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Celestial Inventories

Steve Rasnic Tem (Goodreads Author)

3.54 · Rating details · 28 ratings · 3 reviews

All stories represent the slipstream segment of Steve Rasnic Tem’s large body of tales: imaginative, difficult-to-pigeonhole works of the fantastic crossing conventional boundaries between science fiction, fantasy, horror, literary fiction, bizarro, magic realism, and the new weird. Several of these stories have previously appeared in Best of the Year compilations and have ...more

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Paperback, 320 pages

Published August 26th 2013 by ChiZine Publications (first published January 1st 1991)

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Jan 18, 2014 Amelia rated it it was ok

a little too gross for me.

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Aug 16, 2013 Andrea Blythe rated it really liked it

Shelves: fic-horror, fic-fantasy, fic-short-stories

This collection was a mixed bag for me, some stories blowing my mind with their beauty and lyricism and others not grabbing my attention at all. On the whole, however, I would say that those stories that were wonderful outweighed those that were not as much (for me).

My favorite story of the collection was the first, "The World Recalled," which
tells the story of a man's life backwards through a series of surreal vignettes. The man witnesses (or imagines) a tree of keys, a kitchen table that tells This collection was a mixed bag for me, some stories blowing my mind with their beauty and lyricism and others not grabbing my attention at all. On the whole, however, I would say that those stories that were wonderful outweighed those that were not as much (for me).

My favorite story of the collection was the first, "The World Recalled," which
tells the story of a man's life backwards through a series of surreal vignettes. The man witnesses (or imagines) a tree of keys, a kitchen table that tells very odd time, a ladle for stirring better perspective into the daily news, a colander hat, and other odd objects. "He kept telling his nurse to keep the closet door closed: incremental weather was hiding among his old coats and pants, and he certainly didn't want any of that slipping unnoticed into his room" (from "Closet Weather").

This focus on ordinary objects made strange or wonderful is clear in several of his stories, including "When We Moved On," in which an elderly couple choose to leave behind their home filled with object-bound memories, and the title story, "Celstial Inventory," in which a man closes himself up in an apartment and begins to make an inventory of everything within.

Another theme I found fascinating was the exploration of art and what it means through very dark mediums. In response to world that is virtually disease free, an artist puts his body through the pain and suffering of a variety of diseases as a kind of performance art in "The Disease Artist." Meanwhile, in "Head Explosions," terrorists are causing people's heads to explode, but instead of dying, the people continue to live with grotesquely rearranged heads in floral and other graphic designs, which the narrator takes as a kind of art. And a beautifully mournful explorations of capturing a family's final moment with a lost loved one is presented in "The Bereavement Photographer."

I also enjoyed a couple of the fairy tale Tem presents. "Little Poucet" is a dark noir retelling of a classic tale and it one of the most disturbing stories I've ever read, in all the best ways. In "The Woodcarver's Son" a father's tears fill a house while his wife haunts it, forcing the son goes to a local witch seeking a cure for his father's sorrow. ...more

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Feb 20, 2014 Gef rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories, horror, literary, fantasy

Review coming soon.

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About Steve Rasnic Tem

Steve Rasnic Tem

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Steve Rasnic Tem was born in Lee County Virginia in the heart of Appalachia. He is the author of over 350 published short stories and is a past winner of the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards. His story collections include City Fishing, The Far Side of the Lake, In Concert (with wife Melanie Tem), Ugly Behavior, Celestial Inventories, and Onion ...more