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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Edith PearlmanAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=HoneydewAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=American short story writer [[:Category:Edith Pearlman|Edith Pearlman]] brings us a compilation ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of stories things to come.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have only been seen separately more than a few decades of technology in magazines over the yearsmy lifetime. This follows on from the huge success of I've kept up reasonably well with what'Binocular Visions advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it' (in 2013)s all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the short story collection that led to Ms Pearlman being presented with possibilities and the National Criticsprobabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I' Circle Awardm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444797018</amazonuk>I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Leslie Charteris and John Telfer (narrator)B0CDZRGT1M|title=Enter the SaintSuper Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch

|genre=ThrillersShort Stories|summary=When you think of thrillers written by a man in his early twenties there's 'Got a temptation minute to believe that the books might not beamused, wellentertained, top drawer, but that would be a mistake. The first of or challenged?''The Saint'' novels was published in 1928 when Leslie Charteris was just twenty one and this collection of These 100 stories are super short. None is dated 1930more than 300 words. You might expect the rambunctious adventurer we meet, but not the subtleties of the slightly world-weary man of the world, all-knowing about the evils to which men (and women) can sink, but theyread one in a flash.''''re all thereSome are funny. Some are poignant. Admittedly the Saint is more boisterous and less subtle than he will become - but that speaks more about the later works than this bookAll are short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00OS74GQU</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=J Robert Lennon|title=See You In Paradise|rating=3|genre=Short Stories|summary=Lennon writes with Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a relaxed, easy style and his characters are instantly recognisable as people from everyday walks flavour of life, without being a fully rounded little story if that story is told in any way stereotypical. Many of fewer than three hundred words? Or do you try to draw out themes from all the people flash fictions in these stories are dealing with normal frustrations, and Lennon is cleverly detached enough not to make a book of them individuals ? I don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that youthere really isn're obviously supposed to root t a fixed definition of flash fiction but that for (the only exception is the industrialist in the eponymous tale, who is an archetypal capitalist fat cat). There are some very clever characterisations – in ''Weber’s Head''this collection, author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for example, the narrator is a flawed individual whose opinions of his housemate are gradually revealed to be unreliable and unfairthree hundred word limit. For me, the most unsettling story is ''No Life'That', because it portrays s about a decent couple at the mercy of people more powerful and influential than them. There is no supernatural or bizarre element at work here, just ordinary characters at the mercy of social powersingle 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 ''If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a title like Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or, more to the point, about to discover the real world of bus timetables and paying his own gas bills.''Any Other Mouth' You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you know from ? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|Sorting the outset that this is, shall Priorities]] and we say, a rather niche booklearned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... It’s not all about orifices, though They have left The Career and settled in Rome. Partially autobiographical, this is Well 'settled' rather overstates the messysituation and their dog, ludicrousBeagle, wildly entertaining story has no intention of a girl who’s just a little bit different. Okslowing down any time soon, make that a lot differentdespite being sixteen and deaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908754575</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08CHJLNBS|title=RevengeCapturing Emilia|author=Yoko Ogawa and Stephen Snyder (translator)Brooke Adams|rating=53|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=A woman waits for He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a long time partner at a village bakeryWickham Jones, her mind only on the strawberry shortcakes she wants to buyMayfair letting agents. She's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the strange reasons heritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that make the purchase so important , which leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, to hersomething a little deeper. A boy Charles is invited more of a [[Personal by a girl Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind? She's not his usual type at school to a posh French restaurant – with strawberry shortcakes on the menu – in order for him all: it's obvious to provide moral support as she meets her estranged father for the first timehis friends. NearbyAnd given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a woman enjoys an unusual relationship with her elderly landladynon-starter, who keeps finding unusually-shaped carrots in her vegetable gardenisn't it?}}{{Frontpage|author=Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title=Cursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating=4.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=Curses. A man reflects on an unusual relationship with a writer who for a couple They're there throughout tales of years at least was a step-mum faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to himdo this, even as she went dotty in talking or not to be able to herselfdo that. Unusual relationshipsChildren can be cursed, vegetablesas can princesses on the verge of marrying, motives – and strawberry shortcakes – are prevalent older people too. It seems in a way there's no escaping it. Which is why the theme of this fascinating look at book of short stories is such a sunlit yet dark worldstandout – we may well think we know all there is to know about this accursed character, which makes for a superlatively clever readthat demonised place, and that other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099553937</amazonuk>1789091500

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Stibbe_Xmas|title=Dead Man's HandAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=John Joseph Adams (editor)Nina Stibbe|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesHumour|summary=''Dead Man's Hand'' features short stories with themes ranging from Christmas – the time travel and vampires of traditional trauma. You only have to theology; at first glance think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it definitely appears sat on the downstairs loo to be an eclectic mix. These stories are linked by defrost overnight, and if that failed the genre of the weird west, which is defined by its elasticityhair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. John Joseph AdamsNowadays it' helpful introduction outlines the main features of the weird west s all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and provides a clearvisit it, insightful guide and get too friendly with it to want to this little-known genreeat it. Far from being mismatchedChristmas, the eclectic nature though, is of course also a time of this collection is great boons. It's cash in fact the greatest strength hand for a lot of the weird west genre. Unconstrained by narrow generic conventionsplump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the authors thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in this collection have plundered long-hand as a child, and as for the deepest depths makers of their imaginations. The result? A colourfulMeltis Newberry Fruits – well, memorable did they even try and, above all, ''imaginative'' collection sell them any other time of fiction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783295465</amazonuk>the year?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0954899520|title=The ListenerA Winter Book

|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=Until very recently Tove Jansson was probably only known 's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the English-speaking world for her Moomin stories. Then along came ''Sort 1940s and later becoming television characters ofthe simplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' books and their wonderful translatorsthat would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, foremost among them: Thomas Tealsimple goodness. And we started to understand what it What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was about a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the woman…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745363</amazonuk>world might be.

 {{newreview <!-- 19/5 -->Frontpage|authorisbn=Lightfall Literary Agency (Editor)1911115847|title=The Obsidian Poplar and Other StoriesNights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan

|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=I'll confess that I was a little nervous about 'Nights of the Creaking Bed'The Obsidian Poplar and Other Stories''. There's is a common misconception that collection of short stories are easy - something run off quickly before the author gets on with doing the proper job by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of a full-length work, but the truth is rather different. A short story has none lives and lusts of the luxuries an assortment of a longer work: plot development has to be done quicklycharacters living in and around Lagos, characters have to come off the pageNigeria. Every word must earn Nigeria, in this collection, is imbued with its keepvery own heart of darkness. A book can be written - Danger stalks the shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a short story must be ''crafted''wrong look. But what made me particularly nervous here was that all the authors are students - Kan writes with a vitality and the editor was convinced passion that there are ten allows these cynical stories to achieve a glimmer of them who are good enough to be included in the bookhope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00JH1B94E</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrea Camilleri, Carlo Lucarelli and Giancarlo De Cataldo1529014484|title=JudgesExhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=I'll confess that it was Over the name of [[:Category:Andrea Camilleri|Andrea Camilleri]] which brought me to this book. I'm past twenty-eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a long-time science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of his Inspector Montalbano series and a recent reading of a spin-off [[Montalbano's First Case the work by Andrea Camilleri|novella]] had proved to me that the concise nature of his full-length novels was no flukeTed Chiang. In If you haven''Judges'' we had another novella - worth buying for its own sake - and the bonus of two more stories from better-than-decent Italian authorst then take this opportunity to do so now. All that was needed was a glass of wine and a comfortable chairTrust me; your imagination will be grateful. Did the book live up to expectation?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857052977</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1794467440|title=Lying Under the Apple TreeWatchwords |author=Alice MunroPhilip Neal|rating=4.5

|summary=Munro packs an extraordinary amount into a short story. Some This satisfying collection of them are quite long for short stories, and they are not has a provenance at least as beguiling as the sorts provenance of stories the antique watches that might suit reading on your daily commute; they demand more attention than that. Her observations of human behaviour are acute, and the most innocuous of them will set you thinking a great deal. Most of the stories warrant a pause for thought and need a little time for absorption of detailinspired it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593777</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|title=Stories Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of World War One|author=Tony Bradman|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=World War Oneand had been told was like a 1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, or the Great War as he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it was known at . And that's how he became a watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to the time, Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. The eBay purchase was a cataclysmic war. Millions died and life was changed forever for fake, but the survivors - for friendship that grew between the women of Britain, buyer and for the working classes and ruling classes alike. 2014 is the centenary repairer of its outbreak watches was not and the redoubtable Tony Bradman has gathered together a dozen seed of our best writers an idea for young people to create an anthology of short stories to commemorate the anniversarya book was born.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408330350</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=Something Like Happy1529006031|author=John Burnside|ratingtitle=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=How do you pick a name for a short story collection? It seems Return to me the ''...and other stories'' add-on is like picking a favourite child, a promotion of one portion of the content above the rest. [[:Category:John Burnside|John Burnside]] has got a title story here, but such is the mood of the book that he seems to have nailed the matter, and picked the most apposite name. ''Something Like Happy'' could in a way be the title for practically every piece here.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099575590</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Brief Loves That Live ForeverWonderland|author=Andrei MakineVarious Authors

|summary=Our unnamed narrator is inspired to think back through his life on In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the girls first book she was in [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and women he has been in love withAnthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], partly because of a time spent I found that I didn't really find too much favour with an associate – a time marked by a seemingly most unremarkable encounter with a further woman – whom he deemed had never been lovedit. The associatewacky-for-the-sake-of-it did not gel, you seeand I don't remember loving it more as a child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the core from a tangent, had spent half his adult life in Soviet camps for political instruction – our narrator himself was an orphan in that show the benefits of the 1960s' Soviet Unionoblique glance. This snappy volume takes us I've always preferred coming to an author's output through episodes in several lives at different points during their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and since it's the second half of communist rule same with franchises – and finally explains I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the import whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons). For another thing, there was every reason to expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that unremarkable encounter…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780870493</amazonuk>love in mind could only provide for success after success?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth Haynes1846974658|title=Promises to Keep: A Short StoryThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker

|summary=Jo is haunted by On my travels around the death of world, I have a teenage asylum seeker whilst tendency to end up in police custody any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and she only hangs on to her fragile sanity by running. Whilst she's out in while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the woods (where she'd been warned that she 'next person, what I'm reallylooking for is the 'local' shouldn't go) she discovered a young boy living rough and she knew that she had to do everything in her power to keep him safe. There were complications. Her partner was DS Sam Hollands who had a direct involvement with asylum seekers - and – the boy living rough in cookbook maybe, the woods was maps definitely, but above all: the younger brother of the dead teenagerfolk tales. Sam wanted If I ever get to get her relationship with Jo back onto an even keelBurma, but one night she returned from work I won't need to find a stranger in her househunt, I can read before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00I9GXP2M</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B077969HN8|title=The Rental Heart and other FairytalesAlternative Medicine|author=Kirsty LoganLaura Solomon|rating=34.5

|summary=To start Laura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories in ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with, are these stories strictly fairytales? a twist of surrealism''. On the evidence I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a fan of this collectioneither, it is at times a distinction that seems open but I've come to debate, a category that lies waiting for definition. But at two conclusions about the book: what the same time, such publisher says is the genrecorrect -switching (and at times gender-switching), that I really enjoyed it is a subtitle that serves better than most. The title story examines a lifecomedy is not ''too''s romantic history via a twist on black and the idea that we give our heart away to every lover – what do we have when they are gone surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a new one takes their place? Elsewhere, a landed lady takes advantage twist or flick of her servant, and another cultured madam hires a clockwork companion to shrug off the suitors, with obvious, narratively logical resultsreality when you were least expecting it. A medical worker and her pregnant partner share a caravan together, all the while knowing a different circumstance might Your comfort zones are going to be closer than first thought. We have the beginnings of love lives, the end of hatred, and the end of invaded in the world in these pagesnicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773754</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=9386897504|title=Further Encounters Tales of Sherlock HolmesLove and Disability|author=George Mann (Editor)Laura Solomon

|summary=Hot on I've always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of skill and talent to write a short story which holds the heels 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 forget after you've read a couple of pieces. I've recently read a couple of novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Encounters of Sherlock Holmes Marsha's Deal by George Mann (Editor)Laura Solomon|Encounters of Sherlock HolmesMarsha's Deal]] comes another collection of brand-new tales written and [[Hell's Unveiling by some of the brightest creative minds from the genres of science fiction Laura Solomon|Hell's Unveiling]] and crime. In this anthologyenjoyed them, Holmes and Watson are pitched headlong into twelve different mysterious scenarios and invited to unravel secrets and unmask villains as only they know how. During their adventures they come face so I was intrigued to face see what she could do with a mountain monster, take a murderous boat trip, meet Moriarty’s siblings and an even indulge in a little space travelshorter form. The game is afoot!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178116004X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Rose (writer of short stories)1986586898|title=Posthumous Going To The Last: Short StoriesAbout Horse Racing|author=K D Knight

|summary=These sixteen short stories have one thing In the opening story, a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in common: lives, his pocket - and plenty of themhis wife. We jump from In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the earthy banter problem of a road crew building speed humps whether or not to an interview pre-broadcast run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. My favourite was ''The Story of a classical piece where the interviewer isnH''t getting , the kind story of answers for which he hopesFoinavon. On the way we meet the least-mentioned Beatle, visit H is depicted as a world where kind horse who only wanted to please people are paid . After changing hands on various occasions he came to read for the many that don't yard of John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and the man trying to remember his father through art to name but considered a fewno-hoper. For good measure there are In one of the most dramatic runnings of the race, a couple of Kafkapile-esque experiments that also work as ripping good yarnsup occurred at the 23rd fence.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773576< Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the line, winning the race at odds of 100/amazonuk>1.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=9386897296|title=Doctor Who: 11 Doctors, 11 StoriesHell's Unveiling|author=Eoin Colfer, Michael Scott and othersLaura Solomon|rating=3.5|genre=Confident ReadersShort Stories|summary=ItA little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's basic knowledge that Doctor Who has changed a lot since first being seen fifty years ago – Deal]] and I donwas delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. It't mean s probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the title characterdevil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the nature of the programmedevil is not one to take defeat lying down. It has gone from black He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and white, and cheaply produced, and declared disposable, to being an essential part particularly on Marsha (who's thought of the BBC, full-gloss digital, and accessed as a 'goody two shoes' in all manner of waysHell). So with the celebratory programme still ringing in our earsAlthough a strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Daniel is framed for a crime he didn't commit and leaving people pressing a red button sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to see a programme about three Doctorslive with Marsha. Then, erof course, pressing a red button, we turn to there are all the other aspects children who are not only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to the birthday bonanzadevil's evil ends. Such He's out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as this bookwith many foster children, which has also mutated in its much shorter lifespantheir self-esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, from being a loose collection of eleven short eeither -book novellas written by the blazing lights of YA writingdevil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to a huge and brilliant paperback collecting everything within one set of coversHell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141348941</amazonuk>

{{newreview|title=Of Lions and Unicorns: A Lifetime of Tales from the Master Storyteller|author=Michael Morpurgo|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=''Of Lions and Unicorns'' is a collection of short stories and extracts from Morpurgo’s most popular books. The book is split into five sections, which focus on recurring themes in his writing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007395353</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Rags and Bones|author=Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=Anthologies|summary=Some of today's top authors have come together Move to retell classic tales - from fairy stories to Victorian-era fiction. As usual with this kind of anthology, it's a fairly hit-or-miss affair, but the hits here are so strong that they're well worth picking up the book for. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472210522</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=The Science of Herself|author=Karen Joy Fowler|rating=3|genre=Short Stories|summary=I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The most fun when facing a new author, especially a big name one, is to come through the underground, tackling the smaller works, the quirkier output, the less representative sections of her or his oeuvre. And for those who have or haven't read ''The Jane Austen Book Club'', there is plenty of potential for that with the rest of [[The Case of the Imaginary Detective by Karen Joy Fowler|Karen Joy FowlerNewest Spirituality and Religion Reviews]], for her output includes almost as many selections of short stories as it does very successful novels, and what's more they carry the science fictional banner. A long time ago there was a teenage me very happy to be reading ''Lord of the Flies'' and writing an essay about how sci-fi it was, and I do relish the mainstream author entering a genre, or the inverse of that. But boy, I normally come away a lot happier than I did here.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1604868252</amazonuk>}}