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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''

I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=J Robert LennonB0CDZRGT1M|title=See You In ParadiseSuper Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch|rating=34.5

|summary=Lennon writes with ''Got a relaxedminute to be amused, easy style and his characters are instantly recognisable as people from everyday walks of lifeentertained, without being in any way stereotypical. Many of the people in these or challenged?''''These 100 stories are dealing with normal frustrations, and Lennon super short. None is cleverly detached enough not to make them individuals that you're obviously supposed to root for (the only exception is the industrialist more than 300 words. You can read one in the eponymous tale, who is an archetypal capitalist fat cat)a flash. There are some very clever characterisations – in ''Weber’s Head''Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short.'', for example, the narrator is  Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a flawed individual whose opinions flavour of his housemate are gradually revealed a fully rounded little story if that story is told in fewer than three hundred words? Or do you try to be unreliable and unfair. For me, draw out themes from all the most unsettling story is ''No Lifeflash fictions in a book of them? I don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn't a fixed definition of flash fiction but that for this collection, because it portrays author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a decent couple at the mercy of people more powerful and influential than themthree hundred word limit. There is no supernatural or bizarre element at work here, just ordinary characters at the mercy of social powerThat's about a single page in your average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781253358</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rebecca LeeRachel Harrison|title=Bobcat and Other StoriesBad Dolls|rating=3.54

|summary=The first story in It's been some time since I'Bobcatve read any horror. I had a couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the books from a boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with them to the point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of the vampires outside! Don' is the title t worry - this short storycollection isn't like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, and this alone is worth the price of admission. Plaster I didn't have to read it with prizes, put during daylight hours only! But it in anthologies; it deserves every accolade it can get. However, the last story echoes the firstis creepy, and I found most of that feeling came from the five tales in between fact that these are strangely repetitivestories about women, living normal lives, most with Midwestern North American narrators and 1980s university settings. Moreoverthat at least in part, all seven are in the first-person; I would have appreciated more variety of perspectivehorrors arises from very normal situations such as a breakup, trying a new dieting app, going to a hen party and a coping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1922182311</amazonuk>1803363932

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kelley ArmstrongB0CCCVRSGX|title=Otherworld NightsStories 2|author=Richard F Walker

|genre=ParanormalShort Stories|summary=Kelley Armstrong revisits her hugely popular This is Richard F Walker'Otherworld' series in this collection s second volume of short stories, featuring many . There are thirteen in all and I took something from each of them. There isn't a single one that doesn't deserve to be among the prominent characters from others or brings down the seriesoverall quality. It can be tricky to review short stories without giving too much away, so I'll just pick two to talk about and I think they give a general flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356500667</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Robin Ince and Johnny Mains (editors)|title=Dead Funny|rating=4I've got a couple of confessions to make.5|genre=Horror|summary=In I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a world of nightmares, disasters, death few stories and ignominy there is a then forget to return to the book called . There''Dead Funny''. Invented purely s got to be a very compelling hook to satisfy the remit built into its title, it collects some horror stories written by comedians, both household names and those more up-and-comingkeep me engaged. Like all horror books Then there's science fiction: far too often it comes out at 's the time of year best suited for horror – Halloween, when we read technology which takes centre stage along with the darkest corners in our rooms, with the longest evenings outside – but is only suited for Halloween because it is a worthless, hellish piece of drossworld-building. It never excites, it is 's human beings who fascinate me: the most self-serving vanity project, technology and the only funny thing about it is that some idiot ever decided it was worth publishingworld scape are purely incidental. Now So, what did I know you know, courtesy think of a book of those bright shiny stars alongside this review, that this volume, Dead Funny, is not ''that'' Dead Funny. twenty-two science fiction short stories? But just bear in mind the horror story this could have beenWell, if these pages were not so surprisingly adept at taking those said nightmares, disasters, deaths and ignominy and presenting them to us so competentlyI loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773762</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Konstantina Souzou-KyrkouB09XZMCDVF|title=Black Greek CoffeeStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker

|summary=If your experience of Greece ''A news vendor is as a tourist then you'll almost certainly think of it crying out the headlines in terms the middle of history, mythology and startlingly white buildings against sapphire blue sky and sea. It looks idyllic, but there's the night; a darker side to Greek life, explored by Konstantina Souzou-Kyrkou, wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in ''Black Greek Coffee'' - his imagination; a neat metaphor stickler for correct grammar goes back in time to correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the lives she looks at: sharp, bitter but ultimately addictive. In twenty three short stories she illuminates ideal person to have around in a lawless village; the chauvinism and superstition, new boy on the concepts of ''honour'' and the status of womenpub football team is very useful with his feet, the dominance of religion and the lives led by awfully familiar…''ordinary'' people. They sound like grand themes, but the stories are grounded in domesticity and there will be few people - in any country - who have not been touched by one of the problems.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784620351</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|title=Doctor Who: 12 Doctors 12 Stories|author=Malorie Blackman, Holly Black and others|rating=4This collection of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the eclectic reader.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=How long do you keep your birthday presents for? A week, a month, a year – or life? Is Tying them together is the idea that time-scale different, perhaps, when you're nearly a thousand years old? I only ask because Doctor Who isremarkable and strange, of courseeven miraculous, both 51 (in our earthly, televisual representation) and 900 and more in human years as a characterthings can happen to ordinary people. In 2013 we were given a great book And that gave us a story for every Doctor Who weordinary doesn've seen on TV, in honour t mean boring or uninteresting. Form and tone varies so this little treasury of the 50th birthday proceedings. But now short fiction is a year on, never boring and weyou're a further Doctor down the line. And so never quite sure what was '11 Doctors, 11 Stories' is now '12 Doctors, 12 Stories'. So while many of us would have cherished and kept said birthday present, the only addition is the last, which like the rest was available as an e-book. So it's worth revisiting what I said about the book last time, then chucking in the (what might only be temporarily) concluding story at the endcoming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141359889</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1737030942|title=Problems with PeopleBag O'Goodies|author=David GutersonJolly Walker Bittick|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesAnthologies|summary=Sometimes, you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Problems with PeopleBag O'Goodies' is '. I first encountered his writing about a meandering exploration of the relationshipsyear ago, big and smallwhen I read his [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], that we form across a lifetimerollicking tale of what happens when five young men find a base for their partying. Ranging from that of parent and child Right now, I didn't want a full-length novel, so I turned to that between landlord and tenant, Guterson’s observation this anthology of the complexities verse and nuances involved in how we navigate these personal links is extremely sharp short stories. Bittick's writing has matured - and true to lifeso have his characters. Well...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408859963</amazonuk>most of them!

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529418100|title=Burnt Tongues: An Anthology of Transgressive Short StoriesBruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=Chuck Palahniuk, Dennis Widmyer and Richard ThomasMartin Walker

|summary=Saying certain things out loud just don’t sound right. Some things are so disturbing or politically incorrect that you are best off leaving them inside your head, or better yet I'm not thinking usually a fan of them at short stories - I find it all. When these words are spoken they could lead too easy to put the sensation book down between stories and forget to pick it up again - but I am a fan of Burnt Tongue; an aftereffect of knowing what you said Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the temptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was wronghard to resist and I'm rather glad that I didn't even try. Are you prepared For those new to enter the world of Transgressive Fiction series, there's an excellent introduction that aims will tell you all you need to disturb, alienate, disgust know about who's who and question?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329552X</amazonuk>the background to why Bruno is in St Denis.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08NF79QXT|title=The Best British Short Stories 2014Cherry Blossom Boutique|author=Nicholas Royle (editor)Brooke Adams|rating=53|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=I’m a keen reader and I like a massive tome. But every so oftenThirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, I drift into a mode of finding it hard to settle to anything for just six months when she's nominated for - and at such times, I like to read short storieswins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. I also enjoy them when I’m horribly busy She's delighted and don’t have the time two people she's brought with her to read much the event couldn't be morepleased. Sonja, her mother, is an ex-model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's husband, Charles and their four-year-old daughter, Ava. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a man in her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773673</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08KKQ85FN|title=Any Other MouthBut Never For Lunch|author=Anneliese MackintoshSandra Aragona

|summary=With a title like ''Any Other Mouth'', you know from If a woman approaching the outset that this is, shall we saymenopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a rather niche book. It’s not all pampered peacock about orificesto be released into the company of carrion crows or, though. Partially autobiographicalmore to the point, this is about to discover the messy, ludicrous, wildly entertaining story real world of a girl who’s just a little bit differentbus timetables and paying his own gas bills. Ok, make that a lot different.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908754575</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|title=Revenge|author=Yoko Ogawa You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Stephen Snyder (translator)Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=A woman waits for a long time at a village bakery, her mind only on Sorting the strawberry shortcakes she wants to buy, Priorities]] and the strange reasons that make the purchase so important we learned what it was like to her. A boy is invited be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by a girl at school to a posh French restaurant – with strawberry shortcakes on the menu – in order Italian Government but the time has come for him HE to provide moral support as she meets her estranged father retires and for the first timeSandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... Nearby, a woman enjoys an unusual relationship with her elderly landlady, who keeps finding unusually-shaped carrots They have left The Career and settled in her vegetable gardenRome. A man reflects on an unusual relationship with a writer who for a couple of years at least was a step-mum to himWell 'settled' rather overstates the situation and their dog, even as she went dotty in talking to herself. Unusual relationshipsBeagle, vegetableshas no intention of slowing down any time soon, motives – despite being sixteen and strawberry shortcakes – are prevalent in this fascinating look at a sunlit yet dark world, which makes for a superlatively clever readdeaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553937</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08CHJLNBS|title=Dead Man's HandCapturing Emilia|author=John Joseph Brooke Adams (editor)|rating=53|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=He''Dead Mans Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. She's Hand'' features short stories with themes ranging from time travel Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and vampires to theology; at first glance it definitely appears to be an eclectic mixarchivist in the heritage library next door. These stories are linked Emilia has read [[The Secret by the genre of the weird westRhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that, which is defined by its elasticity. John Joseph Adamsleave you dependent on someone else' helpful introduction outlines the main features of the weird west and provides a clears philosophies, insightful guide to this something a little-known genredeeper. Far from being mismatched, the eclectic nature of this collection Charles is in fact the greatest strength more of the weird west genre. Unconstrained a [[Personal by narrow generic conventionsLee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, the authors in this collection have plundered the deepest depths of their imaginations. The result? A colourful, memorable andbut, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''imaginativeThe Guardian'' collection of fiction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783295465</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=The Listener|author=Tove Jansson|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=Until very recently Jansson was probably only known in the English-speaking world for her Moomin stories. Then along came They''Sort re obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out ofhis mind? She's not his usual type at all: it' books and their wonderful translators, foremost among them: Thomas Teals obvious to his friends. And we started to understand what it was about the woman…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745363</amazonuk>}} {{newreview <!-- 19/5 -->|author=Lightfall Literary Agency (Editor)|title=The Obsidian Poplar and Other Stories|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=I'll confess given that I was a little nervous about 'Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to him? The Obsidian Poplar and Other Stories''. Thererelationship's obviously a common misconception that short stories are easy non- something run off quickly before the author gets on with doing the proper job of a full-length work, but the truth is rather different. A short story has none of the luxuries of a longer work: plot development has to be done quicklystarter, characters have to come off the page. Every word must earn its keep. A book can be written - a short story must be isn''crafted''. But what made me particularly nervous here was that all the authors are students - and the editor was convinced that there are ten of them who are good enough to be included in the book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00JH1B94E</amazonuk>t it?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrea Camilleri, Carlo Lucarelli Marie O'Regan and Giancarlo De CataldoPaul Kane (editors)|title=JudgesCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales

|genre=Short StoriesFantasy|summary=ICurses. They'll confess that it was the name re there throughout tales of [[:Category:Andrea Camilleri|Andrea Camilleri]] which brought me faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this book, or not to be able to do that. I'm a long-time fan Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the verge of his Inspector Montalbano series marrying, and older people too. It seems in a recent reading of a spin-off [[Montalbanoway there's First Case by Andrea Camilleri|novella]] had proved to me that the concise nature of his full-length novels was no flukeescaping it. In ''Judges'' we had another novella - worth buying for its own sake - and Which is why the bonus theme of this book of two more short stories from better-than-decent Italian authors. All is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, that was needed was a glass of wine demonised place, and a comfortable chairthat other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong. Did the book live up to expectation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857052977</amazonuk>1789091500

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Stibbe_Xmas|title=Lying Under the Apple TreeAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Alice MunroNina Stibbe

|genre=Short StoriesHumour|summary=Munro packs an extraordinary amount into a short storyChristmas – the time of traditional trauma. Some of them are quite long You only have to think about the turkey for short storiesthat – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and they are not if that failed the sorts of stories that might suit reading on hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your daily commute; they demand more attention than next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic thatyou can go and visit it, and get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Her observations of human behaviour are acuteChristmas, though, and the most innocuous is of them will set you thinking course also a time of great dealboons. Most It's cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the stories warrant thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a pause decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and as for thought the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and need a little sell them any other time for absorption of detail.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593777</amazonuk>the year?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0954899520|title=Stories of World War OneA Winter Book|author=Tony BradmanTove Jansson

|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=World War OneTove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, or written in the Great War as it was known at 1940s and later becoming television characters of the timesimplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was a cataclysmic war. Millions died and life was changed forever serious writer…that she wrote for the survivors - adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the women of Britain, natural world and for the working classes and ruling classes alike. 2014 is the centenary simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of its outbreak and how the redoubtable Tony Bradman has gathered together a dozen of our best writers for young people to create an anthology of short stories to commemorate the anniversaryworld might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408330350</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1911115847|title=Something Like HappyNights of the Creaking Bed|author=John BurnsideToni Kan|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=How do you pick a name for a short story collection? It seems to me the ''...and other storiesNights of the Creaking Bed'' add-on is like picking a favourite child, a promotion collection of short stories by Toni Kan. The series of one portion stories tell of the content above the restlives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in and around Lagos, Nigeria. [[:Category:John Burnside|John Burnside]] has got a title story hereNigeria, in this collection, but such is the mood imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the book shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Kan writes with a vitality and passion that he seems allows these cynical stories to have nailed the matter, and picked the most apposite name. ''Something Like Happy'' could in achieve a way be the title for practically every piece hereglimmer of hope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099575590</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529014484|title=Brief Loves That Live ForeverExhalation |author=Andrei MakineTed Chiang|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=Our unnamed narrator is inspired to think back through his life on Over the girls and women he past twenty-eight years, Ted Chiang has been in love withpublished fifteen science fiction short stories, partly because these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of a time spent with an associate – a time marked the work by a seemingly most unremarkable encounter with a further woman – whom he deemed had never been lovedTed Chiang. The associate, If you see, had spent half his adult life in Soviet camps for political instruction – our narrator himself was an orphan in the 1960shaven' Soviet Uniont then take this opportunity to do so now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful. This snappy volume takes us through episodes in several lives at different points during and since the second half of communist rule – and finally explains the import of that unremarkable encounter…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780870493</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth Haynes1794467440|title=Promises to Keep: A Short StoryWatchwords |author=Philip Neal

|summary=Jo is haunted by This satisfying collection of short stories has a provenance at least as beguiling as the death provenance of the antique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a teenage asylum seeker whilst in police custody watch. It was a watch he was fond of and she only hangs on had been told was like a 1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, he began to her fragile sanity by runningcollect vintage watches that resembled it. Whilst sheAnd that's out in the woods (where she'd been warned that she ''really'' shouldn't go) she discovered how he became a young boy living rough and she knew that she had watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to do everything the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in her power to keep him safe. There were complicationsClerkenwell. Her partner The eBay purchase was DS Sam Hollands who had a direct involvement with asylum seekers - fake, but the friendship that grew between the buyer and the boy living rough in the woods repairer of watches was not and the younger brother seed of the dead teenager. Sam wanted to get her relationship with Jo back onto an even keel, but one night she returned from work to find idea for a stranger in her housebook was born.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00I9GXP2M</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529006031|title=The Rental Heart and other FairytalesReturn to Wonderland|author=Kirsty LoganVarious Authors|rating=34.5

|summary=To start In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first book she was in [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], I found that I didn't really find too much favour with, are these stories strictly fairytales? it. On The wacky-for-the evidence -sake-of this collection-it did not gel, and I don't remember loving it is at times more as a distinction that seems open to debate, a category that lies waiting child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for definitionthis book. But I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the same timecore from a tangent, such is that show the genre-switching (and at times gender-switching), that it is a subtitle that serves better than mostbenefits of the oblique glance. The title story examines a lifeI've always preferred coming to an author's romantic history via a twist on the idea that we give our heart away to every lover – what do we have when they are gone and a new one takes output through their place? Elsewhereleast obvious, a landed lady takes advantage of her servantallegedly throw-away pieces, and another cultured madam hires a clockwork companion to shrug off it's the suitors, same with obvious, narratively logical results. A medical worker and her pregnant partner share franchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a caravan togetherhunch, all the while knowing a different circumstance might be closer than first thoughtfor obvious reasons). We have the beginnings of love livesFor another thing, the end there was every reason to expect some kind of hatredgreatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, and the end of the world surely pieces written with that love in these pages.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773754</amazonuk>mind could only provide for success after success?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1846974658|title=Further Encounters of Sherlock HolmesThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=George Mann (Editor)Jan-Philipp Sendker

|summary=Hot on On my travels around the heels of [[Encounters of Sherlock Holmes by George Mann (Editor)|Encounters of Sherlock Holmes]] comes another collection of brandworld, I have a tendency to end up in any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and while I buy as many second-new hand escapist tales written by some of as the next person, what I'm really looking for is the 'local' – the brightest creative minds from cookbook maybe, the genres of science fiction and crime. In this anthologymaps definitely, Holmes and Watson are pitched headlong into twelve different mysterious scenarios and invited to unravel secrets and unmask villains as only they know howbut above all: the folk tales. During their adventures they come face If I ever get to face with a mountain monsterBurma, take a murderous boat tripI won't need to hunt, meet Moriarty’s siblings and even indulge in a little space travelI can read before I go. The game is afoot!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178116004X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Rose (writer of short stories)B077969HN8|title=Posthumous StoriesAlternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=These sixteen Laura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories have one thing in common: lives, and plenty ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a twist of themsurrealism''. We jump from the earthy banter of I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a road crew building speed humps to an interview pre-broadcast fan of a classical piece where the interviewer isneither, but I't getting ve come to two conclusions about the kind of answers for which he hopes. On book: what the way we meet the leastpublisher says is correct -mentioned Beatle, visit a world where people are paid to read for the many that donand I really enjoyed it. The comedy is not ''too''t black and the man trying to remember his father through art to name but surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a fewtwist or flick of reality when you were least expecting it. For good measure there Your comfort zones are a couple of Kafka-esque experiments that also work as ripping good yarnsgoing to be invaded in the nicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773576</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=Doctor Who: 11 Doctors, 11 Stories9386897504|authortitle=Eoin Colfer, Michael Scott and others|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=It's basic knowledge that Doctor Who has changed a lot since first being seen fifty years ago – and I don't mean the title character, but the nature Tales of the programme. It has gone from black Love and white, and cheaply produced, and declared disposable, to being an essential part of the BBC, full-gloss digital, and accessed in all manner of ways. So with the celebratory programme still ringing in our ears, and leaving people pressing a red button to see a programme about three Doctors, er, pressing a red button, we turn to other aspects of the birthday bonanza. Such as this book, which has also mutated in its much shorter lifespan, from being a loose collection of eleven short e-book novellas written by the blazing lights of YA writing, to a huge and brilliant paperback collecting everything within one set of covers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141348941</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Of Lions and Unicorns: A Lifetime of Tales from the Master StorytellerDisability|author=Michael MorpurgoLaura Solomon

|genre=Confident ReadersShort Stories|summary=I''Of Lions ve always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of skill and Unicorns'' is talent to write a collection short story which holds the reader and keeps them coming back for more. There are far too many collections of short stories which are all too easy to put down and extracts from Morpurgo’s most popular booksforget after you've read a couple of pieces. The book is split into five sections I've recently read a couple of novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell's Unveiling]] and enjoyed them, which focus on recurring themes in his writingso I was intrigued to see what she could do with an even shorter form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007395353</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1986586898|title=Rags and BonesGoing To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt (Editors)K D Knight

|summary=I've said it beforeIn the opening story, a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in his pocket - and I'll say it againhis wife. The most fun when facing a new author, especially a big name one, is to come through the underground, tackling In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the smaller works, the quirkier output, the less representative sections problem of her whether or not to run his oeuvrehorse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. And for those who have or haven't read My favourite was ''The Jane Austen Book ClubStory of H'', there is plenty of potential for that with the rest of [[The Case story of Foinavon. H is depicted as a kind horse who only wanted to please people. After changing hands on various occasions he came to the Imaginary Detective by Karen Joy Fowler|Karen Joy Fowler]], for her output includes almost as many selections yard of short stories as it does very successful novels, and what's more they carry the science fictional bannerJohn Kempton. A long time ago there H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and considered a teenage me very happy to be reading ''Lord no-hoper. In one of the most dramatic runnings of the Flies'' and writing an essay about how scirace, a pile-fi it wasup occurred at the 23rd fence. Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and I do relish galloped to the mainstream author entering a genreline, or winning the inverse race at odds of that100/1. But boy, I normally come away a lot happier than I did here.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1604868252</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kate Mosse9386897296|title=The Mistletoe Bride and Other Haunting TalesHell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon|rating=43.5

|summary=This book of 14 short stories A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and a short play is based on I was delighted by the opportunity to read the ideaof hauntingsequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. Sometimes It's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the haunting devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the devil is the ghostly kind and sometimessomething psychologically deeper and more primalnot one to take defeat lying down. All the stories drift He's out tous from different eras, both past wage war on Planet Earth and recent, but all have one thing incommon: they centre particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a troubled person'goody two shoes' in Hell). For instance we meet GastonAlthough a strong person, aFrench child who witnesses an odd event on the beach just after losing hisparentsshe's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. In the inevitably touching but beautiful Daniel is framed for a crime he didn''Red Letter Day'' wetravel t commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to a French castle with a woman who has an appointment live with the pastMarsha.If you want something completely different Then, of course, thereare all the other children who are not only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to the devil's evil ends. He''The Duet'' which drawsus into a fascinating dialogue s out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and then hits us as with many foster children, their self-esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a stingtraining complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Hell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409148041</amazonuk>

{{newreview|title=The Time Traveller's Almanac|author=Anne VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer|rating=4|genre=Anthologies|summary=From H.G Wells Move to ''Doctor Who'', there is something about a good time-travel story that has the power to ignite the imagination in a way unique to the genre. Perhaps it is due to the fact that when dealing with the subject of time travel, literally ''anything is possible''. Well, almost anything...apart from going back in time and killing your Grandfather, which we know would cause an almighty paradox [[Newest Spirituality and probably destroy the universe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781853908</amazonuk>}}Religion Reviews]]