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Still So Strange
SHORTLISTED FOR A 2019 WORLD FANTASY AWARD! MONSTROUS BARGAINS AND BALLADS Drawing heavily on Lovecraftiana and myth, these are tales of devil’s bargains, love songs to monsters, and the people―human and otherwise―who inhabit liminal spaces. Ghosts, gods, and ghouls make their way as best they can, one step sideways from the mortals around them. Many are connected; some are puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit. Spanning a decade of writing, Still So Strange is Amanda Downum's first collection of short fiction, and includes stories originally released in Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy , and Weird Tales , as well as original, unpublished work.
350 pages, Paperback
Published May 22, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 25, 2018
“I've seen what happens to the people who disappear.”
“Blue Valentine”
One should always be wary of who, or what, is offering to fulfill your heart's desire. Always establish the price up front, especially if you seek revenge or, gods help you, redemption. But even then, the true cost is likely to elude you, until it is far too late. Debt, bargain, sacrifice; this is the beat to which we dance through the worlds of Amanda Downum, experiencing unexpected moments of kindness and beauty. There also might be some Concrete Blonde, but only if you're paying close attention.
This is a collection of short pieces by the author of Dreams of Shreds and Tatters and The Drowning City, ornamented with verse by Joshua Hackett. Essential to all of Downum's work is her ability to integrate the marvelous with the everyday, to envisage the precise steps leading from one realm to the other. In the Necromancer trilogy, the impact is perhaps blunted (though never compromised) by the fantasy setting. In Still So Strange, as in Dreams, her model of this world is laid out; doors open in Texas as in Prague, though as said, there is always a price.
Many entities are to be found herein—vampires and angels, dragons and demons, witches, werewolves and fay—but none wear their usual clothes (except for Madame Zoya, but she's making a point). I found one of Downum's most notable projects to be a redressing of ghouls. In “Dogtown”, “The Garden, the Moon and the Wall” and the wonderful “The Tenderness of Jackals”, this ancient and interesting creature is granted a depth most contemporary (Lovecraftian) treatments lack. In other stories, certain other Lovecraftians also benefit from a fresh perspective. But the milieu of “Saudade” (printed here for the first time) alludes directly to Dreams.
Downum writes with all six senses. Here is a sample from a personal favourite, “Snake Charmer”;
“The dragon is dying.
The city feels it in bones of stone and iron, in scabby concrete skin. The otherkind feel it in their blood. Even Simon feels it, mortal as he is. The city waits...
Simon crouches in a narrow alley that smells of blood, piss and damp brick. Dark clouds, heavy with unshed rain and ash from fires that raged the night before, scrape their bellies across the rooftops overhead. He tastes char with every breath.
A sacrifice. Everyone knows you have to bleed for the dragon, or burn. Simon's already burned; now he sheds blood.”
Pieces such as “Gingerbread and Time” and “Shadow of the Valley” take this and her essential sense of rhythm further, becoming prose-poems. The outright poem, “And In The Living Rocks, Still She Sings” is truly superb. But don't overlook Hackett's interludes: “Castle Doctrine” holds a door all of its own.
Perhaps the lay-out is a little baroque, with tentacular headers and terminals, and the thinly-laminated cover didn't take well to being carted about. But the artwork by Eric Mohr is handsome and appropriate, the text is clear and the binding firm. And, having accepted Downum's bargain, implicit in the opening of that cover, the turning of those pages, I find myself with no regrets.
“Blue Valentine”
One should always be wary of who, or what, is offering to fulfill your heart's desire. Always establish the price up front, especially if you seek revenge or, gods help you, redemption. But even then, the true cost is likely to elude you, until it is far too late. Debt, bargain, sacrifice; this is the beat to which we dance through the worlds of Amanda Downum, experiencing unexpected moments of kindness and beauty. There also might be some Concrete Blonde, but only if you're paying close attention.
This is a collection of short pieces by the author of Dreams of Shreds and Tatters and The Drowning City, ornamented with verse by Joshua Hackett. Essential to all of Downum's work is her ability to integrate the marvelous with the everyday, to envisage the precise steps leading from one realm to the other. In the Necromancer trilogy, the impact is perhaps blunted (though never compromised) by the fantasy setting. In Still So Strange, as in Dreams, her model of this world is laid out; doors open in Texas as in Prague, though as said, there is always a price.
Many entities are to be found herein—vampires and angels, dragons and demons, witches, werewolves and fay—but none wear their usual clothes (except for Madame Zoya, but she's making a point). I found one of Downum's most notable projects to be a redressing of ghouls. In “Dogtown”, “The Garden, the Moon and the Wall” and the wonderful “The Tenderness of Jackals”, this ancient and interesting creature is granted a depth most contemporary (Lovecraftian) treatments lack. In other stories, certain other Lovecraftians also benefit from a fresh perspective. But the milieu of “Saudade” (printed here for the first time) alludes directly to Dreams.
Downum writes with all six senses. Here is a sample from a personal favourite, “Snake Charmer”;
“The dragon is dying.
The city feels it in bones of stone and iron, in scabby concrete skin. The otherkind feel it in their blood. Even Simon feels it, mortal as he is. The city waits...
Simon crouches in a narrow alley that smells of blood, piss and damp brick. Dark clouds, heavy with unshed rain and ash from fires that raged the night before, scrape their bellies across the rooftops overhead. He tastes char with every breath.
A sacrifice. Everyone knows you have to bleed for the dragon, or burn. Simon's already burned; now he sheds blood.”
Pieces such as “Gingerbread and Time” and “Shadow of the Valley” take this and her essential sense of rhythm further, becoming prose-poems. The outright poem, “And In The Living Rocks, Still She Sings” is truly superb. But don't overlook Hackett's interludes: “Castle Doctrine” holds a door all of its own.
Perhaps the lay-out is a little baroque, with tentacular headers and terminals, and the thinly-laminated cover didn't take well to being carted about. But the artwork by Eric Mohr is handsome and appropriate, the text is clear and the binding firm. And, having accepted Downum's bargain, implicit in the opening of that cover, the turning of those pages, I find myself with no regrets.
December 14, 2020
Still So Strange is a collection of short stories by Amanda Downum. The stories were all previously published in a variety of magazines and anthologies. They are all dark fantasy stories about creatures out of mythology or folklore trying to find their place in the world. Most of the characters face a bittersweet choice over the course of the story. These stories really hit my sweet spot for short stories. The author had no problem developing interesting and compelling characters in the short format. Most of them made me think of some of these creatures, such as zombies, mermaids, and dragons, in different ways. I would definitely recommend this collection for those that like fantasy.
July 29, 2019
A wonderfully weird collection of stories
November 24, 2019
Collected short stories of Amanda Downum. Lots of witchcraft, gods and an extra large helping of cannibalistic ghouls.
August 10, 2023
Tense and vivid short tales of angels, demons, and monsters. Fragments of what could have been a larger book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews