From fairy tale forest to gloomy gothic moor, from gleaming epidemiologist’s lab to the sandy shores of Neverland, Seanan McGuire’s short fiction has been surprising, delighting, confusing, and transporting her readers since 2009. Now, for the first time, that fiction has been gathered together in one place, ready to be enjoyed one twisting, tangled tale at a time. Her work crosses genres and subverts expectations.
Meet the mad scientists of “Laughter at the Academy” and “The Tolling of Pavlov’s Bells.” Glory in the potential of a Halloween that never ends. Follow two very different alphabets in “Frontier ABCs” and “From A to Z in the Book of Changes.” Get “Lost,” dress yourself “In Skeleton Leaves,” and remember how to fly. All this and more is waiting for you within the pages of this decade-spanning collection, including several pieces that have never before been reprinted. Stories about mermaids, robots, dolls, and Deep Ones are all here, ready for you to dive in.
This is a box of strange surprises dredged up from the depths of the sea, each one polished and prepared for your enjoyment. So take a chance, and allow yourself to be surprised.
Excellent addition!
So delightful! Laughter at the Academy is a book of stand-alone short stories by Seanan McGuire (you donât need to have read any of her series in order to read these storiesâif youâve never read her work before, this would be a great introduction!). The span of genres is great: science fiction, urban fantasy, horror, bio-thriller (more bio than thriller), apocalyptic, cosmic horror, and even a story set in a steampunk realm. Every story in here was a winner for me, which can be unusual in anthologies (although less unusual in single-author anthologies). Some stories naturally hit me harder than others, but I have to tell you, I felt things while reading these. I may have even bawled my eyes out once.The first story, Laughter at the Academy, introduces us to the idea of Schizotypal Creative Genius Personality Disorder, and how it results in outbreaks of mad scientists. Itâs a wonderful, twisted, beautiful take on mad scientists and how theyâre created.There are some stories that I canât explain much about without giving too much away, but that gave me a really nice chill or shudder. Lost is one of these, and it starts with children being drawn to the night sky. Crystal Halloway and the Forgotten Passage introduces us to a portal fantasy, where a young woman has been saving a fantasy land in her spare time. This is definitely a chilling one! Frontier ABCs involves a not-as-young-as-she-looks schoolteacher and the guns she makes use of in her spare time.Iâve always been a big fan of bio-terror end-of-the-world stories, and The Tolling of Pavlovâs Bells delivers quite nicely. A scientist whoâs been trying to warn the world about the dangers of disease decides sheâs warned humanity enough. Each to Each is neither bio-terror nor end-of-the-world, but it has hints of both. Women serving in the Navy are being modified to survive in the sea, and all the details that go into that are fascinating. Lady Antheiaâs Guide to Horticultural Warfare details how a race of alien plants comes to earth. The first to make it ate a young ladyâs maid, taking on her memories and understanding, allowing her to grow close to the ruling humans.Uncle Sam is an unexpected treat. To quote the intro, âThis is the story of Uncle Sam, and the founding of the United States of America, and why girls always go to the bathroom in groupsâ¦â (If that combination doesnât intrigue you, nothing will!) Itâs a little riff on modern folklore. Driving Jenny Home is a bittersweet telling of a phantom girlfriend who asks for a ride home. I shed a few tears. Another folklore-based story is In Skeleton Leaves, which is a very unusual Peter Pan tale.Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust is an âurban fantasy film noirâ take on the world of the Wizard of Oz. Dot is a Princess of Oz, the Crossover Ambassador, and the Wicked Witch of the Westâand she has to solve a murder in a city where everyone hates her. This story is sharp as a knife!Homecoming is my favorite story in here, even though it centers around football and cheerleaders, which I have no interest in. A mysterious game of football is played with cheerleaders who seem to know more than theyâre saying. The sides are chosen as the game progresses, and that isnât the only irregularity. This one, umm, might have actually made me cry. âOctober never ends if the game is never truly finished.âWe Are All Misfit Toys in the Aftermath of the Velveteen War is another story that I found absolutely gripping. When AI was discovered, we were (for once) smart enough to not put it in charge of our weapons or our healthcare system or anything like that. No, we built it into toys that were made to be self-learning teachers to our children. Yeah, that couldnât possibly go wrong⦠âThe war is over and the war will never end.â My favorite touch in this story is that the first AI toys were built to help non-neurotypical children, who needed a friend who could adapt to their needs.The Lambs is another take on how smart robots might be used. Someone developed robots who can pass as human. Bullying was such a problem in schools that there was at least one âlambâ inserted into each class. Their purpose was both to draw the ire of the bullies away from other loners, and to record all the instances of bullying so that they could âtell onâ the bullies at graduation. Thereâs a lot of fascinating detail in how they have to balance everything in order to keep people from identifying the lambs, and we definitely get into the down sides of putting children under constant surveillance.A couple of these stories have very unusual formats. Bring About the Halloween Eternal!!! is, in fact, told as a Kickstarter campaign! Itâs a hilarious and fun look at how someone plans to bring about an eternal Halloween, and defeat her older sister, who wants to make Christmas rule. Office Memos is told through, what else, office memos. Itâs a delightful tale of a…