extremely interesting and thorough piece for a short story. 4.5/5

&nbsp;
Family by Joyce Carol Oates (1989)- A slyly creepy story of a family on ranch, as they go through subtle transformations as the world seems to slowly collapse outside their compound. 3.5/5

&nbsp;
His Mouth will Taste of Wormwood by Poppy Z. Brite (1990)- An excellent, gothic tale of two young men seeking decadence in debauchery in New Orleans. 5/5

&nbsp;
The End of the Garden by Michal Ajvas (1991)- A surreal story about a man who encounters a woman attacking a komodo dragon in her bedroom. I'm not entirely sure what the point was, but good imagery and very surreal. 3.5/5

&nbsp;
The Dark by Karen Jay Fowler (1991)- A story about a series of events in Yosemite, including disappearences and reports of plague, leading to a musing about the nature of man as an animal. 4/5

&nbsp;
Angels in Love by Kathe Koja (1991)- A really weird story, about a woman who is aroused and falls in love with the sounds of her neighbours having sex through the wall, and tries to discover how exactly they're doing it. 4/5

&nbsp;
The Ice Man by Haruki Murakami (1991)- A short, lightly magical one about a woman who meets an Ice Man at a ski resort and marries him, and their somewhat distant relationship. 4/5

&nbsp;
Replacements by Lisa Tuttle (1992)- A story about strange creatures which appear and disgust the male narrator, but seem to fascinate women. 4.5/5

&nbsp;
The Diane Arbus Suicide Portfolio by Marc Laidlaw (1993)- A story about a crime scene photographer who photographs Diane Arbus' suicide, which leads to strange encounters around those photos. 4/5

&nbsp;
The Country Doctor by Steven Utley (1993)- A short and interesting one about what's unearthed when a graveyard is exhumed. Feels like it's in dialogue with The Dunwich Horror a little bit. 4.5/5

&nbsp;
Last Rites and Resurrections by Martin Simpson (1994)- A sad but sweet one about a man who hears the ghosts of roadkill after his son dies. 5/5

&nbsp;
The Ocean and All of Its Devices by William Browning Spencer (1994)- A good, eerie one about a strange holidaying family and their rituals with the ocean. 5/5

&nbsp;
The Delicate by Jeffrey Ford (1994)- A great short, surreal story about a strange, shapeshifting monster called The Delicate. Just a little taster of a story, but well-painted even so. I really need to get to the Well-Built City books. 5/5

&nbsp;
The Man in the Black Suit by Stephen King (1994)- A man in his nineties recounting the story of how he encountered the Devil as a young boy while fishing. 4/5

&nbsp;
Once again, this collection continues to be full of bangers. Not one among this set I didn't enjoy. My favourites this go around were Tainaron by Leena Krohn, The Autopsy by Michael Shea, Bloochild by Butler, In the Hills, the Cities by Clive Barker, and His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood by Poppy Z. Brite. Just one more set of stories left, and full of a lot of authors I already love-- Angela Carter, Tanith Lee, Cisco, Mieville, and VanderMeer himself...

#Part 1 #Part 2

I'm back with another set of short fiction mini-reviews, of stories in The Weird anthology edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. With a larger break this time, because I got some new books for my birthday last month which I immediately read (new exciting shiny book > book in progress) and the excitement of r/fantasy's Bingo challenge starting. :)

&nbsp;
Window by Bob Leman (1980)- A story about an experiment that appears to open a window into the past, but turns out to be something far more sinister. An excellent revelation. 5/5

&nbsp;
The Brood by Ramsey Campbell (1980)- A story about a man who observes a strange old woman lurking on his street at night, who appears to be constantly taking animals in which are never seen again, which he feels compelled to rescue. 4/5

&nbsp;
The Autopsy by Michael Shea (1980)- A story about a doctor called to autopsy some men killed in a mine explosion, one of whom may have been a cannibal, and finds one of the corpses isn't quite as dead as it should be. Really good-- I added Nifft the Lean to my TBR because I thought it was so good. 5/5

&nbsp;
The Belonging Kind by William Gibson/John Shirley (1981)- A man finds a fluid human mimic at a bar and become obsessed with them and their transformations. 3.5/5

&nbsp;
Egnaro by M. John Harrison (1981)- This was a strange one. It seems to be almost about an antimeme, an idea of a secret that everyone knows but you, infecting a used bookstore owner and his accountant's lives. Slippery and hard to grasp, as Harrison often is. 4.5/5

&nbsp;
The Dirty Little Girl by Joanna Russ (1982)- A story of a woman who encounters an oddly intelligent little girl, who she begins to take care of in small ways, who may be a ghost or something else... 4/5

&nbsp;
The New Rays by M. John Harrison (1982)- A story about a woman undergoing an unspecified, experimental treatment by being irradiated by "New Rays" in a shoddy, sketchy clinic, which also seems to create or involve blue homunculi of the patients, and this strange treatment's effect on her. 4/5

&nbsp;
The Discovery of Telenapota by Premendra Mitra (1984)- The story of finding a ruined shell of a city, very interestingly told (in second person future perfect). 4/5

&nbsp;
Soft by F. Paul Wilson (1984)- The story of a plague which causes the bones of its victims to liquify, and two partial victims surviving in NYC. Gross and scary. 4.5/5

&nbsp;
Bloodchild by Octavia Butler (1984)- Apparently Butler wrote this as a way of overcoming her fear of botflies? If botflies weren't already horrific, this would have made them so. I mean it was great. But it was horrific. 5/5

&nbsp;
In the Hills, the Cities by Clive Barker (1984)- Reread. I remember only thinking this was only okay when I first read it several years ago, but I didn't think that was the case at all this time. Shows how tastes change. This was great and horrific. 5/5

&nbsp;
Tainaron by Leena Krohn (1985)- I skipped, because I only just read it at the end of last year. It's a favourite though, I count it as the second-best thing I read last year. 5/5

&nbsp;
Hogfoot Right and Bird-hands by Garry Kilworth (1987)- A story about a woman who turns parts of her body into animal pets. Short, but weird and somewhat disturbing. 3.5/5

&nbsp;
Shades by Lucius Shepard (1987)- The story of a Vietnam vet returning to Vietnam as a reporter, to see a ghost captured by the Vietnamese of a soldier he knew. Really good- an excellent character portrayal, and examination of different kinds of "shades." 5/5

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The Functions of Dream Sleep by Harlan Ellison (1988)- The story of man, burdened with grief, who wakes up one night to find a maw on his side which closes and disappears. He seeks help through interpreting his dreams, which leads him a strange sort of quest. 4/5

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Worlds that Flourish by Ben Okri (1988)- The story of a man, living in an oppressed city as if in a dream, and the weird events that happen to him before and when he tries to flee. 4.5/5

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The Boy in the Tree by Elizabeth Hand (1989)- A very weird story, blending sci-fi and fantasy, about an autistic girl who is one of several empaths, who, twisted with drugs and training from childhood, are able to enter other people's dreams, and sometimes take them away as therapy. It's the story of this research institute being investigated (because sometimes the patients die) and of the head researcher's trauma. An extremely interesting and thorough piece for a short story. 4.5/5

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Family by Joyce Carol Oates (1989)- A slyly creepy story of a family on ranch, as they go through subtle transformations as the world seems to slowly collapse outside their compound. 3.5/5

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His Mouth will Taste of Wormwood by Poppy Z. Brite (1990)- An excellent, gothic tale of two young men seeking decadence in debauchery in New Orleans. 5/5

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The End of the Garden by Michal Ajvas (1991)- A surreal story about a man who encounters a woman attacking a komodo dragon in her bedroom. I'm not entirely sure what the point was, but good imagery and very surreal. 3.5/5

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The Dark by Karen Jay Fowler (1991)- A story about a series of events in Yosemite, including disappearences and reports of plague, leading to a musing about the nature of man as an animal. 4/5

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Angels in Love by Kathe Koja (1991)- A really weird story, about a woman who is aroused and falls in love with the sounds of her neighbours having sex through the wall, and tries to discover how exactly they're doing it. 4/5

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The Ice Man by Haruki Murakami (1991)- A short, lightly magical one about a woman who meets an Ice Man at a ski resort and marries him, and their somewhat distant relationship. 4/5

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Replacements by Lisa Tuttle (1992)- A story about strange creatures which appear and disgust the male narrator, but seem to fascinate women. 4.5/5

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The Diane Arbus Suicide Portfolio by Marc Laidlaw (1993)- A story about a crime scene photographer who photographs Diane Arbus' suicide, which leads to strange encounters around those photos. 4/5

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The Country Doctor by Steven Utley (1993)- A short and interesting one about what's unearthed when a graveyard is exhumed. Feels like it's in dialogue with The Dunwich Horror a little bit. 4.5/5

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Last Rites and Resurrections by Martin Simpson (1994)- A sad but sweet one about a man who hears the ghosts of roadkill after his son dies. 5/5

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The Ocean and All of Its Devices by William Browning Spencer (1994)- A good, eerie one about a strange holidaying family and their rituals with the ocean. 5/5

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The Delicate by Jeffrey Ford (1994)- A great short, surreal story about a strange, shapeshifting monster called The Delicate. Just a little taster of a story, but well-painted even so. I really need to get to the Well-Built City books. 5/5

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The Man in the Black Suit by Stephen King (1994)- A man in his nineties recounting the story of how he encountered the Devil as a young boy while fishing. 4/5

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Once again, this collection continues to be full of bangers. Not one among this set I didn't enjoy. My favourites this go around were Tainaron by Leena Krohn, The Autopsy by Michael Shea, Bloochild by Butler, In the Hills, the Cities by Clive Barker, and His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood by Poppy Z. Brite. Just one more set of stories left, and full of a lot of authors I already love-- Angel Carter, Tanith Lee, Cisco, Mieville, and VanderMeer himself...

Edit: Formatting was all borked on mobile. Worked fine on desktop...

I recently read Contra Amatores Mundi by Graham Thomas Wilcox, and just finished today Hurled Headlong Flaming by Matt Holder, and enjoyed both a lot. Because they're both fairly obscure, short novellas (83 pp. for the former, 113 pp. for the latter), I thought I'd tie their reviews together, and also because they feel very similar to me. People often ask for books which feel like Dark Souls, and, more than BotNS or Between Two Fires, these novellas feel the closest things to DS I've read.

#Contra Amatores Mundi

Contra Amatores Mundi by Graham Thomas Wilcox is an excellent gothic, dark fantasy Sword and Sorcery novella. This was one of the best things I read last year. The premise is that two rather brutal knights are transported to a strange world under the sea, while "convincing" some heretics of the merits of their religion by the sword, and are attempting to escape. This is very medieval quest like in writing and style. The prose is a faux-Chaucer kind of style done well, and the plot is fundamentally a quest (in the end, a quest to slay a questing beast by any other name). But though that's the surface plot, the main conflict isn't really the quest, but man vs. self; the two knights trying to maintain their sanity in this strange world.

As well as following the two knights through Heironymus' PoV, we also get glimpses of his relationship with Walpurga, his lover and also a nun/bride of Christ, who may also be a witch. There's a very interesting dynamic there, regarding whether Walpurga's feelings are true or just manipulation, as well as the medium we get to see Walpurga's actions through-- visions from a demonic eye or uncertain veracity, as the world attempts to break the knights.

Though this is a short novella and I would happily have read more, I enjoyed this a lot for what it was and felt like it wrapped up well. Which is not always the case for me with novellas; I'm often left wanting more. I'm not claiming this is the closest in plot or lore to Dark Souls, but it matches the vibe better than anything I've read. That gloomy, claustrophobic, paranoid atmosphere of tension of your first playthrough.

#Hurled Headlong Flaming

Hurled Headlong Flaming I just finished, and it strongly reminded me of Contra Amatores Mundi (and Between Two Fires), prompting me to give them these mini-reviews. This is a dark, grim novella, about a Bishop's descent into an underworld/otherworld (probably Hell) to retrieve a manuscript which he believes has knowledge which will help avoid/forestall/survive an upcoming apocalypse. The novel is set against the background of the Crusades, in which the Bishop has participated, starting in Cyprus and Tripoli in the ~1290s. After finding out who has the information about how to get to this underworld, the Bishop has to pass through different trials on his journey downwards.

As well as being reminiscent of Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard, and influenced by Milton (the title is a line from Paradise Lost) and Dante, I'd say the book this most reminds me of is beyond those I've already mentioned is Vathek by Samuel Beckett. The purported purpose of the novel (and the series it's a part of) in the introduction from the publishers is to push the boundaries of S&S, and I'd say it makes a good effort at that. It's fairly philosophical, especially compared to some of the more "stab first think later" S&S novels, prodding at ideas of the interrelationship of power and violence, the Crusades, and the contradiction between Christianity's tenets and some of its believers actions. Though they're important ideas to the story, it's not overwhelmingly didactic; foremost, it's an atmospheric painting of a weird, Dantean, quest for knowledge.

My only quibble is, like many novellas for me and opposed to Contra Amatores Mundi, it does feel more like a snapshot of a story than a full tale; a snatch of music heard as the door opens and shuts, rather than a full song. There is an ending, but it feels more like a comma than a full stop. There's certainly the groundwork laid to expand into a full novel (>!is the coming apocalypse the Black Death, given the time period? How would the knowledge help, or fail to?!< >!Is the man who tells him how to achieve this quest truly just a man, or a Mephistopheles figure?!<) This also feels quite like Dark Souls in the atmosphere and aesthetic, though a more Hellish (more Izalith than Lordran), but in particular has some excellent twisted, discomfiting monsters. It also has a metal AF cover, which wasn't insignificant in me first checking it out.

I just read the novella Hurled Headlong Flaming by Matt Holder, and enjoyed it quite a bit. Though it's billed as Sword and Sorcery, I'd put it as Dark Fantasy first and foremost, and Weird second, only then followed by S&S. But genres are made up anyway so, *shrug*. I think I first saw this on Goodreads, and added it to my TBR after it sounding interesting, but one of the first things which caught my attention is the awesome cover.

Looks like a Death Metal album cover

This is a dark, grim novella, about a Bishop's descent into an underworld/otherworld (probably Hell) to retrieve a manuscript which he believes has knowledge which will help avoid/forestall/survive an upcoming apocalypse. The novel is set against the background of the Crusades, in which the Bishop has participated, starting in Cyprus and Tripoli in the ~1290s. After finding out who has the information about how to get to this underworld, the Bishop has to pass through different trials on his journey down.

As well as being reminiscent of Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard most imo, and influenced by Milton (the title is a line from Paradise Lost) and Dante, I'd say the books this most reminds me of are Vathek by Samuel Beckett and Contra Amatores Mundi by Graham Thomas Wilcox (which is another recent dark fantasy novella I loved, but never did a full review of for some reason).

The purported purpose of the novel (and the series it's a part of), in the introduction from the publishers, is to push the boundaries of S&S, and I'd say it makes a good effort at that. It's fairly philosophical, prodding at ideas of the interrelationship of power and violence, the Crusades, and the contradiction between Christianity's tenets and its believers actions. Though they're important ideas, it's not overwhelmingly didactic; foremost, it's an atmospheric painting of a weird, Dantean, quest for knowledge.

My only quibble is, like many novellas, it feels more like a snapshot of a story than a full tale; a snatch of music heard as the door opens and shuts, rather than a full song. There's certainly the groundwork laid to expand into a full novel (>!is the coming apocalypse the Black Death, given the time period? How would the knowledge help, or fail to?!< >!Is the man who tells him how to achieve this quest truly just a man, or a Mephistopheles figure?)!<Though there is an ending, it feels more like a comma than a full stop.

Still, this is a short, evocative read, which is well worth giving a shot to fans of S&S and infernal imagery. Holder's debut, as far as I can tell (I think the stuff about your Third Eye and so on is in earnest).

Spoiler free, as always.

I finished The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes last night, breaking a loose book-buying ban for myself because I'd seen a good few people I trust say this would be right up my alley. And I'm glad I did, because this was fantastic. Not just tickling my particular tastes, but "staying up 'til 4am to finish" good. It's among my top 5 books of the year now. I didn't see any dedicated reviews of it here yet, which it needs and deserves.

I'm going to start with Bingo squares, because this fits one I've seen a lot of people asking for: a fantasy Biopunk Hard Mode. It also fits High Fashion HM, LGBTQIA, Down with the System, Published in 2025, and A Book in Parts.

The Works of Vermin follows two threads: one, an exterminator, Guy Moulene, deeply in debt and working his way deeper, taking dangerous jobs in the literal underbelly of the city to keep his young sister free and out of the system; the other, following a perfumer Aster, as she navigates her loyalties and the high society echelons of the upper city, crafting tailored perfumes for The Marshal, the ruthless authoritarian iron fist of the government and her adoptive father-figure.

The city of Tiliard is one of the best things about this book. More than just another Weird City, this is a really creative and fleshed-out city in multiple aspects. The physical city of Tiliard is carved out of an ancient tree-stump suspended above the deadly, mirror-like Catoptric River. The upper city, where the elite live in perfumed luxury and artistic decadence, is carved in concentric streets on the face of the stump. The mid-city, inside the trunk, is the factory district where the unpleasant and unaesthetic work takes place; manufacturing, alchemy, and imprisonment. The lower city, hanging among the roots of the tree which dip down into the river itself, is where the downtrodden, indebted, and criminal elements live, eking out life between the toxic runoff from above and suspended above a terrifying, deadly plummet among catwalks and suspended platforms above the river below.

Though Tiliard is built into the stump of a tree, the tree doesn't seem quite dead. The phloem and xylems of the tree still work, pulling up the water of the Catoptric, which does't appear to be quite water-- it acts as fuel and burns-- and funneling waste back down to the river. Combustible sugars are still able to be extracted from the tree's flesh, to be burned in the engines of cars or used as an element of alchemy and pharmaceutical perfumery. Because of it's nature as a half-dead tree though, there's another thing that makes Tiliard weird:

Bugs.

This is a very buggy book. Although I don't think it's particularly gross or scary, I could see this being uncomfortable for some people. I see this tagged as horror a lot on Goodreads, which I adamantly disagree with- to me, Horror is something which is intended to instill fear or unease in the reader. And I don't this does this at all, nor intends to. But I wonder whether squeamishness around bugs is why people are doing so. Because bugs do feature prominently in the book. Not only the massive centipede of the blurb, but infestations of silverfish, grease-beetles as food, psychoactive moths. Seeing as one the main characters we follow is working as an exterminator, bugs do crop up a lot.

Yet another extremely cool aspect of this city is the way art infuses the life of the city. Art is one of the primary diversions of the elite of the city: deadly operas with real, loosely-scripted swordfights and actual executions; perfumery as magical fashion, straightening eyebrows, adding compulsion to speech, or acting as a restraint on passions; personally embroidered kerchiefs and tossed bodkins as marks of favour. When notable events happen in the city, the news isn't spread through newspapers or radio broadcast, it's found by listening to poems or seeing quickly painted artworks, attending a hastily arranged opera or hearing a newly composed song.

Another aspect of this books which I loved was the characters. Rather than heroic, admirable protagonists, we follow a sad, somewhat pathetic, hopelessly romantic and empathetic pest exterminator, and a chronically ill, conflicted parfumier. Similarly, one of the main thrusts of the book is love, but not romantic love. Obsessive/possessive platonic love, sibling love, yearning love, and parental love. These loves, I'd say, are the main drivers of the book as far as we, the readers, care, even though grander events are occurring in the background.

As for plot, I don't want to say too much, beyond what the blurb says and the premise I've laid out. I think the best comparison I can give without any spoilers as to how exactly things are laid out is by comparing it to Gene Wolfe. This is not a comparison I use lightly, and there are definitely ways in which it differs (for one, it doesn't have Wolfe's use of obscure vocabulary and unreliable narrators). But where it stands alongside Wolfe, which is oft admired and rarely imitated of his works, is in its narrative structure and layers. It shares a similar subtle inclusions of details and hints about how the world works and what's going on in the story, able to worked out by a perspicacious reader early but slowly peeling back layers, rather than blindsiding the reader with an unanticipated and unearned "twist."

All in all, this an excellent book. This is certainly the best book I've read published this year, though that's not a high bar to pass, being 1 of 4. But I don't doubt it'd still be there were I a current reader. It's also one of the best books I've read this year, which is currently at 53.

And because I am, by virtue of this golden crown (editors note: it is brass and paste), an Authority on Weird Cities, I have some good comparisons to make. The obvious comparison is, of course, Perdido Street Station. But, I feel like that comparison is bandied around anytime a book is simply "set in a weird city," and PSS is much darker and closer to the verge of horror imo. The bigger weird city book that it's actually very close to are Jeff VanderMeer's Ambergris books (which, looking at ratings on GoodReads, isn't nearly as close to PSS as I though; I might have to make a post imploring people to read it). Another good comparison in terms of vivid setting is to Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels, though what Gormenghast is to a Gothic medieval castle, this is to an Art Nouveau Victorian city.

For books which feature a city infused with art in a similar way, the closest books are VanderMeer's Ambergris (particularly the novella The Transformation of Martin Lake [contained within CoSaM] and the second, Shriek: An Afterword), The Etched City by K. J. Bishop and, somewhat, Michael Cisco's The Divinity Student.

For books set in a weird city centered around an inexplicable situation of setting, I'd compare it to Adrian Tchaikovsky's Cage of Souls and, for some deep cuts, City of the Iron Fish by Simon D. Ings and Trial of Flowers by Jay Lake.

Finally, for just very readable, recent, unabashedly weird and fun books, I'd recommend those who like this try Jared Pechacek's The West Passage and Steven Noon and Jeff Beard's Gogmagog, and vice-versa.