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EXILES: An Outsider Anthology
A powerful Noir short story collection edited by the Bukowski of Noir, Paul D. Brazill. Exiles features 26 outsiders-themed stories by some of the greatest crime and noir writers, K. A. Laity, Chris Rhatigan, Steven Porter, Patti Abbott, Ryan Sayles, Gareth Spark, Pamila Payne, Paul D. Brazill, Jason Michel, Carrie Clevenger, David Malcolm, Nick Sweeney, Sonia Kilvington, Rob Brunet, James A. Newman, Tess Makovesky, Chris Leek, McDroll, Renato Bratkovič, Walter Conley, Marietta Miles, Aidan Thorn, Benjamin Sobieck, Graham Wynd, Richard Godwin, Colin Graham, and an introduction by Heath Lowrance.
- GenresShort Stories
198 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 23, 2014
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54 people want to read
About the author
Paul D. Brazill
99 books172 followersPaul D. Brazill is the author of A Case Of Noir, Guns Of Brixton & Roman Dalton- Werewolf PI. He was born in England and lives in Poland.
He is an International Thriller Writers Inc member whose writing has been translated into Italian, Polish and Slovene.
He has had writing published in various magazines and anthologies, including The Mammoth Books of Best British Crime 8,10 and 11, alongside the likes of Ian Rankin, Neil Gaiman and Lee Child.
He edited the best- selling anthology True Brit Grit – with Luca Veste.
He is an International Thriller Writers Inc member whose writing has been translated into Italian, Polish and Slovene.
He has had writing published in various magazines and anthologies, including The Mammoth Books of Best British Crime 8,10 and 11, alongside the likes of Ian Rankin, Neil Gaiman and Lee Child.
He edited the best- selling anthology True Brit Grit – with Luca Veste.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 6, 2014
I'll admit upfront that I have a story in this anthology, but that hasn't stopped me reading it and enjoying every page. With an overall theme like 'outsiders' I was expecting many of the stories to be quite similar but in fact I was amazed just how many different ideas the authors have come up with. There are memoirs, travelogues, ghost stories; there's fantasy and crime and pure black noir, and the end result is thought-provoking and even haunting. Some of these stories will stay with me for years. Particular favourites are Richard Godwin's lyrical yet devastating prose-poem 'Falling Through the Hourglass', noir tragedy 'The Tender Trap' by Graham Wynd, and Nick Sweeney's poignant 'Place of the Dead', but all the stories are worth reading and there's something here for everyone. The fact that all proceeds go to charity (the Marfan Foundation) is just a bonus.
June 25, 2014
A great cast for a great cause: I'll preface this with a disclaimer that I am in this collection, but then so are a bunch of my favourite writers from Mr Brazill himself all the way to Richard "Mr Glamour" Godwin at the end. I am pleased as can be to appear with such a terrific slate of talented folk (RIP Colin) but I am delighted, too, that it's all in service of a great cause. You can't beat the price and you'll be pleased twice -- once because you did something good for others who need it, then again because you will love the stories here by people like Patti Abbott, Tess Makovesky, Carrie Clevenger, Ryan Sayles and more.
September 18, 2014
Dark Tales for a Rainy Day
Great collection of stories from a vast group of genre writers. They each explore the meaning of what it means to be outside the box. There is a tale of a lonely woman afraid of her shadows until she grows wings and flies away. There is a tale about two lovers torn apart because their gender doesn't match the societal definition of love. Another tale takes us through a decade's journey through the eyes of an extremely observant man. He travels through the former communistic areas of Europe including Russia, Poland and Serbia. There are tales of deceit, tradegy, dark passion and loneliness. These stories are for those who live outside the expectations and conditions of their own societies or for those who want a good, dark stories to read on a cloudy day.
I hadn't realized until the acknowledgements that the book was dedicated to a recently deceased friend of the editor and many of the authors in this book. It makes it an even more touching read.
Great collection of stories from a vast group of genre writers. They each explore the meaning of what it means to be outside the box. There is a tale of a lonely woman afraid of her shadows until she grows wings and flies away. There is a tale about two lovers torn apart because their gender doesn't match the societal definition of love. Another tale takes us through a decade's journey through the eyes of an extremely observant man. He travels through the former communistic areas of Europe including Russia, Poland and Serbia. There are tales of deceit, tradegy, dark passion and loneliness. These stories are for those who live outside the expectations and conditions of their own societies or for those who want a good, dark stories to read on a cloudy day.
I hadn't realized until the acknowledgements that the book was dedicated to a recently deceased friend of the editor and many of the authors in this book. It makes it an even more touching read.
