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Cold to the Touch
Sewn signatures, printed on 125gsm acid-free paper, and bound by Atheneum Press in blue wibalin cloth stamped in silver, with a silk ribbon marker and head and tailbands.
300 copies.
(Out of print).
Reality is a thin translucent membrane that separates this world from the one beyond, and that membrane bends and buckles as we thrust ourselves against it. Through the barrier we see distorted visions, the merest glimpse of which is enough to infect our minds. . . .
Thirteen tales of strangeness and surrealism await the reader of this book; stories of loss, despair, and what happens when those without hope meet that which they cannot understand.
Two women vacationing far away encounter the mysteries of island life. . . . A trip north of the city to woods and a lake and a sky hungry for more. . . . Snow is falling, reminding the dying of all they've lost, or the young of all they have yet to lose. . . .
The other world, it awaits you in the dark, cold to the touch.
Contents: 'Under the Overpass', 'The Other Village', 'The Uninvited Guest', 'A Seed on Barren Ground', 'Writing on the Wall', 'A Chorus of Yesterdays', 'The Sweetest Song', 'Pinholes in Black Muslin', 'Fading Light', 'Poor Stephanie', 'Like Falling Snow', 'Here’s to the Good Life', 'Cold to the Touch, and 'Afterword'.
300 copies.
(Out of print).
Reality is a thin translucent membrane that separates this world from the one beyond, and that membrane bends and buckles as we thrust ourselves against it. Through the barrier we see distorted visions, the merest glimpse of which is enough to infect our minds. . . .
Thirteen tales of strangeness and surrealism await the reader of this book; stories of loss, despair, and what happens when those without hope meet that which they cannot understand.
Two women vacationing far away encounter the mysteries of island life. . . . A trip north of the city to woods and a lake and a sky hungry for more. . . . Snow is falling, reminding the dying of all they've lost, or the young of all they have yet to lose. . . .
The other world, it awaits you in the dark, cold to the touch.
Contents: 'Under the Overpass', 'The Other Village', 'The Uninvited Guest', 'A Seed on Barren Ground', 'Writing on the Wall', 'A Chorus of Yesterdays', 'The Sweetest Song', 'Pinholes in Black Muslin', 'Fading Light', 'Poor Stephanie', 'Like Falling Snow', 'Here’s to the Good Life', 'Cold to the Touch, and 'Afterword'.
206 pages, Paperback and Deluxe Hardcover
First published July 29, 2009
7 people are currently reading
686 people want to read
About the author
Simon Strantzas
95 books280 followersSimon Strantzas is the author of Nothing is Everything, Burnt Black Suns, Nightingale Songs, Cold to the Touch and Beneath the Surface and has been nominated for the British Fantasy and Shirley Jackson Awards. His work has been appeared in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror (ed. Stephen Jones), The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror (ed. by Paula Guran), Best Horror of the Year (ed. by Ellen Datlow), Cemetery Dance, and Nightmare. He lives in Toronto, Canada.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 27, 2011
This was a great introduction for me to Simon Strantzas' work. To this point I have heard excellent things and was ultimately compelled to track down this not-so-easy to find collection from Tartarus Press. So here is the thing, I gave this one 5 stars because as a collection, it is closer to 5 stars than to 4 stars. I can't really say that there was a single story in the collection that left me blown away, but story for story, this may be one of the strongest collections I have read in some time.
The problem with a lot of outstanding short story collections is you will get some real stand outs and potentially get a few duds (I have certainly noticed this in some of the 5 star collections I have read). In this case, there were no duds and a lot of really solid to excellent stories. In his afterword, Strantzas tells us that unlike his first collection BENEATH THE SURFACE, COLD TO THE TOUCH is missing that unifying theme for the collection. While that may be true, I felt that there were quite a few elements that could be found in many of the stories that left the collection feeling linked. The mood and atmosphere building for each of the stories was phenomenal (ranging from viscerally depressing to urbanly claustrophobic to overwhelmingly nostalgic) and the character development was also excellent (often painting social awkwardness and misanthropy into his characters). While I would agree with Strantzas (a la his afterword) that there is a good deal of Lieber's urban brushstrokes found throughout his stories, I think I also saw a good deal of Joel Lane in his treatment of his characters.
We see that decay and withering of the soul and also misanthropic overtones in his characters similar to Lane. However, as a credit to Strantzas, I felt his stories actually took his characters to interesting places and allow for the reader to be both captivated by character interaction and by the stories themselves. I'm really happy to have read this collection and certainly look forward to more of his writing.
While I did say that no single story from this collection distinguished itself more than any other story, a few do come to mind, particularly in how the horror was evoked through very strong grotesque imagery.
"A Seed on Barren ground"
The wish granting in this story is what gives us the grotesque imagery (almost like birthing a still born), and it was really strange mind you. Likewise, I could literally feel myself baking in the heat (akin to hanging out at the Bakersfield County Fair in the middle of the summer) along with the main character and I could also grasp the growing desperation as the main character waited for her number to be called. This one really drew upon all of your senses as a reader.
"Under the Overpass"
This one reminded me a lot of Braunbeck's incredibly melancholy life-is-full-of regret tale, "Smiling Faces Sometimes". The stoning of one of the kids was really painful to read through and evoked a similar level of grotesqueness as some of his other tales in this collection. You kind of new where it was going but the dread leading up to that critical moment in the story really gets you.
A great collection!! Highly recommended.
The problem with a lot of outstanding short story collections is you will get some real stand outs and potentially get a few duds (I have certainly noticed this in some of the 5 star collections I have read). In this case, there were no duds and a lot of really solid to excellent stories. In his afterword, Strantzas tells us that unlike his first collection BENEATH THE SURFACE, COLD TO THE TOUCH is missing that unifying theme for the collection. While that may be true, I felt that there were quite a few elements that could be found in many of the stories that left the collection feeling linked. The mood and atmosphere building for each of the stories was phenomenal (ranging from viscerally depressing to urbanly claustrophobic to overwhelmingly nostalgic) and the character development was also excellent (often painting social awkwardness and misanthropy into his characters). While I would agree with Strantzas (a la his afterword) that there is a good deal of Lieber's urban brushstrokes found throughout his stories, I think I also saw a good deal of Joel Lane in his treatment of his characters.
We see that decay and withering of the soul and also misanthropic overtones in his characters similar to Lane. However, as a credit to Strantzas, I felt his stories actually took his characters to interesting places and allow for the reader to be both captivated by character interaction and by the stories themselves. I'm really happy to have read this collection and certainly look forward to more of his writing.
While I did say that no single story from this collection distinguished itself more than any other story, a few do come to mind, particularly in how the horror was evoked through very strong grotesque imagery.
"A Seed on Barren ground"
The wish granting in this story is what gives us the grotesque imagery (almost like birthing a still born), and it was really strange mind you. Likewise, I could literally feel myself baking in the heat (akin to hanging out at the Bakersfield County Fair in the middle of the summer) along with the main character and I could also grasp the growing desperation as the main character waited for her number to be called. This one really drew upon all of your senses as a reader.
"Under the Overpass"
This one reminded me a lot of Braunbeck's incredibly melancholy life-is-full-of regret tale, "Smiling Faces Sometimes". The stoning of one of the kids was really painful to read through and evoked a similar level of grotesqueness as some of his other tales in this collection. You kind of new where it was going but the dread leading up to that critical moment in the story really gets you.
A great collection!! Highly recommended.
September 13, 2024
This was a hard book for me to rate. It is not the book I thought that it was, and I am not sure if that colored my thoughts as to whether or not I liked it. I knew that it would be a more subtle horror book before I started reading it from the reviews and general information about the book, not one filled with obvious threats like Cthulhu-like monsters, zombies, or werewolves. That’s fine, a more subtle horror story, perhaps one that was a bit more atmospheric than monstrous, would be enjoyable too, maybe something Twight Zone-esque. To me though, the horror element is perhaps too subtle. One reviewer compared the author’s writing to Kafka and to me that is apt for several reasons. One, the writing is good, the atmosphere often excellent; by no means is this book badly written. Two, perhaps like Kafka, the horror is hardly typical or paint by numbers as it were; the horror here in this book is more about what a strange visitor to a party represents or is capable of, or why music one hears from a neighboring apartment is endlessly on one’s mind …subtle things that could perhaps happen in real life, generally nothing so obviously horrific (and fantastical) as zombies breaking down the back door for instance. Many of them are almost real world stories with slight- sometimes very slight- supernatural or just weird twists.
Are they too slight though? Some have a nice dream like quality, and if they were stand alone stories in the anthology they would be just fine. The mysterious, almost mystical feel of _A Chorus of Yesterdays_ by way of example, with the narrator’s strange dreams and the ethereal quality of the music in the apartment below him, music he can’t quite place but drives him to distraction trying to uncover just what piece that is, that is just the sort of mood piece that would be good in any horror anthology. The narrator of that short story imagines things about his unseen neighbor and when he does finally encounter the man walks away with more questions than answers. Nicely written and with memorable imagery, but the horror aspect was super slight if it was even there at all; it was just an odd encounter, and the horror element could have been explained away as something else.
To many that criticism holds true for the entirety of the book pretty much, that the horror or supernatural element is almost whisper thin. Sometimes though, I will admit, it is not. On occasion the horrific elements are bold and unmistakable, from the odd and horrific seeds of _A Seed on Barren Ground_ to the scary birds of _The Sweetest Song_ but here again the author takes a Kafkaesque turn; the horror becomes abstract, often very abstract. It is definitely there, quite visible, definitely supernatural and horrific, but what It All Means is hard to discern. Perhaps there is an element of Man Was Not Meant to Know, as in the Lovecraftian tradition, that if mortals really saw what was out there and how the universe really worked it would drive one insane. That is great, I love that tradition in genre fiction, but at a fundamental level in the story I often just don’t know what happened even in terms of describing the action. Some of that is from the often dream-like feel of the stories, but some is perhaps because to me the story is perhaps too metaphorical. Maybe this book would be superb in a literature class, with students and professor dissecting the meaning of each tale, but as for this reader, I was just lost at times.
Having said that the stories are still evocative and stuck with me, perhaps from the rich and eerie imagery, perhaps from just wanting to puzzle out the meaning of the story, maybe even out of a little frustration. The stories certainly challenged me, I will give the author that!
One element that put me off though and it is not one that I counted on, was the central characters/narrators of the various short stories were generally loners, alienated from society for various reasons to varying degrees (or at least alienated from other characters in the story). What other people they meet in their stories are either odd enigmas, their motives impenetrable, or brash, annoying, rude, loud people, “friends” that they can barely stand perhaps, or outright strangers they just want to leave. I did think it an interesting exercise to decide if the annoying people in the stories either were really annoying or that is just how they appear to a loner, a person that prefers the silence of winter woods to the cacophony of a crowded holiday party. That thread - one of loners, perhaps people always striving for solitude, maybe people who have come to seek it after bad experiences – appeared to be a thread prevalent through many of the stories. Whether or not the loner aspect of many of the people opened them up to whatever horror took place in each story is an interesting question; maybe they more attune to noticing such things, or more vulnerable to the threat that the represented. It did give a sometimes cold and impersonal feel to some of the stories (and in that reminded me of Lovecraft, with so many of his stories one man’s view of What Happened, rather than stories rich in dialogue and the development of multiple characters).
Perhaps in the end the issue of whether or not I liked _Cold to the Touch_ comes down to whether or not I liked Kafka’s works. I read a number of Kafka’s stories in college and while I admired the writing and even chose him as my subject matter in semester project in a literature class, I can’t say I really enjoyed them. I do think Simon Strantzas is a skilled author and his stories veered away from Kafkaesque I would like them more. I would to see some more Lovecraftian by him, with more obvious horrors, as his grasp of atmosphere, mood, and narrative writing are very good indeed.
Are they too slight though? Some have a nice dream like quality, and if they were stand alone stories in the anthology they would be just fine. The mysterious, almost mystical feel of _A Chorus of Yesterdays_ by way of example, with the narrator’s strange dreams and the ethereal quality of the music in the apartment below him, music he can’t quite place but drives him to distraction trying to uncover just what piece that is, that is just the sort of mood piece that would be good in any horror anthology. The narrator of that short story imagines things about his unseen neighbor and when he does finally encounter the man walks away with more questions than answers. Nicely written and with memorable imagery, but the horror aspect was super slight if it was even there at all; it was just an odd encounter, and the horror element could have been explained away as something else.
To many that criticism holds true for the entirety of the book pretty much, that the horror or supernatural element is almost whisper thin. Sometimes though, I will admit, it is not. On occasion the horrific elements are bold and unmistakable, from the odd and horrific seeds of _A Seed on Barren Ground_ to the scary birds of _The Sweetest Song_ but here again the author takes a Kafkaesque turn; the horror becomes abstract, often very abstract. It is definitely there, quite visible, definitely supernatural and horrific, but what It All Means is hard to discern. Perhaps there is an element of Man Was Not Meant to Know, as in the Lovecraftian tradition, that if mortals really saw what was out there and how the universe really worked it would drive one insane. That is great, I love that tradition in genre fiction, but at a fundamental level in the story I often just don’t know what happened even in terms of describing the action. Some of that is from the often dream-like feel of the stories, but some is perhaps because to me the story is perhaps too metaphorical. Maybe this book would be superb in a literature class, with students and professor dissecting the meaning of each tale, but as for this reader, I was just lost at times.
Having said that the stories are still evocative and stuck with me, perhaps from the rich and eerie imagery, perhaps from just wanting to puzzle out the meaning of the story, maybe even out of a little frustration. The stories certainly challenged me, I will give the author that!
One element that put me off though and it is not one that I counted on, was the central characters/narrators of the various short stories were generally loners, alienated from society for various reasons to varying degrees (or at least alienated from other characters in the story). What other people they meet in their stories are either odd enigmas, their motives impenetrable, or brash, annoying, rude, loud people, “friends” that they can barely stand perhaps, or outright strangers they just want to leave. I did think it an interesting exercise to decide if the annoying people in the stories either were really annoying or that is just how they appear to a loner, a person that prefers the silence of winter woods to the cacophony of a crowded holiday party. That thread - one of loners, perhaps people always striving for solitude, maybe people who have come to seek it after bad experiences – appeared to be a thread prevalent through many of the stories. Whether or not the loner aspect of many of the people opened them up to whatever horror took place in each story is an interesting question; maybe they more attune to noticing such things, or more vulnerable to the threat that the represented. It did give a sometimes cold and impersonal feel to some of the stories (and in that reminded me of Lovecraft, with so many of his stories one man’s view of What Happened, rather than stories rich in dialogue and the development of multiple characters).
Perhaps in the end the issue of whether or not I liked _Cold to the Touch_ comes down to whether or not I liked Kafka’s works. I read a number of Kafka’s stories in college and while I admired the writing and even chose him as my subject matter in semester project in a literature class, I can’t say I really enjoyed them. I do think Simon Strantzas is a skilled author and his stories veered away from Kafkaesque I would like them more. I would to see some more Lovecraftian by him, with more obvious horrors, as his grasp of atmosphere, mood, and narrative writing are very good indeed.
September 9, 2010
Simon Strantzas is the author of two twisted collections of strange tales and horrific adventures. His first book was Beneath the Surface published by Humdrumming Press. (I haven’t had the pleasure of reading this collection yet, but I hope to track it down.) The second book is entitled Cold to the Touch. (According to his website – a third collection is being created – I will keep my eyes peeled.) When I did my first book review on SNS I spoke about the great masters of the short story, like Poe, Lovecraft, Twain… I spoke of how I longed for a new generation of that ilk. If there is a renaissance happening in short stories, writers like Simon Strantzas are leading the way.
Simon’s stories range from frightening to painful, from sad to wickedly delightful. One thing is certain, Mr. Strantzas ripped out a bit of his soul and threw it onto the page with a violent beauty. Such stories could come from no other place. This collection is evocative, endearing, strange and horrifying all at once. I am reading it a second time now, but have to put it away — others wait.
All of the stories in this collection are delightfully dark and wonderfully weird. There were moments where I thought Strantzas’ writing was a bit too cordial. But they were brief and his characterizations were so compelling, that those fleeting moments were easily forgotten. Currently I have two favorites from this collection, so I will focus in on those. I know that it is easy to give a short story away, so I promise these bits will be spoiler free!
The Other Village
This weird tale centers around two Canadian women who are on a holiday to the Mediterranean. It is clear from the beginning of the story that their friendship is rocky. They hadn’t spoken in some time and both went on the trip anyway. It may have been out of spite or obligation or simply the fact they already spent the money. Whatever the case, they were stuck with each other. They come across a shady guide who offers to take them to “the real places. They leave their legitimate tour and that’s when the real excitement begins. This story is well woven. I felt involved with its characters. It has all the elements I love in a strange tale. I have always believed the unseen is often far more terrifying than what we are shown and this short verifies that. The Other Village does an excellent job of getting your heart pumping and it has a deliciously satisfying ending.
A Seed On Barren Ground
This strange story is about a woman who suffers great loss, only to suffer more. She is referred to a mysterious festival in the middle of nowhere. All she wants is for her suffering to end, for things to return to normal. She becomes convinced that this festival may somehow give her this. When she arrives at the festival she discovers it has long been over, but a mysterious tent still stands and there are people gathered inside. This captivating tale brought waves of emotion. I felt the sorrow of the main character and was invested in her journey. I felt the heat of the desert, and her heavy, heavy pain. A Seed on Barren Ground took some unexpected, well-executed turns and I happily went along for the ride.
Final thoughts:
Simon Strantzas invites you in and leads you around his universe with the grace of a ballroom dancer. His style is elegant and haunting and as a reader you feel drawn to each story in a unique way. I am looking forward to more work from this author. This book will hold a permanent place in my collection. I recommend Cold to the Touch to anyone who likes Horror, Strange Tales, Dark Fantasy or Short Stories.
(Read the full review with links and images here: http://sheneverslept.com/newsandrevie... )
Simon’s stories range from frightening to painful, from sad to wickedly delightful. One thing is certain, Mr. Strantzas ripped out a bit of his soul and threw it onto the page with a violent beauty. Such stories could come from no other place. This collection is evocative, endearing, strange and horrifying all at once. I am reading it a second time now, but have to put it away — others wait.
All of the stories in this collection are delightfully dark and wonderfully weird. There were moments where I thought Strantzas’ writing was a bit too cordial. But they were brief and his characterizations were so compelling, that those fleeting moments were easily forgotten. Currently I have two favorites from this collection, so I will focus in on those. I know that it is easy to give a short story away, so I promise these bits will be spoiler free!
The Other Village
This weird tale centers around two Canadian women who are on a holiday to the Mediterranean. It is clear from the beginning of the story that their friendship is rocky. They hadn’t spoken in some time and both went on the trip anyway. It may have been out of spite or obligation or simply the fact they already spent the money. Whatever the case, they were stuck with each other. They come across a shady guide who offers to take them to “the real places. They leave their legitimate tour and that’s when the real excitement begins. This story is well woven. I felt involved with its characters. It has all the elements I love in a strange tale. I have always believed the unseen is often far more terrifying than what we are shown and this short verifies that. The Other Village does an excellent job of getting your heart pumping and it has a deliciously satisfying ending.
A Seed On Barren Ground
This strange story is about a woman who suffers great loss, only to suffer more. She is referred to a mysterious festival in the middle of nowhere. All she wants is for her suffering to end, for things to return to normal. She becomes convinced that this festival may somehow give her this. When she arrives at the festival she discovers it has long been over, but a mysterious tent still stands and there are people gathered inside. This captivating tale brought waves of emotion. I felt the sorrow of the main character and was invested in her journey. I felt the heat of the desert, and her heavy, heavy pain. A Seed on Barren Ground took some unexpected, well-executed turns and I happily went along for the ride.
Final thoughts:
Simon Strantzas invites you in and leads you around his universe with the grace of a ballroom dancer. His style is elegant and haunting and as a reader you feel drawn to each story in a unique way. I am looking forward to more work from this author. This book will hold a permanent place in my collection. I recommend Cold to the Touch to anyone who likes Horror, Strange Tales, Dark Fantasy or Short Stories.
(Read the full review with links and images here: http://sheneverslept.com/newsandrevie... )
October 2, 2014
October 2: finished. Review of the other stories coming as soon as I have time to write them.
September 11, 2014:
"Under the Overpass":
About that defining moment when you lose your innocence as a child. I liked the sombre tone. A good start for the collection.
September 12:
"The Other Village" + "The Uninvited Guest":
The first is a fine little story of leaving negativity behind, with some great, atmospheric scenes. The latter was ok but in my opinion not quite as good as the first two stories.
September 13:
"A Seed on Barren Ground":
A woman has lost her baby late on pregnancy, her husband leaves her and a nurse sends her to a strange place where things happen in the tent.
A weird tale with a clear focus on dealing with such a loss. And a strange twist in the end.
September 15:
"Writing on the Wall":
My favourite so far in the collection. A chilling story of estrangement. It takes place in Warsaw... Well, on the surface, anyway;-) Not much is described of Warsaw but it stirred memories from the one time I was there, years ago. Perhaps that added to the charm, for me?
September 19:
"A Chorus of Yesterdays":
A nice little weird story. It reminded me a bit of Lovecraft's "The Music of Erich Zann".
September 21:
"The Sweetest Song":
The longest story so far. An older man lives with his nephew after his wife dies. A woman enters their life and now things take a sinister turn. It includes mysterious birds.
September 23:
"Fading Light":
A man lives alone with only the dog his wife left him. His friend is now left by his wife. The story evolves around the sadness, the emptiness and futile attempt at trying to piece together some sort of meaningfulness to it all. All the while they live alone in their own apartments, never talking and sharing.
It all takes place in a dark, crumbling world resembling our own all too much. Great story!
More individual reviews coming, as I read the stories. I like that the author's voice stands out.
(Purchased directly from the publisher, their moving sale Summer 2013.)
September 11, 2014:
"Under the Overpass":
About that defining moment when you lose your innocence as a child. I liked the sombre tone. A good start for the collection.
September 12:
"The Other Village" + "The Uninvited Guest":
The first is a fine little story of leaving negativity behind, with some great, atmospheric scenes. The latter was ok but in my opinion not quite as good as the first two stories.
September 13:
"A Seed on Barren Ground":
A woman has lost her baby late on pregnancy, her husband leaves her and a nurse sends her to a strange place where things happen in the tent.
A weird tale with a clear focus on dealing with such a loss. And a strange twist in the end.
September 15:
"Writing on the Wall":
My favourite so far in the collection. A chilling story of estrangement. It takes place in Warsaw... Well, on the surface, anyway;-) Not much is described of Warsaw but it stirred memories from the one time I was there, years ago. Perhaps that added to the charm, for me?
September 19:
"A Chorus of Yesterdays":
A nice little weird story. It reminded me a bit of Lovecraft's "The Music of Erich Zann".
September 21:
"The Sweetest Song":
The longest story so far. An older man lives with his nephew after his wife dies. A woman enters their life and now things take a sinister turn. It includes mysterious birds.
September 23:
"Fading Light":
A man lives alone with only the dog his wife left him. His friend is now left by his wife. The story evolves around the sadness, the emptiness and futile attempt at trying to piece together some sort of meaningfulness to it all. All the while they live alone in their own apartments, never talking and sharing.
It all takes place in a dark, crumbling world resembling our own all too much. Great story!
More individual reviews coming, as I read the stories. I like that the author's voice stands out.
(Purchased directly from the publisher, their moving sale Summer 2013.)
April 17, 2013
With an appropriate 13 different stories to deliver Simon Strantzas has delivered horror stories at all levels and from all angles. All the stories are bite size and thus develop quickly. Characters are sketched out and are flushed out as the story proceeds.
Horror is a visceral feeling and what is a horror to you may not be to another person. However Stranzas approaches the genre from so many different angles that he pretty well has horror stories fully embraced and ready for the reader to enjoy. So buy the book and enjoy.
Horror is a visceral feeling and what is a horror to you may not be to another person. However Stranzas approaches the genre from so many different angles that he pretty well has horror stories fully embraced and ready for the reader to enjoy. So buy the book and enjoy.
