Alien Invasion Short Stories

by Patrick Parrinder (Foreword), Bo Balder (Contributor), Jennifer Rachel Baumer (Contributor)

Visitors from other planets have long obsessed us. H.G. Wells’ War of Worlds spawned a huge wave of speculative fiction but the roots of such fears run deep in our literature, from Voltaire to Thomas Hardy. Flame Tree’s successful Gothic Fantasy series brings a brilliant new mix of classic and new writing, in this beautiful edition.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Horror

480 pages, Hardcover

Published March 1, 2018

About the author

Patrick Parrinder took his MA and Ph.D. at Cambridge University, where he held a Fellowship at King's College and published his first two books on Wells, H. G. Wells (1970) and H. G. Wells: The Critical Heritage (1972). He has been Chairman of the H. G. Wells Society and editor of The Wellsian, and has also written on James Joyce, science fiction, literary criticism and the history of the English novel. His book Shadows of the Future (1995) brings together his interests in Wells, science fiction and literary prophecy. Since 1986 he has been Professor of English at the University of Reading.

Reviews

[Dyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really great stories in here. The only thing I didn't like were the excerpts from books/larger pieces. I would have preferred either to include the full text, or not include it at all. To have half a piece of work is just annoying, and I ended up skipping most of those.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag, some worthwhile.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

A variety of interesting stories. Not all involve aliens from another planet but characters that were alien in nature.

[Shaoroun · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked a few of the stories but i didn’t like how there were quite a few that were abridged. I would have much rather preferred a complete work or some other story completely.

[Isabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was definitely a mixed bag. However, some of the stories were good enough to merit reading the whole thing. Here were the stories I enjoyed in order of best to worst.

1. Micromégas
2. Home is a House That Loves You
3. Jars for Eyes
4. A House of Her Own
5. The Thing From - "Outside"
6. Dark Mirrors
7. Lovers at Dawn
8. Sin Nombre
9. Long as I Can See the Light
10. The Merger
11. What Survives of Us
12. The Hunted
13. Being Here

For reference, there are 29 stories.
14. Some Things I Probably Should Have Mentioned Earlier