A boy falls through the ice and returns strangely transformed. This is a laconic tale with a definite Minnesota feel to it – understated and matter-of-fact in its presentation of disturbing weirdness,…
Author: Michael Hartford
“Deepster Punks” by Maria Haskins
Two workers on a deep sea mining rig face themselves and something that has followed them from another world. This story has a good balance of brooding dread and high adventure, and…
“Our Fallen Sons” by Robert Shearman
A stonemason carves the names of a town’s sons – both real and imagined – lost to war. This has the feel of a fable or fairy tale, and also a bit…
“Your Long, Loving Arms” by Robert Shearman
An out-of-work man takes a job as a tree and finds that it suits him. I like how this story leans into its weirdness and lets a coherent world form around it…
“Seven Kinds of Baked Goods” by Maria Haskins
A Dwarven smith-turned-baker teams up with a tea shop owner to mete out justice through deadly pastries. This was a fun story with a dark edge to it; it reminded me very…
“Tanguska, 1987” by Maria Haskins
Eighty years after mysterious and powerful Metallics take control of humanity’s destiny with a mix of benevolence and tyranny, a teen is selected to become part of a world-shaping project. This felt…
“The Brightest Lights of Heaven” by Maria Haskins
Through imagination and ritual, two girls conjure a deadly game into the world. This is a fun story with a couple of interesting twists, almost cute but for the carnage.
“Dream Cargoes” by J.G. Ballard
After her captain and most of her crew abandon ship, a freighter carrying mysterious bioactive chemicals runs aground on an abandoned Caribbean island, causing runaway fecundity. This feels similar in some ways…
“Metal, Sex, Monsters” by Maria Haskins
A woman recounts how she became a sort of vampiric monster to a police officer who was there at the beginning. This is an interesting and subtle story, much more about the…
“The Root Cellar” by Maria Haskins
A dismembered girl who stitched herself back together hunts for her lost brother, and her missing arm, in her grandmother’s horrific root cellar. This is quite a mix of fairy tale and…