May 3, 2016
I read Strantzas' collection Burnt Black Suns last year and thought it was among the best weird fiction collections I read all year. I can't give this one less than FOUR stars and it makes me think I should go back and give that one FIVE! I can't say I've read anything by Strantzas that I didn't enjoy, and I am glad there's another two collections by him, because I intend to read them all.
A couple of the best stories are downright scary -- "Fading Light" and the title story "Cold to the Touch," were among my favorites. Some others I thought exemplary were "Under the Overpass," "A Seed On Barren Ground" and "Here’s To The Good Life." Most of the others were good, there were a couple I thought were "lesser" stories, but are still worth a read.
These are tales of socially awkward, lonely, isolated people. Compared with his later collection Burnt Black Stars I would say the influence of Aickman is more prevalent here. Many stories end with a strange ambiguity, leaving one with a haunting sense of wonder. In most cases there's several different ways to look at them. I wouldn't put this collection above Burnt Black Stars, however it certainly isn't an "early effort" by any means.
Under The Overpass - Really good story, eerie, haunting and nostalgic. A man recalls a strange and horrific event that occurred to him as a child and cut him off from his friends, he returns to the spot trying to understand it.
The Other Village - A very weird, unsettling story at times with a humorous twist. It has a somewhat Aickman-esque feel with it's foreign and bewildering setting. A woman goes on vacation with a friend she regrets bringing, who drags her along on a very strange detour to find some local color.
The Uninvited Guest - Reminds me a bit of Poe's "Masque of the Red Death," but it ends with such a strange ambiguity. A good, ghostly winteresque story. A couple throwing a Christmas party get a lot of uninvited guests, but one very strange one.
A Seed On Barren Ground - An excellent story, very emotional and imaginative. Among the best in the book. There's nods to Ligotti here. A young woman who has suffered a miscarriage that has destroyed her life gets a tip on a festival that some claim can set it right again.
Writing On The Wall - A strong sense of weirdness here, also of alienation and loneliness. Probably one of the most memorable, but I would have liked a bit more clarity about what happened in the character's past. A man reluctantly attends a conference with his boss in Warsaw and wanders into some strange districts with a man who claims to know him, but looks unfamiliar.
A Chorus Of Yesterdays - A very strange story, quite open-ended. Not as impactful as many others, possibly because of it's short length. A man realizes that the tenant below him is a once-famous jazz composer, with a dark secret.
The Sweetest Song - This is the longest story in the collection, maybe less subtle by comparison to the others, but is one of the best here. An elderly man moves in with his nephew after his wife dies. The younger man is going through something similar because his wife has left him; but she's replaced by a mysterious woman who brings with her lots of strange phenomena.
Pinholes In Black Muslin - This is more of a "good, old fashioned, down-to-earth," horror story. Sure, there's plenty of unanswered questions, but it's full of action and horror, with a perfect horror setting -- an isolated cabin on a lake. It reminded me of Algernon Blackwood's The Willows. A plan for a pleasant weekend in the woods goes horribly wrong when people start to disappear.
Fading Light - Coming in at around 3,000 words this is one of the shorter stories, but very effective I thought, and quite creepy. Looking back on it, this is one that haunted me the most with it's loneliness and urban grit. Wonderfully muted, lonely and winteresque atmosphere. A man helps his friend move into a creepy old boarding house, and abandons him in his time of need.
Poor Stephanie - A very brief, grim tale. A menacing uncle comes to collect his niece.
Like Falling Snow - A milder, more emotional story, with just an aura of weirdness and unease. As a woman tries to cope with entering hospice and chemotherapy, she feels parts of herself falling away, literally.
Here’s To The Good Life - Very nice story, a bit more horror-orientated than many others, while still maintaining a great nebulous uncertainty. A loner at a party explains to another loner why he no longer drinks, connected with the horror he witnessed in a seedy Irish pub.
Cold To The Touch - This was an excellent story, genuinely eerie with an excellent setting. It's one of the only stories with a Lovecraftian tone, with a genuine feeling of loneliness, isolation and loss of faith. A scientist venturing into the arctic north to record climate conditions struggles to keep his own faith together as he endures hostility from the natives and witnesses unexplained phenomena.
A couple of the best stories are downright scary -- "Fading Light" and the title story "Cold to the Touch," were among my favorites. Some others I thought exemplary were "Under the Overpass," "A Seed On Barren Ground" and "Here’s To The Good Life." Most of the others were good, there were a couple I thought were "lesser" stories, but are still worth a read.
These are tales of socially awkward, lonely, isolated people. Compared with his later collection Burnt Black Stars I would say the influence of Aickman is more prevalent here. Many stories end with a strange ambiguity, leaving one with a haunting sense of wonder. In most cases there's several different ways to look at them. I wouldn't put this collection above Burnt Black Stars, however it certainly isn't an "early effort" by any means.
Under The Overpass - Really good story, eerie, haunting and nostalgic. A man recalls a strange and horrific event that occurred to him as a child and cut him off from his friends, he returns to the spot trying to understand it.
The Other Village - A very weird, unsettling story at times with a humorous twist. It has a somewhat Aickman-esque feel with it's foreign and bewildering setting. A woman goes on vacation with a friend she regrets bringing, who drags her along on a very strange detour to find some local color.
The Uninvited Guest - Reminds me a bit of Poe's "Masque of the Red Death," but it ends with such a strange ambiguity. A good, ghostly winteresque story. A couple throwing a Christmas party get a lot of uninvited guests, but one very strange one.
A Seed On Barren Ground - An excellent story, very emotional and imaginative. Among the best in the book. There's nods to Ligotti here. A young woman who has suffered a miscarriage that has destroyed her life gets a tip on a festival that some claim can set it right again.
Writing On The Wall - A strong sense of weirdness here, also of alienation and loneliness. Probably one of the most memorable, but I would have liked a bit more clarity about what happened in the character's past. A man reluctantly attends a conference with his boss in Warsaw and wanders into some strange districts with a man who claims to know him, but looks unfamiliar.
A Chorus Of Yesterdays - A very strange story, quite open-ended. Not as impactful as many others, possibly because of it's short length. A man realizes that the tenant below him is a once-famous jazz composer, with a dark secret.
The Sweetest Song - This is the longest story in the collection, maybe less subtle by comparison to the others, but is one of the best here. An elderly man moves in with his nephew after his wife dies. The younger man is going through something similar because his wife has left him; but she's replaced by a mysterious woman who brings with her lots of strange phenomena.
Pinholes In Black Muslin - This is more of a "good, old fashioned, down-to-earth," horror story. Sure, there's plenty of unanswered questions, but it's full of action and horror, with a perfect horror setting -- an isolated cabin on a lake. It reminded me of Algernon Blackwood's The Willows. A plan for a pleasant weekend in the woods goes horribly wrong when people start to disappear.
Fading Light - Coming in at around 3,000 words this is one of the shorter stories, but very effective I thought, and quite creepy. Looking back on it, this is one that haunted me the most with it's loneliness and urban grit. Wonderfully muted, lonely and winteresque atmosphere. A man helps his friend move into a creepy old boarding house, and abandons him in his time of need.
Poor Stephanie - A very brief, grim tale. A menacing uncle comes to collect his niece.
Like Falling Snow - A milder, more emotional story, with just an aura of weirdness and unease. As a woman tries to cope with entering hospice and chemotherapy, she feels parts of herself falling away, literally.
Here’s To The Good Life - Very nice story, a bit more horror-orientated than many others, while still maintaining a great nebulous uncertainty. A loner at a party explains to another loner why he no longer drinks, connected with the horror he witnessed in a seedy Irish pub.
Cold To The Touch - This was an excellent story, genuinely eerie with an excellent setting. It's one of the only stories with a Lovecraftian tone, with a genuine feeling of loneliness, isolation and loss of faith. A scientist venturing into the arctic north to record climate conditions struggles to keep his own faith together as he endures hostility from the natives and witnesses unexplained phenomena.
April 10, 2016
3 AND 1/2 STARS
This is my first experience reading Simon Strantzas and I'm very impressed. An avid horror reader, I decided to branch out a little and try this new 'Weird Fiction' movement. I have read many authors that write like this but the stories were not necessarily label 'Weird', they were just lumped into horror or dark fiction. Essentially, 'Weird Fiction' is really a sub-genre of horror, like the supernatural, and it works well for readers who would rather have their dark fiction more subtle with less overt bloodshed and explicitness. Think Charles Grant or T.M. Wright. This is the third short story collection by Strantzas and I picked this one up over his first two because I had read that this was the darkest of the three. Also, I love anything set in winter or blizzards and the cover had me hooked.
While I don't mind having some ambiguity to endings, sometimes it feels like an author is taking the easy way out by making the reader decide what happened or what will happen but in such a vague way that basically any ending would fit. I don't insist to have my endings neatly tied up, but there were times with this collection I felt Strantzas could have produced a bit more clarity or focus on the endings. When comparing books to movies, the writer is director and a few stories here could have used a bit more direction in their resolution. That said, with only one exception, I enjoyed reading all of the stories. The highlights for me were "Under the Overpass", "Pinholes in Black Muslin", "Poor Stephanie", "Like Falling Snow", and "Here's to the Good Life". Many of these stories are deliciously dark and have some real tension and atmosphere. The second half of the collection is stronger than the first half, so don't stop reading early on and give it a chance. It keeps getting better. Along with John Langan and Laird Barron, Strantzas is probably in the top five of current Weird Fiction writers. It receives my solid recommendation.
This is my first experience reading Simon Strantzas and I'm very impressed. An avid horror reader, I decided to branch out a little and try this new 'Weird Fiction' movement. I have read many authors that write like this but the stories were not necessarily label 'Weird', they were just lumped into horror or dark fiction. Essentially, 'Weird Fiction' is really a sub-genre of horror, like the supernatural, and it works well for readers who would rather have their dark fiction more subtle with less overt bloodshed and explicitness. Think Charles Grant or T.M. Wright. This is the third short story collection by Strantzas and I picked this one up over his first two because I had read that this was the darkest of the three. Also, I love anything set in winter or blizzards and the cover had me hooked.
While I don't mind having some ambiguity to endings, sometimes it feels like an author is taking the easy way out by making the reader decide what happened or what will happen but in such a vague way that basically any ending would fit. I don't insist to have my endings neatly tied up, but there were times with this collection I felt Strantzas could have produced a bit more clarity or focus on the endings. When comparing books to movies, the writer is director and a few stories here could have used a bit more direction in their resolution. That said, with only one exception, I enjoyed reading all of the stories. The highlights for me were "Under the Overpass", "Pinholes in Black Muslin", "Poor Stephanie", "Like Falling Snow", and "Here's to the Good Life". Many of these stories are deliciously dark and have some real tension and atmosphere. The second half of the collection is stronger than the first half, so don't stop reading early on and give it a chance. It keeps getting better. Along with John Langan and Laird Barron, Strantzas is probably in the top five of current Weird Fiction writers. It receives my solid recommendation.
April 9, 2020
it was the first book read by this author of whom i Always heard talking about in quite a supoerb way. Rumours were confirmed and i wasn't let down:this collection scared me more than a nightime, contaminating my dreams as only old Hammer horror movies did. Have to read else, especially in the more recent production. 5 stars. undoubtedly.
February 26, 2010
A fine collection of horror short stories which are light on the grue, heavy on the existential dread. At his best—as with tales like “Pinholes in Black Muslin”, “Fading Light” and the title entry—Stranzas’ narrative voice reminds me strongly of a young Ramsey Campbell, though he can also be a bit too Kafka-esque for his own good, trading pleasant obliqueness for total unintelligibility.
June 3, 2011
A solid book of short stories in an excellent psychological style. I preferred "Beneath the Surface" most likely due to its Lovecraft/Ligotti influence, but this one is excellent as well.
March 28, 2021
A diverse collection of thirteen dark tales that shows off Strantzas varied and controlled range of characters, tones, styles and settings. There’s a strong opening sequence of perfectly formed short stories rich in dread and atmosphere; ‘Under the Overpass', 'The Other Village', 'A Seed on Barren Ground’, each with nods to King, Aickman and Ligotti respectively. Strantzas’ writing is deceptively simple, and draws the reader in before he twists the narrative into unsettling, weirder places. I enjoyed ‘Poor Stephanie’ with its Gaiman-esque updating of the Persephone in Hades myth. Hard to pick a favourite in such a strong collection, but the strange and sinister ‘The Sweetest Song’, (mourning uncle moves in to live with nephew as bitter solace as both had lost their wives) has plenty of nightmare Lynchian vibes. ‘Like Falling Snow’, a woman looking back on her ebbing life as she undergoes chemotherapy in a hospice, is hauntingly beautiful.
January 12, 2021
There is more contamination in this story; it gives you more than just a hacking cough. Could that be caught from this story, by getting too close it? There is another Uninvited Guest, from Cecil’s point of view, and she (Vivian) gets too close to him. A Joel Lane-like shaping up with wings. This is a massive story. I can only dwell on its smaller preciousnesses. It’s a sweetest song, Lyra’s song. Even if that’s not true, it’s better than to face this story’s real truth head on.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
January 16, 2017
I'm particularly fond of weird fiction - especially short stories - so was pleased to discover Simon Strantzas. He has a straightforward storytelling manner that made me feel that I was sitting and listening to someone telling me about an odd experience he or she had had. No lengthy explanations or justifications, or attempts to understand or rationalize the experience, and in weird fiction terms, this is excellent! Let the reader decide, or dream, or shudder and lie sleepless accordingly. I particularly enjoyed "Writing on the Wall", "A Chorus of Yesterdays", "Pinholes in Black Muslin" and "Fading Light". People - usually solitary souls who don't do well in the social scene or at relationships - find themselves undergoing bizarre events, sometimes cosmic in nature, and there is no "why"; the vast impending darkness does not answer to why. I look forward to reading more of Simon Strantzas's books.
December 10, 2012
A very good collection of horror/paranormal short stories. Reading this book reminded me of the old television series The Twilight Zone. I couldn't wait to see how each story ended, what the twist was. The past is never the past. Sometimes monsters are real. Sometimes we are the monsters. 4.5 stars.
August 11, 2012
This book is full of very well written strange tales. If you appreciate literary dark and weird stories then read this book!
July 30, 2014
Its Simon Strantzas! Of course its going to be good!
January 3, 2014
Horror de subgénero ártico y megalítico. Bien.
Feels like an Inuit Wicker Man (SPOILER).
Feels like an Inuit Wicker Man (SPOILER).
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