Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Corpus Pretereo

4.67 of 5 stars 4.67 · rating details · 9 ratings · 4 reviews

In Corpus Pretereo, an international group of writers use multiple genres to explore the idea of ‘Escape,’ with startling results:
A child searches for his mother in a wondrous carnival, but he may already be an attraction himself. A woman from the sea waits for either love or the return of her fins. A werecat is confronted with its (super)natural predator. From dark fantas...more

Published (first published October 7th 2011)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-24 of 24)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Dec 02, 2011 April L'Orange rated it 4 of 5 stars · (Review from the author)

In the interests of full disclosure, I wrote "Crash." But that doesn't stop me from reviewing the other stories in the collection. :-)

My relationship with short stories is interesting. Sometimes they work for me, and sometimes they just miss entirely. So my marker for whether or not an anthology is good is if I feel like there were enough good stories in it to make it worth the cover price, and that is definitely true of Corpus Pretereo.

My favorite story out of the collection has to be "Scarves....more In the interests of full disclosure, I wrote "Crash." But that doesn't stop me from reviewing the other stories in the collection. :-)

My relationship with short stories is interesting. Sometimes they work for me, and sometimes they just miss entirely. So my marker for whether or not an anthology is good is if I feel like there were enough good stories in it to make it worth the cover price, and that is definitely true of Corpus Pretereo.

My favorite story out of the collection has to be "Scarves." It tells a complete, heart-wrenching story, with just enough focus on the fantasy elements to bring the ethics of the selkie legends into question in a modern-day setting. This type of story is all in the ending, and this one comes through in spades. It's one of those I'll be recommending to people for a long time.

I'm a sucker for a really good concept story, and "The Devil and Neil Armstrong" is a very tasty one. It took a while for me to catch on to what was going on--I actually went back to the beginning to reread a couple of details to be sure I understood. But it's clever and thoughtful with regards to its subject matter (space exploration, always a favorite of mine) and has a delightful humorous twist at the ending.

"The Double Letter Gang" is a glorious romp that explores both the silliness and the substance of the superhero/supervillain milieu without taking itself too seriously. I love the characters in all their slightly-broken mythic glory, and I was thoroughly entertained by the ending. It may not be great art, but it's a heck of a good time.

If I had to pick a runner-up, as these things go, I have to confess I was really intrigued by "In a Mirror, Broken." The setting is well-drawn and the characters are intriguing. I felt like the language needed a little polish, but that may simply be that it's written in a style appropriate to the historical period in which it set, rather than in modern prose--I honestly haven't read enough from that period to know. It creates a fascinating premise and conflict, and I really wanted to know more about the character of James. Unfortunately, it seemed to end very quickly, and I still had questions. I don't know if I'd call it a successful short story or not, but I suspect it could turn into an impressive novel if expanded, and I don't regret putting the time and effort into reading it.

For me, the biggest area where Corpus Pretereo could use improvement is the copy editing. A certain number of typos are always going to creep into a manuscript; it's inevitable. But when I see "sisters" misspelled twice within two pages, I just kind of cringe. It's nothing that will prevent you from reading and enjoying the book . . . it just doesn't look as professional as I'd like to see from a reputable small press.(less)

like · see review

Nov 02, 2011 Violetta Vane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

If you love pulp stories like me, you'll find some gems in this large, expansive collection. It strongly reminded me of a lot of old-school sci-fi and horror. Most stories have twists at the end, a traditional pulp device which fits in well with the anthology theme of escape. One common weakness is that quite a few stories felt like opening chapters to longer works, but the best of the bunch are truly excellent, and well worth the price of the anthology.

The Carnival: This was a retelling of the...more

1 like · like · see review

May 17, 2013 David King rated it 4 of 5 stars

“Corpus Pretereo” is an anthology of sixteen short stories by various different authors that span several different genres under the speculative fiction umbrella. This includes genres such as fantasy, horror and science-fiction with the overall subject of the stories being that of escape.

As is normal with anthologies such as this the stories are a bit of a mixed bag in terms of quality and entertainment. For example, some of them are enthralling complete stories that provide well thought out end...more “Corpus Pretereo” is an anthology of sixteen short stories by various different authors that span several different genres under the speculative fiction umbrella. This includes genres such as fantasy, horror and science-fiction with the overall subject of the stories being that of escape.

As is normal with anthologies such as this the stories are a bit of a mixed bag in terms of quality and entertainment. For example, some of them are enthralling complete stories that provide well thought out endings whilst others just come across like an opening chapter in a much longer story. However, overall there was more than enough enjoyable stories contained here to make me feel that the anthology is well worth the price.

As there is such a large collection of stories in the collection I will not comment on all of the stories, but will pick a sample of both the positive and negative to give as balanced a review as I can.

The Devil and Neil Armstrong: This clever and thoughtful story was probably my favourite story in the collection. It involves two concepts I find interesting, space exploration and time travel to create an interesting concept that had me contemplating the way in which the past influences the present.

The Carnival: Whilst I found this story to be very atmospheric and had me very intrigued, however it was let down by a terribly inclusive ending. This story more than any other struck me as being the opening chapter in a novella rather than it working as a satisfying standalone short story.

Crash: A superb dystopian story in which a group of children try to survive and find a place for themselves in a hostile world. Even with the stories’ short length, the author has managed create well developed and interesting characters that suck the reader in. This is supported by a strong narrative voice and interesting depth to the world. The ending was conclusive but I would still love to learn more about the characters and their world.

The Curl of the Wave: I found the writing to be perfect in evoking an entertaining and strong image of what the author was trying to portray. However, I think it was let down by a lack of characterisation that just made it hard to fully become engaged with the characters and therefore the story as a whole.

This is just a short taste of what the collection contains and there are further stories that I enjoyed and others that just didn’t appeal although as you can see from my comments above the negatives didn’t always necessarily ruin my interest in a story. However, overall I found that there were enough interesting, enjoyable and entertaining stories within the collection to make me more than happy to recommend it. So if you are a fan of speculative fiction and would like to sample the work of various authors that they may not normally read then this anthology more than fits the bill.(less)

like · see review

Oct 15, 2011 Ray Charbonneau rated it 5 of 5 stars · (Review from the author)

Shelves: sf-fantasy, stories-articles

Would I lie to you about a book containing one of my stories?

1 like · like · see review

Jun 12, 2013 Jaire Ann marked it as to-read

May 15, 2013 Kasane Teto marked it as to-read

Feb 24, 2013 Beth marked it as to-read

Nov 17, 2012 Chrystalla added it · (Review from the author)

Aug 15, 2012 Natalia marked it as to-read

Aug 14, 2012 Dinos added it

Jun 20, 2012 Noelle Wonder added it · review of another edition

Mar 16, 2012 Rusty marked it as to-read

Shelves: kd

Jan 21, 2012 Alex Randal rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jan 19, 2012 Lea marked it as to-read

Jan 12, 2012 Divya marked it as to-read

Jan 06, 2012 Eric Manix marked it as to-read

Dec 14, 2011 Jennifer Uhlich marked it as to-read

Nov 19, 2011 Donna Ho rated it 5 of 5 stars

Nov 07, 2011 Karmen marked it as to-read

Nov 05, 2011 Robin Hudson marked it as to-read

Nov 03, 2011 Dan Porter marked it as to-read

Oct 22, 2011 Patrick Jennings-mapp rated it 5 of 5 stars · (Review from the author)

Shelves: escape-collective

Oct 20, 2011 Alexandra rated it 5 of 5 stars · (Review from the author)

Oct 20, 2011 Escape Collective Publishing rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: our-books

science-fiction

1 shelf

escape-collective

1 shelf

our-books

1 shelf

stories-articles

1 shelf

sf-fantasy

1 shelf

speculative-fiction

-1 shelves

short-stories-col...

-1 shelves

paranormal

-1 shelves

Books by Patrick Jennings-Mapp

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Corpus Pretereo

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: Corpus Pretereo
avg rating	preview: Corpus Pretereo Goodreads rating: 4.67 (9 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12823227-corpus-pretereo?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1318046166l/12823227.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12823227-corpus-pretereo?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Corpus Pretereo by Patrick Jennings-Mapp[/url]

Corpus Pretereo

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (2)

Popular Shelves

Books by Patrick Jennings-Mapp

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About Corpus Pretereo

Corpus Pretereo

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

combineOther Editions (2)

Popular Shelves

Books by Patrick Jennings-Mapp

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About Corpus Pretereo

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (2)