November 9, 2014
High winning percentage. A strong and varied collection. The array of different settings helps form the foundation here, but there are a lot of imaginative ideas.
February 21, 2015
Exiles starts with an essay, a personal reflection on feelings of isolation abroad – a theme which is echoed throughout the anthology. It’s not the most attention-grabbing preamble, to be honest; the first fiction which follows, ‘Eating The Dream’ would have made a much more compelling opening salvo. This story deftly weaves an ancient mythological monster into the modern environment, with adroit observations on human society, like how people don’t care as much for their livers as they should (an important concern when you perceive people as ‘dinner’!)
One of the delights with this anthology is that it abruptly changes pace, style and setting with each new story. One moment you’re in the company of the supernatural: legends thought long dead which still stalk the modern world in isolated secrecy, and the next you’re grounded in cold, hard and bittersweet reality as a naive traveller comes an all too human cropper in a foreign land. Some of the writers seem to have drawn extensively on personal experience to relate the overwhelming confusion and cultural misperceptions of a tired mind in a strange situation.
Some of the most entertaining stories are the fantastical ‘what if?’ tales. These are delightful moments where sadness and loneliness are transformed into wonder (as in We Are All Special Cases), or where the unreal is barely defined and hard to grasp. That’s the case with the surreal neo-noir of ‘Agent Ramiel Gets The Call’ where something semi-seen lurks in the psychological shadows.
But some of the most chilling tales are the real-world insights when a strange location and stressful circumstances reveal the gulf between couples or friends, when we find strangers where there should be someone familiar. There are also poignant moments where exiles reach out from their isolation to try to make contact with the rest of the world, chillingly less than successful in some cases…
Inevitably, a couple of the stories didn’t ring my bells – but this is an extensive anthology, not a whistlestop tour. Exiles allows many different voices to express their interpretation of the theme, and I’d say that I enjoyed at least 20 of them. Exiles is a substantial collection, one offering an array of entertainment and thought-provoking concepts. It’s well edited, too, with very few of the typos and typesetting errors that abound in so many ebooks.
At the end of this anthology it’s worth going back to the beginning. The introduction speaks the ultimate truth: no matter how close you come in life to any other person, in truth we are all isolated. Alone. Exiles in our own existence.
9/10
One of the delights with this anthology is that it abruptly changes pace, style and setting with each new story. One moment you’re in the company of the supernatural: legends thought long dead which still stalk the modern world in isolated secrecy, and the next you’re grounded in cold, hard and bittersweet reality as a naive traveller comes an all too human cropper in a foreign land. Some of the writers seem to have drawn extensively on personal experience to relate the overwhelming confusion and cultural misperceptions of a tired mind in a strange situation.
Some of the most entertaining stories are the fantastical ‘what if?’ tales. These are delightful moments where sadness and loneliness are transformed into wonder (as in We Are All Special Cases), or where the unreal is barely defined and hard to grasp. That’s the case with the surreal neo-noir of ‘Agent Ramiel Gets The Call’ where something semi-seen lurks in the psychological shadows.
But some of the most chilling tales are the real-world insights when a strange location and stressful circumstances reveal the gulf between couples or friends, when we find strangers where there should be someone familiar. There are also poignant moments where exiles reach out from their isolation to try to make contact with the rest of the world, chillingly less than successful in some cases…
Inevitably, a couple of the stories didn’t ring my bells – but this is an extensive anthology, not a whistlestop tour. Exiles allows many different voices to express their interpretation of the theme, and I’d say that I enjoyed at least 20 of them. Exiles is a substantial collection, one offering an array of entertainment and thought-provoking concepts. It’s well edited, too, with very few of the typos and typesetting errors that abound in so many ebooks.
At the end of this anthology it’s worth going back to the beginning. The introduction speaks the ultimate truth: no matter how close you come in life to any other person, in truth we are all isolated. Alone. Exiles in our own existence.
9/10
October 14, 2019
Entertaining
Entertaining, sometimes haunting collection of short stories. All of them are good with standouts from Graham Wynd, Chris Rhatigan, Tess Makovesky, Brazill himself, and Patricia Abbott.
Good stuff.
Entertaining, sometimes haunting collection of short stories. All of them are good with standouts from Graham Wynd, Chris Rhatigan, Tess Makovesky, Brazill himself, and Patricia Abbott.
Good stuff.
May 25, 2016
I got 75% through and stopped. I liked the premise of this book, but again some of the stories strayed far too close to horror for my taste.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews