| Title | : | Sheep and Wolves |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1933293527 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781933293523 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 161 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2008 |
| Awards | : | Wonderland Book Award Best Bizarro Story Collection (2008) |
Sheep and Wolves Reviews
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(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)
New readers, don't mistakenly think that the only books I do micro-reviews for are ones I didn't particularly care for, or that weren't particularly good; just take this title for a good example, alt-horror hero (and 2007 Stoker Award nominee) Jeremy Shipp's newest, the magnificent and extremely unsettling story collection Sheep and Wolves. Regular readers will of course remember Shipp; about a year ago I favorably reviewed his last novel, the witty political black comedy Vacation; but make no mistake, this latest manuscript is quite different in tone, a much bleaker and more terrifying book, one that is much more clear on where the "horror" is in alt-horror. Not quite related stories but not quite standalone either, they all seem to take place in a bizarre alternate reality that is somewhat like our own, except where supernatural elements clearly actually exist; and it's also a more savage place among the humans than our own world as well, a post-democracy society (or maybe one where democracy never existed), full of predatory "wolf" humans full of barely concealed violent rage at the world, who are taught to successfully live together by channelling that energy into acts of unspeakable violence against the much larger number of human "sheep" that exist (hence the title of this story collection). Or in simpler terms, imagine the society-approved brutality of fascism combined with the outright insanity of serial killers, in a world where malicious ethereal spirits really do exist, the kind of stuff that keeps nerdy intellectuals up at night.
It's the scariest freaking book I've read in a decade, make no mistake; but since it's a story collection instead of a novel, I as usual would have a hard time writing out a long-form analytical review of it, which is why I'm instead writing up a smaller essay and simply recommending it highly. When people say "New Horror," this is the kind of book they're talking about, stuff for you existing horror fans who have grown tired of the usual overwritten delicacies of late-period Stephen King and the like. It comes with a big thumbs-up, and will undoubtedly become known eventually as a dark classic from this prolific underground author. -
Sheep and Wolves is impressive. One might think a book of short fiction with such a strong pull toward an overarching theme (predator and prey in society) would suffer from redundancies or appear preachy. This is not the case with Sheep and Wolves. Shipp adroitly wields a chiaroscuro tone, creating in broad, rich strokes scenes of humor, strangeness and cruelty. From the first entry "Watching"'s voyeurism, victimization and imprisonment, to "Camp"'s refreshing Lord of the Flies riff and "Dog"'s dark look at sexual politics, Sheep and Wolves is full of intense feeling and serious insight, to the point at which I myself could not take it in a sitting. Simultaneously satirical and serious as a heart attack, Sheep and Wolves for not just fans of Bizarro but fans of dark fiction, Buttgereit films and fans of the works of Ellison, Kafka and Marquez can enjoy a cornucopia of odd, exciting treasures.
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"Sheep and Wolves: Collected Stories" by Jeremy C. Shipp is not for those with weak stomachs or who are easily offended. This little collection of short stories and flash fiction is full of blood, piss, vomit, pus, and every bodily fluid imaginable. The stories deal with masochism, cannibalism, torture, and other dark topics.
"Sheep and Wolves" is a collection of nightmares. Frankly, they're much more scary than my nightmares. My favorite stories were "The Hole", "Sin Earth", and "Flapjack" which were all excellent science fiction/fantasy stories that were pretty bizarre. I think "Sin Earth" would make an exceptionally good novel. The scariest things were the doll locked in a bird cage in "Watching" (I hate stories about dolls coming to life.) and the carnivorous van in "Baby Edward". Like I said, "Sheep and Wolves" is the stuff of nightmares. It's very creative and very well-done. -
In a world where two wrongs don’t make right a but three do and one outrageously stupid act is enough to garner national exposure, television has been antiquated as Jeremy Shipp steps in to accelerate imagination into the big leagues of sensationalist culture with his bizarro collection, Sheep and Wolves. Prepare to be tantalized. Prepare to be terrified. Prepare to be disturbed. And most of all, prepare to be shippified!
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With his minimalistic style and outre strangeness, Jeremy Shipp crafts a horrific short story collection where traditions and ideals are bought into question. Highly recommended by Sheeps and Wolves everywhere.
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Excellent. You'll be up, you'll be down - Shipp's fiction never goes where you expect it, but while unexpected, it's also thoughtful, insightful, and fun to figure out. Even if you can't.
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From the opening of “Watching”, the first tale, Shipp promises an interesting and bizarre journey though the human condition as readers voyeuristically tag along. “Watching” is a take on victimization and gender, which like its subjects offers plenty of visuals and complications but no real conclusions.
“Nightmare Man” follows a man stricken with horrific nightmares stemming from his greatest failure in life. But in a moralistic twist, his pain is also his power, giving him, in a dream logic way, the power to help others overcome their weaknesses before it’s too late.
In “Baby Edward” a has-been star is haunted, literally, by a monster infant who he created and who threatens not just his life, but that of his love Annabelle. When his past threatens to devour everything Ed must save his girlfriend and himself.
“Those Below”, like many of the tales in this collection, starts with a situation presented to you, the reader, from the author. In this case the narrator asks, what if you found your mother kissing a man that wasn’t your father? From there it switches to first person and follows a man struggling to come to terms with the fact that his girlfriend is a zombie. A moral tale with a thin metaphor Shipp offers up a commentary on race relations with this tale.
“Devoured” is a short, painfully dark tale of victimization. Shipp nails the emotion of abusive relationships in a simple, beautiful way. Again, only a thin metaphor it doesn’t need to be much more and is closer to the truth and many people would like to think.
With “Scratch” Shipp nails the dynamic of abusive fathers. Again, while the imagery is metaphorical it’s also chillingly accurate, portraying the delicate balance between the ego of a man who feels love for no one, and the pain of a man who isn’t worth love.
“Dog” is a twisted tale of magic and wizards and the human will. It sits on the edge between fantasy and bizarre and stars a very bad man who will do anything to train his nephew as his apprentice.
“Parasite” is another short tale, but this one is less grounded in reality. Almost poem-like it’s full of visual energy with a tiny sharp plot. The slice of life style will work better for readers who might not be ready to take a long voyage into the bizarre.
“A Long Metal Sigh” is one of the first tales that doesn’t offer even the hope of a positive ending. This is one of the more interesting allusions to depression, and the issues that lead to it, out there, reminiscent of Melanie Tem and Steven Rasnic Tem’s the Man on the Ceiling.
“Camp” is likely the most normal of Shipp’s collected
stories, which isn’t saying much. The pressure is on in this strange summer camp when a few of the attendees begin having similar dreams of a boy who died in the camp and wants revenge. Except this is no ordinary camp, even if the campers motivations are similar to our own.
“American Sheep” is attention getting from the first line; “One moment you’re prepping your flesh-stick for a heaping dose of midget porn, and the next you’re lying face up in a room packed with disemboweled sheep while something’s sucking on your ass.” Full of clever lines, but very “out there” it’s a tale of the daily grind and the imbalances of society made all the more painful with vicious images and cruel logic.
Very disturbing, “Inside” is a short piece that focuses on three people who live in a bizarre sort of vending machine. Only instead of vending cans of soda and high calorie snacks the machines vend out pieces of the people trapped within.
In “The Hole” Taran and the rest of the world struggle to survive as the Ens (The Enemies) send mysterious, hazardous vibes and intentions in negative waves toward Earth. Despite the best efforts of the government fighting the Ens the people still suffer from all manner of problems, from dementia to psychokinesis. Taran enrolls in the Space Force, sure that directly fighting the Ens is the way to get revenge for what they’ve done to his father. But the realities of war are much different than he expected.
“Trout” is another short short, more strange and opaque than the last few. In this story a man puts his would be girlfriend through a very strange vetting process.
“Sin Earth” is a fantasy tale about Gourd, a man who has lived exiled from his family because of his mother, but who one day is invited to complete a quest to rejoin. In a world made by demons but cleansed by cruel, unforgiving Crusaders of Light who now enforce the plan of Heaven as they see fit, Gourd must not just drive the enforcers from his village he must also drive the conditioning of his mother from his life to save those who cannot save themselves. A fine fantasy tale, worthy of inclusion in the Year’s Best collections, it proves that Shipp can craft his taste for the bizarre into something intimately relatable to the common reader.
“The Rules” blends well with “Sin Earth” starting out with a loose Inquisition feel and talk of demons looking like ordinary humans. A last short short, this one doesn’t spin out a world, its people and its fate, instead it opts to give readers a microcosmic view into the head of an Enforcer.
Last up is “Flapjack”, an example of world building and mood setting primarily through language. A strange, and at times savage take on gender and gender roles Shipp has made reading more difficult through the use of language. But on the other side of the words is a fantastic tale of dreams versus society that summarizes the collection as a whole.
Shipp proves with this collection that he can be counted on for strange and lovely tales, consistently well written and interesting. Certainly one of the most unique voices in speculative fiction Shipp is poised to be a staple of the genres for many years to come. -
LIKE BEING IN A WARPED TWILIGHT ZONE!
When I first got this book, the cover and the title caught my eye. I like the simple drawings of the wolf and the sheep; unusual but aesthetic with the orange background. I saw that "SHEEP AND WOLVES" was a collection of short stories and since I love short stories, I had to have it.
I didn't realize it was "bizarro" fiction until I started reading, and truthfully, the first line of the opening story offended my sensibilities, so I skipped on to the next story. I soon found myself racing from story to story like a person chasing ambulances. It was like being in a warped twilight zone.
As most readers know, bizarro fiction is a contemporary literary genre noted for its focus on "high weirdness." The term was appropriated from popular culture in 2005 by the independent publishing companies Eraserhead Press, Raw Dog Screaming Press, and Afterbirth Books in response to the rising demand for unique and outlandish fiction. If you'd like to know more, click on this link:
http://dictionary.babylon.com/Bizarro...
But getting back to author Jeremy Shipp's book, I read all seventeen of his outlandish tales with my mouth hanging open. They're weird, all right, but also fascinating, fun and extremely imaginative. I dove into that book with both feet...or perhaps I now have six feet or even ten, like some of Shipp's characters. After reading [[ASIN:1933293594 Sheep and Wolves]], I'm inclined to believe that's possible.
These stories are so preposterous, they had me laughing even when Shipp's characters were at their most terrifying. "The Rules" is only two pages long but it's a good example of this. It's a story of the narrator destroying demons, but the way it's written I couldn't tell who was the real demon, the narrator or the ones he's destroying. "Expect a lot of blood," he says, and proceeds to deliver.
One of my favorite stories in the book is "Scratch" which is about a man who has twelve wives all living inside his body and he's trying to teach Sonny how to have a child without a woman...if I say more it will be a spoiler, but I can say it has an outrageously shocking ending. I admit I didn't understand it, but I was certainly entertained...and from what I've learned, that's the prime purpose of this genre. Even Piers Anthony, author of the Xanth series, admits he doesn't understand most of Shipp's writing...and Anthony has one of the weirdest minds in speculative fiction.
And I finally did go back and read that first story; it's about a man who's a paid watcher, and it's my favorite. Don't ask what he's paid to watch; only someone like this author can describe that nightmare.
Some call Shipp crazy, some call him a genius. Each individual reader must decide for himself. I favor the genius category because he has an imagination that just won't quit. His characters are some of the craziest, zaniest I've ever run across in any genre. I wouldn't want to meet any of them in a dark alley...or even in the lobby of the Fairmont. Spooky!
Recommended for adults who find reality boring, people who want to experience something edgy and unique. If you enjoy these stories, you may want to get Shipp's book "VACATION" that was a finalist in the 2008 Wonderland competition. (NOT recommended for children or young adults!)
Reviewed by: Betty Dravis, January 2009
Author of: [[ASIN:0738845108 Millennium Babe: The Prophecy]] -
Sheep and Wolves is an interesting little short story compilation, with thirteen short stories of a very high caliber. The stories in this particular compilation are all horror stories, with some leaning into the realm of science fiction gone bad. The writing is concise, yet descriptive. Each story feels like it is just the right length for the reader's comfort level. As with all short story collections, some stories are more effective than others. All are horrifying in one aspect or another. Some thrilled me, others confused me, and some left me perplexed and disturbed. I consider this to be a fine collection which was both very entertaining and disturbing from beginning to end.
My only real criticism for this book is the order of the stories. There are certain horrifying visuals that Mr. Shipp is very fond of and uses over and over again. They can be very effective. However, the stories that use these common images would have been more effective if they had been broken up instead of having one right after another. I would also have liked a little more clarification on exactly what I was reading in some of the stories... for example there is a story where a man has something locked up in a VW in his back yard, he feeds this thing and it seems fairly hostile. At one point in the story I thought I had a grasp of what it was, but by the end I was even more perplexed. I still enjoyed the story, but would have liked it more if I had been able to close the book knowing what the thing in the VW was.
"Those Below," a tale of life after death in a strange way, was probably my favorite of the stories, with very interesting social implications that could leave the reader pondering about humanity afterward. “American Sheep” was also a very interesting tale. I would love to see that one expanded to the length of a novella. On the whole this is a fun little short story book. -
"When people say, “Get a life,” what they usually mean is, “Drown out the screaming of your heart like I do, then we can be friends.” I refuse." from "Nightmare Man"
On the way to park this afternoon I spotted the first glimpse of Autumn. It was a full grown oak with leaves glowing in orange, yellow and red. Soon there will be pumpkins, scarecrows, ghost, goblins, haunted houses, and all of the typical joy mixed with fear that is Fall. There is no better writer to read on a cool autumn evening then California's Jeremy Shipp. Having read his enthralling and disturbing debut novel Vacation, I jumped at the chance to take a sneak peak at his new collection of short stories, Sheep and Wolves. Now I had never read any of Jeremy's short stories, but I knew I had to find the right time and location to read through this collection. The mood had to be just right, and I chose to be alone in a dimly lit room late at night. It seemed right as I tried to let the gruesome images that can seem so foreign yet so captivating.
Jumping right in with the first story "Watching", Jeremy creates worlds that at times seem unreal or unfamiliar, but have a biting sense of reality that really allows the reader to stay engaged. From moving marshmallow peeps to reattaching a little girls severed thumb to clowns and cyborgs, the stories contained in Sheep and Wolves are like a series of car accidents. You know shouldn't be looking, but you can't take your eyes off the pages stained with blood and fingers and all the horror and madness. It's perfect for this time of year even if you are not a fan of the genre. Start a campfire, grab a bag of marshmallow and read lines like; "Now I’m dragging a dead dog by the tail. I’m dragging her toward an apple tree under the full moon, because these are the three ingredients. Dog, apple, moon." -
Sheep and Wolves by Jeremy C. Shipp
Raw Dog Screaming Press, 161 pages
I almost never have trouble finding the words to describe a book that I loved but Sheep and Wolves is one that presents me with a challenge. I could do what almost every other review of the book will do. I’m sure they’ll tell you have strange this book is but strange just is not strong enough of a word.
There is no moment reading this collection where you feel grounded in reality. For some readers this will be a huge turn-on or turn off. The atmosphere of SAW maybe surreal but I don’t want to give an impression that Shipp doesn’t bring very real unsettling moments he just does it differently than most horror writers.
Conventional horror wisdom is that you create characters and situations that the reader can relate to build suspense from there. Most of the horror in this collection doesn’t come from moments of suspense slowly rolled out against our characters. Shipp creates a horrific ecosystem of surreal prose that the characters have to inhabit.
Short but sweet tales with no wasted words Shipp tightly weaves each story together like a really tight basket. The opening story I took to be an exploration of patriarchy but here is the thing – I am not sure about that. That is not a slight on Shipp, he has created several stories that could and probably are interpreted in various ways.
My favorite stories in the collection were “Those Below, Long Metal Sigh and American Sheep.” I recommend this book for fans of dark surrealist fiction. If realism is crucial to your reading experience you’re not likely to get what Shipp is offering. I hope you are looking for it because he deserves your attention.
Readers of my blog would probably be interested to note that Jeremy is a vegan.
I reviewed his novel Vacation in 12/07 here on the blog. So check out that review/book as well. -
First, I should mention that short stories are not my favourite type of story. Either they are too long - in spite of being a short story - because the author did not manage to get to the heart of his story without add too much decoration. Or, on the other side, a story is too short to make sense or tell a good story.
However, Sheep and Wolves is a great example for how a short story should be written. The shorter the author kept a story in this collection, the better they are. They focus directly on one thing and get to the point in the blink of an eye, giving you no chance to leave the path and get lost in the surroundings.
On the other side, I had problems with some of the longer stories, because I felt like standing in a wood and not seeing the tree I should focus on, because the story was crowded with so much different facettes. Good thing was I liked the images drawn so I was not too frustrated when I lost any clue of what was going on on my way through the story and instead enjoyed each little moment of reading.
The author creates wild and bizarre, often violent and hard scenarios within seconds, leaving you like in a feverish nightmare of images flashing on and off. I often wondered what was meant to be really happening and what was only happening in the minds of the characters.
As a whole, this bizarre book was a great experience for me, keeping my imagination in overdrive the whole time. My top three stories from "Sheep and Wolves" are Those Below, Devoured and Parasite.
(I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review) -
Wow - this is the first time I've read anything like this and I certainly was not disappointed. It is very hard to explain how I feel about this book, perhaps because whilst you're reading your feelings change often, from ups to downs and sideways. It conjures up so many emotions that you don't know if you're alive, dead, facing up, facing down, swimming, walking, reading or experiencing.
The stories in this book are twisted, abstract, horrific and gross and please, these words in no way are to be read as negative, without these words the book may not have as much impact as Jeremy would like. There's humour here and there and soul searching questions, religion, power, politics - all the goodies are contained in this book, that is, all the goodies that are great for conversation.
I must say whilst reading this I sometimes found myself feeling deeply saddened and low - hm, not sure if I'm explaining this right but it seems these stories go right to the core of how humans behave and sometimes that can be hard to take.
I know I'm not doing this book justice so I'll leave it with this book was awesome and if you're in for reading something a bit different then give this a go - it really is worth it! -
What devil slips into our skin and forces us to rip out the entrails of the innocent and serve it up as today’s special? Jeremy Shipp knows. It is a rare event to discover a master storyteller who can wield a manipulative power and skillfully render us victim, silent witness, and complicit killer all-at-once while effortlessly leading the reader through a crucible of pain, misery and repulsion like a parent reading a bedtime story to a child. Cannibals, S&M Gods, Sociopaths, Zombies, Mutants and Dark Fantasy Creatures are some of the bizarre inhabitants found in this brilliant, fascinating and entertaining collection of grisly tales. Not for the squeamish. The standout stories are: "Watching", "Baby Edward", "Those Below", "Scratch", "Dog", "Camp", "American Sheep", "Sin Earth" and "Flapjack".
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Easily the strangest collection of stories I've read in some time, if not ever. Many of the stories were a bit abstract for my taste, but still incredibly hypnotic and difficult to put down.
Recommended, for those who can handle extremely disturbing, nightmarish imagery. I wouldn't call it a favorite, but many of the stories will be stuck in my head for a long time coming. I'm definitely interested in picking up
Jeremy C. Shipp's novel,
Vacation. -
It is clear to me, that Jeremy C. Shipp resides deep in the dark recesses of his brain, a place filled with garden gnomes, serial killers, cannibals and bloody clowns, a place where fear and terror reign, a place that isn't necessarily his own brain, not really, but our brains, where his brain has somehow taken up residence, worming its way into all of the things that horrify us in ways we can't even access, certainly not the way Shipp can, which ultimately means, that he knows our nightmares in ways we cannot conceive, something I might feel bad about if at his best he wasn't such a good and interesting writer and deserving of all that comes with that.
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Sheep & Wolves, the new collection of short stories by Jeremy C. Shipp, author of the novel Vacation, shows again his innate ability to turn a normal thought into something abstract and sometimes freightening. If Philip K. Dick and Chuck Palahniuk were to have a lovechild, and it was raised by Christopher Moore and a demented Lawn gnome, it's writing might be on par with Jeremy's. Characters with super-amped up emotions, detailed visuals and overall creepiness fill this book choc-full o' good reading.
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It's a tremendous pleasure to see Jeremy Shipp's career continue to develop with the publication of another novel written in his own unique and engaging style and perspective. After his firt novel VACATION's performance, I'm excited enough about SHEEP AND WOLVES to place it on my Authors and Books to Watch List on Amazon at this url:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/list...
Aberjhani -
I feel fortunate to get a copy of this. I found most of the stories to be very fascinating reads. Shipp's stories have an odd dreamlike flow to them that turn quickly from satire to nightmare. I think my possible favorite was "Baby Edward". I loved the personal battle the protagonist was having with his guitar. I had fun reading these and would recommend the book to any one wishing to break away from the everyday world.
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Having read both of Jeremy Shipp's full length books (Vacation and Cursed), I was very surprised at how dark Sheep and Wolves is. In the other books, Jeremy's stories, while horror, are always optimistic. No such optimism is present in his short story collection. That's not a bad thing, though. It reveals not only a whole other side of him, but also more of the depth of his writing abilities.
If you have not read his other books, I would follow this one with Cursed. -
Jeremy is a great writer/artist. His writings are amazing and hard to put down, even at 2am and you should have been asleep at 12. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
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Penetrating prose into the human psyche.
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From the opening of "Watching", the first tale, Shipp promises an interesting and bizarre journey though the human condition as readers voyeuristically tag along. "Watching" is a take on victimization and gender, which like its subjects offers plenty of visuals and complications but no real conclusions.
"Nightmare Man" follows a man stricken with horrific nightmares stemming from his greatest failure in life. But in a moralistic twist, his pain is also his power, giving him, in a dream logic way, the power to help others overcome their weaknesses before it's too late.
In "Baby Edward" a has-been star is haunted, literally, by a monster infant who he created and who threatens not just his life, but that of his love Annabelle. When his past threatens to devour everything Ed must save his girlfriend and himself.
"Those Below", like many of the tales in this collection, starts with a situation presented to you, the reader, from the author. In this case the narrator asks, what if you found your mother kissing a man that wasn't your father? From there it switches to first person and follows a man struggling to come to terms with the fact that his girlfriend is a zombie. A moral tale with a thin metaphor Shipp offers up a commentary on race relations with this tale.
"Devoured" is a short, painfully dark tale of victimization. Shipp nails the emotion of abusive relationships in a simple, beautiful way. Again, only a thin metaphor it doesn't need to be much more and is closer to the truth and many people would like to think.
With "Scratch" Shipp nails the dynamic of abusive fathers. Again, while the imagery is metaphorical it's also chillingly accurate, portraying the delicate balance between the ego of a man who feels love for no one, and the pain of a man who isn't worth love.
"Dog" is a twisted tale of magic and wizards and the human will. It sits on the edge between fantasy and bizarre and stars a very bad man who will do anything to train his nephew as his apprentice.
"Parasite" is another short tale, but this one is less grounded in reality. Almost poem-like it's full of visual energy with a tiny sharp plot. The slice of life style will work better for readers who might not be ready to take a long voyage into the bizarre.
"A Long Metal Sigh" is one of the first tales that doesn't offer even the hope of a positive ending. This is one of the more interesting allusions to depression, and the issues that lead to it, out there, reminiscent of Melanie Tem and Steven Rasnic Tem's the Man on the Ceiling.
"Camp" is likely the most normal of Shipp's collected
stories, which isn't saying much. The pressure is on in this strange summer camp when a few of the attendees begin having similar dreams of a boy who died in the camp and wants revenge. Except this is no ordinary camp, even if the campers motivations are similar to our own.
"American Sheep" is attention getting from the first line; "One moment you’re prepping your flesh-stick for a heaping dose of midget porn, and the next you’re lying face up in a room packed with disemboweled sheep while something’s sucking on your ass." Full of clever lines, but very "out there" it's a tale of the daily grind and the imbalances of society made all the more painful with vicious images and cruel logic.
Very disturbing, "Inside" is a short piece that focuses on three people who live in a bizarre sort of vending machine. Only instead of vending cans of soda and high calorie snacks the machines vend out pieces of the people trapped within.
In "The Hole" Taran and the rest of the world struggle to survive as the Ens (The Enemies) send mysterious, hazardous vibes and intentions in negative waves toward Earth. Despite the best efforts of the government fighting the Ens the people still suffer from all manner of problems, from dementia to psychokinesis. Taran enrolls in the Space Force, sure that directly fighting the Ens is the way to get revenge for what they've done to his father. But the realities of war are much different than he expected.
"Trout" is another short short, more strange and opaque than the last few. In this story a man puts his would be girlfriend through a very strange vetting process.
"Sin Earth" is a fantasy tale about Gourd, a man who has lived exiled from his family because of his mother, but who one day is invited to complete a quest to rejoin. In a world made by demons but cleansed by cruel, unforgiving Crusaders of Light who now enforce the plan of Heaven as they see fit, Gourd must not just drive the enforcers from his village he must also drive the conditioning of his mother from his life to save those who cannot save themselves. A fine fantasy tale, worthy of inclusion in the Year's Best collections, it proves that Shipp can craft his taste for the bizarre into something intimately relatable to the common reader.
"The Rules" blends well with "Sin Earth" starting out with a loose Inquisition feel and talk of demons looking like ordinary humans. A last short short, this one doesn't spin out a world, its people and its fate, instead it opts to give readers a microcosmic view into the head of an Enforcer.
Last up is "Flapjack", an example of world building and mood setting primarily through language. A strange, and at times savage take on gender and gender roles Shipp has made reading more difficult through the use of language. But on the other side of the words is a fantastic tale of dreams versus society that summarizes the collection as a whole.
Shipp proves with this collection that he can be counted on for strange and lovely tales, consistently well written and interesting. Certainly one of the most unique voices in speculative fiction Shipp is poised to be a staple of the genres for many years to come.
Hardcover: ISBN 978-1-933293-52-3, $24.95
Paperback: ISBN 978-1-933293-59-2, $13.95 -
A collection of short stories ranging from mildly horrific to huh? Shipp brings to the table tales representing all aspects of society, all the faults and foibles of society. There's something in here for everyone
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I'm anticipating great things from this...hurry up, amazon shipping, hurry up!
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Looking forward to reading this one.
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This collection of nightmarish short stories is a fascinating read. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys horror that makes you think.
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My review of this collection can be found at Rise Reviews.
