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Deep Breath Hold Tight: Stories About the End of Everything
Deep Breath Hold Tight is a collection of short stories about... endings. The heroes and antiheroes of these tales find themselves, sometimes unexpectedly, arriving at major turning points in their lives – turning points that are quite often catastrophic, surreal, tragic. These stories are alternately triumphant and terribly sad, but they are always human.
This collection includes the following previously published stories:
Wolf Skin
The Caretaker
The Winter Lands
Nebulae
Onyx
The Last Rail-Rider
The Dark Age
Deep Breath Hold Tight will be published in the spring.
This collection includes the following previously published stories:
Wolf Skin
The Caretaker
The Winter Lands
Nebulae
Onyx
The Last Rail-Rider
The Dark Age
Deep Breath Hold Tight will be published in the spring.
303 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
13 people are currently reading
180 people want to read
About the author
Jason Gurley
38 books431 followersJason Gurley is the author of Awake in the World (Roaring Brook, 2019) and Eleanor (Crown, 2016), and co-author of The Edge of Sleep (St. Martin's, 2023). His short fiction appears in the anthologies Loosed Upon the World (Saga, 2015) and Help Fund My Robot Army!!! (2014). He lives and writes in Scappoose, Oregon. More at www.jasongurley.com.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 19, 2014
If you're a writer, this book will be maddening. Jason Gurley uses an inventive range of apocalyptic (though ultimately pretty tame) settings to often lead us to the most obvious of conclusions, particularly in the opening Wolf Skin, which too often gets lost in its own drama and chooses writerly device over the pureness of its story. But he follows through with a book that reads like a retrospective of an entire career, each story building in technical and emotional depth, peaking with the sci-fi-inflected The Caretaker and Onyx. These are all stories of loss, but not of suffering. And as simple, or even redundant, as some of the themes may be, we come to learn by book's end that perhaps--no matter how many ways the world may end--we all end up in the same place, in search of what we have lost.
October 26, 2015
Oh man. A heartbreaking collection of short sci-fi stories, most of which feature some sort of distressing post-apocalyptic or dystopian theme. However, this isn't really part of the flavor-of-the-month sci-fi/dystopia crowd that's flooding the market lately. With few exceptions these stories are far more centered around the characters and their emotional states in the face of overwhelming changes than in the causes or effects of the changes themselves. The last story, "The Dark Age", is by far the most depressing bit of science fiction I've read in a long time as it examines the real, human cost of a deep space mission. A couple of the stories feel a little like sketches, and come off as too abstract to really have any impact, but for the most part this is a perfect little volume of sorrow and loss.
August 25, 2018
Deep Breath is a compendium of Gurley's short fiction. As far as I am aware a couple of these shorts are available on their own. A couple are excerpts, early pre-release versions, of chapters from his full length work
The Settlers
(See note at end). Still it was a pleasure to re-experience those chapters as shorts. The Settlers books are wonderful, I eagerly await the final installment, though the first two books can stand alone easily without the third.
Gurley has such a fantastic way with words. He writes rainbows, albeit dystopian and apocalyptic ones. His words border on prose. Seamless, woven, beautiful, moving, harrowing, imaginative, nuanced. Stand outs from this were the final two shorts, The Dark Age, and The Last Rail-Rider. Heck, wow.
Gurley explores the human condition through a science fiction lens. He offers us ourselves - what we might do, what we might think, what we might feel - at the very edge of what is possible.
Gurley is going places. Indeed, as a writer, he is already there.
My Rating: It's easy to give this 4.5 stars. It has all the feels and all the imagination, and all the lyrical quality one might want from fiction.
The shorts from The Settlers are:
1). Onyx
2). Nebulae
The shorts available alone are:
1). The two above plus,
2). Wolf Skin
3). The Caretaker
4).The Last Rail-Rider
5). The Dark Age
At the time of writing, The Winter Lands is not available alone.
Gurley has such a fantastic way with words. He writes rainbows, albeit dystopian and apocalyptic ones. His words border on prose. Seamless, woven, beautiful, moving, harrowing, imaginative, nuanced. Stand outs from this were the final two shorts, The Dark Age, and The Last Rail-Rider. Heck, wow.
Gurley explores the human condition through a science fiction lens. He offers us ourselves - what we might do, what we might think, what we might feel - at the very edge of what is possible.
Gurley is going places. Indeed, as a writer, he is already there.
My Rating: It's easy to give this 4.5 stars. It has all the feels and all the imagination, and all the lyrical quality one might want from fiction.
The shorts from The Settlers are:
1). Onyx
2). Nebulae
The shorts available alone are:
1). The two above plus,
2). Wolf Skin
3). The Caretaker
4).The Last Rail-Rider
5). The Dark Age
At the time of writing, The Winter Lands is not available alone.
May 21, 2023
Oh this book. Self-published. Anthology. In my experience, that's two strikes even before I read the first word.
Theme of this wonderfully titled book was "end of the world" in all meanings of that phrase. Sometimes literal, sometimes not. Sounded interesting, but still. Self-published. Anthology. I was braced to hate it.
Then I read the first story. Wow, was it good! Wolf Skin was set after the end of the world, just little packs of men roaming the countryside, killing and raping and stealing. It edged towards horror (every man these packs encountered were killed, every woman was raped, had a hand cut off, and kept in the pack to be raped whenever the men wanted to), but still it was a well-written story.
The second story, The Caretaker, was really great as well. A caretaker of a space station (a woman just holding down the fort until a crew of scientists arrives) is saved from the end of the world by being up there. She watches countless nuclear explosions across the planet below. The station's AI confirms that if anyone is left alive, they'll be dead soon. Then she gets a signal from outer space...
At this point I googled the author to find out what else he wrote, because I wanted to get a book by him. Only to find out that all his books are written with no quotation marks around character dialogue. SIGH. Why? Why are authors doing that?
But at least I had Deep Breath Hold Tight, so I went back to reading.
Most of the rest of the stories weren't standalone stories, they were excerpt of the books he had published. The books with no quotation marks. SIGH.
At least I enjoyed the first two stories...
Theme of this wonderfully titled book was "end of the world" in all meanings of that phrase. Sometimes literal, sometimes not. Sounded interesting, but still. Self-published. Anthology. I was braced to hate it.
Then I read the first story. Wow, was it good! Wolf Skin was set after the end of the world, just little packs of men roaming the countryside, killing and raping and stealing. It edged towards horror (every man these packs encountered were killed, every woman was raped, had a hand cut off, and kept in the pack to be raped whenever the men wanted to), but still it was a well-written story.
The second story, The Caretaker, was really great as well. A caretaker of a space station (a woman just holding down the fort until a crew of scientists arrives) is saved from the end of the world by being up there. She watches countless nuclear explosions across the planet below. The station's AI confirms that if anyone is left alive, they'll be dead soon. Then she gets a signal from outer space...
At this point I googled the author to find out what else he wrote, because I wanted to get a book by him. Only to find out that all his books are written with no quotation marks around character dialogue. SIGH. Why? Why are authors doing that?
But at least I had Deep Breath Hold Tight, so I went back to reading.
Most of the rest of the stories weren't standalone stories, they were excerpt of the books he had published. The books with no quotation marks. SIGH.
At least I enjoyed the first two stories...
January 10, 2022
This is really not far from being a 5 star book... Or rather, a collection of short stories. Each is united in that they all take place in some sort of end of the world scenario. Gurley is an excellent world builder and has so many great components of masterful writing. The reason it gets 3 stars and not 5 is that every story (with exception to the first) is that his endings are deeply unsatisfying. He writes in an end note to the readers that this is intentional, that he wants for the reader to interpret and to wonder what might happen next. I can appreciate that, and I think there's a way to conclude stories in such a way that is both satisfying and open ended. I don't think he achieves this though, as many of his endings render the story as nothing more than an interesting rambling.
I don't regret having read the stories, and I'm interested enough in checking out some of his other work, but this collection didn't quite do enough for me. But if you're a person that just likes to go along for the ride and not worry so much about destination, then I imagine these short stories would be a great read. The writings are truly beautiful in many ways and make for interesting discussion.
I don't regret having read the stories, and I'm interested enough in checking out some of his other work, but this collection didn't quite do enough for me. But if you're a person that just likes to go along for the ride and not worry so much about destination, then I imagine these short stories would be a great read. The writings are truly beautiful in many ways and make for interesting discussion.
June 26, 2021
I am not sure how I’ve never heard of this author before but these short stories were amazing! So captivating with characters you struggled to determine if you like them or didn’t like them. Honestly he captured the complexity of what it’s like to be human on a normal day compounded with the complexities of dealing with a unthinkable situation. Already added some more of his books to my list.
September 25, 2023
The characters in this book felt so real, thanks to the author's brilliant character development and writing.
May 23, 2014
As a thank you for being a member of his mailing list, Jason Gurley sent me a free copy of his first short story collection - Deep Breath Hold Tight : Stories About the End of the World. I bought a copy anyway - that's how much I enjoyed it.
Deep Breath Hold Tight contains seven stories, all loosely connected by the end of the world theme. These stories were all previously published either as standalone ebooks, in anthologies or as part of a full length novel.
Wolf Skin
Wolf Skin is the story of someone who becomes a member of one of those murderous roving gangs so popular in post-apocalyptic fiction. It's the darkest of the stories in the collection. The opening few pages in particular are quite graphic, more so than the rest of the stories in the book. My preferences lean towards horror anyway so I was pretty comfortable with the content but it might not be everyone's cup of tea. But the story quickly moves beyond the violence into more thought provoking territory and I enjoyed it.
The Caretaker
One of my favourite pieces in the collection, this is the story of Alice, a woman living alone aboard a space station who discovers she may be the last human alive. Another powerful story with an ending that I loved.
The Winter Lands
Originally published in From the Indie Side, this story of an elderly veteran and aspiring author attending an open mic night to read his story is a quiet, thoughtful tale that deserves a second read through.
Nebulae
Another out and out science fiction story and a standalone chapter from The Colonists. It's the story of Ansel, a man on a deep space mission to investigate a missing persons case. This was my least favourite story in the collection but given the quality of the other stories, that's not much of a criticism. I didn't quite connect with it as well as the other stories and the ending fell flat for me.
Onyx
Another standalone chapter, this time from The Settlers. Micah, for reasons that become clear as the story progresses, reluctantly moves to a huge space station to begin a new life. This is another quiet, moving story that has stuck with me since I read it.
The Last Rail-Rider
I don't want to say too much about this one (no spoilers here) but this story of post-apocalyptic rail rider, Henry, is probably the most off beat of the seven. Somewhat surreal in places, it's another one that deserves a second reading.
The Dark Age
This was the first Jason Gurley story I read and it had lost none of it's impact when I re-read it as part of this collection. This examination of the impact of a deep space mission is moving and thought provoking. Fantastic stuff.
As the title suggests, the stories in Deep Breath Hold Tight : Stories About the End of the World are not happy-go-lucky, all is bright and cheerful tales. There's some darkness, some sorrow. But there's optimism too. If you look for it hard enough.
All in all, a fantastic collection that I'll definitely be reading again. Jason Gurley is a great writer. It doesn't seem fair that he's such an amazing cover designer as well.
Deep Breath Hold Tight contains seven stories, all loosely connected by the end of the world theme. These stories were all previously published either as standalone ebooks, in anthologies or as part of a full length novel.
Wolf Skin
Wolf Skin is the story of someone who becomes a member of one of those murderous roving gangs so popular in post-apocalyptic fiction. It's the darkest of the stories in the collection. The opening few pages in particular are quite graphic, more so than the rest of the stories in the book. My preferences lean towards horror anyway so I was pretty comfortable with the content but it might not be everyone's cup of tea. But the story quickly moves beyond the violence into more thought provoking territory and I enjoyed it.
The Caretaker
One of my favourite pieces in the collection, this is the story of Alice, a woman living alone aboard a space station who discovers she may be the last human alive. Another powerful story with an ending that I loved.
The Winter Lands
Originally published in From the Indie Side, this story of an elderly veteran and aspiring author attending an open mic night to read his story is a quiet, thoughtful tale that deserves a second read through.
Nebulae
Another out and out science fiction story and a standalone chapter from The Colonists. It's the story of Ansel, a man on a deep space mission to investigate a missing persons case. This was my least favourite story in the collection but given the quality of the other stories, that's not much of a criticism. I didn't quite connect with it as well as the other stories and the ending fell flat for me.
Onyx
Another standalone chapter, this time from The Settlers. Micah, for reasons that become clear as the story progresses, reluctantly moves to a huge space station to begin a new life. This is another quiet, moving story that has stuck with me since I read it.
The Last Rail-Rider
I don't want to say too much about this one (no spoilers here) but this story of post-apocalyptic rail rider, Henry, is probably the most off beat of the seven. Somewhat surreal in places, it's another one that deserves a second reading.
The Dark Age
This was the first Jason Gurley story I read and it had lost none of it's impact when I re-read it as part of this collection. This examination of the impact of a deep space mission is moving and thought provoking. Fantastic stuff.
As the title suggests, the stories in Deep Breath Hold Tight : Stories About the End of the World are not happy-go-lucky, all is bright and cheerful tales. There's some darkness, some sorrow. But there's optimism too. If you look for it hard enough.
All in all, a fantastic collection that I'll definitely be reading again. Jason Gurley is a great writer. It doesn't seem fair that he's such an amazing cover designer as well.
September 25, 2016
4.5/5 stars.
Beautifully written collection! Many of these stories were quite emotional and dark, which was fitting for the theme.
You could almost call them "quiet" in that they are mostly character-driven instead of event-driven, which for me, suits the short story format very well. After each story I felt as though I'd read an entire novel.
I was particularly fond of the way many of these stories ended.
I took off half a star because I felt that the story "Onyx" was unnecessarily a bit too long (at around 65 pages) and that a couple of the characters were a bit clichéd/stereotypical/trope-y, but the collection overall is beautiful.
My favorites were Nebulae and The Dark Age.
Looking forward to reading more from Jason Gurley.
Beautifully written collection! Many of these stories were quite emotional and dark, which was fitting for the theme.
You could almost call them "quiet" in that they are mostly character-driven instead of event-driven, which for me, suits the short story format very well. After each story I felt as though I'd read an entire novel.
I was particularly fond of the way many of these stories ended.
I took off half a star because I felt that the story "Onyx" was unnecessarily a bit too long (at around 65 pages) and that a couple of the characters were a bit clichéd/stereotypical/trope-y, but the collection overall is beautiful.
My favorites were Nebulae and The Dark Age.
Looking forward to reading more from Jason Gurley.
August 30, 2014
Jason Gurley is an intense writer. You can tell from the blurb that most of these stories are tragic. I'm usually wary to read things that are too sad, but this collection is worth it. Definitely a book to return to again and again
The Dark Age was my favorite, followed closely by The Winter Lands.
The Dark Age was my favorite, followed closely by The Winter Lands.
September 19, 2014
This guy writes short stories as if each one was a novel. I'm not usually a big fan of short stories. They are just such a quick glimpse into a life, that I almost always feel a sense of...emptiness when I finish one. Like having a snack, when you're starving for a steak dinner. Gurley's stories are steak dinners, satisfying in every way.
May 13, 2014
One of the best short story compilations that I have read. Jason Gurley has a skill that not many writers can better.
My favs are Onyx & The Caretaker, although all the stories included are very touching in a dark kind of way!
BUY THIS BOOK
My favs are Onyx & The Caretaker, although all the stories included are very touching in a dark kind of way!
BUY THIS BOOK
May 13, 2014
Deep Breath Hold Tight shows why Jason Gurley is a master of short stories. The Winter Lands and Onyx truly touched me. With smooth writing and dark unexpected twists ,the author lures you into his imagination. If you like speculative fiction with a heart, you will love this book.
July 25, 2014
My favorite of these stories was The Caretaker, which was simultaneously horrifying and hopeful. The imagery will stay with me for a long time.
September 28, 2014
A simply wonderful collection of stories from a very talented writer. If you don't know the name Jason Gurley now....you soon will. Buy this collection. It's very good.
May 13, 2015
pretty solid collection. a few weak stories, but also several that really resonate emotionally. he's a good writer.
June 1, 2015
Enjoyed these. Great summer page turner for morbid fans of the end of things.
November 18, 2015
Food for thought. I love stories about the end.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews