Unreal Encounters

by Milo James Fowler

Horror, humor, and science fiction collide in this collection of weird tales about possible futures, warped present-day realities, and alternate history.

Unreliable narrators run rampant alongside aliens, ghosts, bullies, cannibals, home invaders, heroes, villains, unimaginable creatures, and gifted individuals of all ages.

Paranoia, fear, and bizarre situations abound in these reality-bending stories guaranteed to take you places you've never been.

40 Short Stories - Horror / Science Fiction / Humor

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction

334 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Milo James Fowler is the cross-genre author of more than thirty books: space adventures, post-apocalyptic survival stories, mysteries, and westerns. A native San Diegan, he now makes his home in West Michigan with his wife and all four seasons. Some readers seem to enjoy the unique brand of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and humor found in his ever-growing body of work. Soli Deo gloria.

Reviews

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unreal Encounters by Milo James Fowler is an audible book I won from the author's newsletter! The book has 40 short stories of weird encounters, and some are stranger than others! Lol! There were a variety of narrators performing the stories.
My favorite was about a special girl that kept her bangs long to cover her eyes in school. She wore mirrored sunglasses out of class. She was bullied a lot but did have one male friend.
I won't tell you what happened but it was great!
I would rate some of the stories a 3 star and some 5 stars. The majority were 4 stars. A good variety of stories! This is for the true fantasy geek!

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't find the one I read, but it wasn't the entire collection, more like a teaser, maybe 5 stories, just enough to whet the appetite and that it did. The author grabbed my attention with the Soul Smuggler and these stories definitely continue that winning steak of a first impression, this guy can write and has an imagination to go with the talent. The genre here is general speculative fiction, but with a prominent slant toward scary. The genuine scary, that is, the haunting disturbing things that won't let you sleep at night, the locks undoing themselves, the inexplicable noises and terrifying thoughts, the paranoia and obsessions. Wish I'd read these at night, but in any case...very entertaining. Fans of genre fiction should really check this guy out. Very nice find indeed, makes one remember that checking out random unknown (lesser known) authors on kindle freebies really pays off. Recommended.

[Jessthebookslover · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite surprised with this collection of short stories! What I know for sure is that they were a lot better than the last collection I read.
The only thing I wonder is... Why do I always have to read short stories that have weirdos as main characters?!?!?!
Anyway! That's kind of my problem I guess :')
Not 5 stars as they weren't THAT compelling, still really enjoyable!

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unreal Encounters by Milo James Fowler has packed in a lot of great science fiction, horror, and the occasional humor in these forty short stories. This collection is perfect to read while on a lunch break or while exercising on a treadmill or elliptical. I enjoyed most of the stories, although there were at least two where I was a bit confused character-wise who was telling the story. Some of my favorite stories involved the Grey men. They had a very X-Files feel to them. The story with the man trapped in the hotel room also has stuck with me as well as the child cannibal. If you combined The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits with a dash of The X-Files, then you'll have Milo James Fowler's Unreal Encounters.

[Becky Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fowler’s mix of science fiction and horror, sprinkled with a dash of humor leaves us with a good variety of short stories. With unexpected plot twists and endings that leave readers with food for thought, this is a great collection of speculative fiction.

I also found it interesting that some stories seem to weave into another, with similar settings, as if we’re getting a glimpse into more than one story in the same timeline. Very clever.

My favorites from this collection are Scuttle, A Monster By Any Other Name, and Self-Storage. They are all examples of what short horror should be. I also chose them because I love stories with creatures born from an author’s wild imagination.

I recommend this collection to all readers who enjoy speculative fiction.

[Sandra Lopez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories that make you question the scheme of things. These twisted tales are certainly full of dark irony and otherworldly elements. You don’t always get them. At times, you reach the ending and go “huh?”

Stories are described as “Twilight Zone-ish,” which is blatantly obvious once you start reading. They’re bound by confusion, mystery, and illusion. You don’t know where you are and you’re out in the middle of nowhere; then you’re taken on a trippy ride and you don’t know how you ended up there. It’s kind of weird, but you appreciate the dark setting and are strangely allured by it.

Some stories were certainly better than others. Like I said, some I didn’t get at all. The words I’d use to describe them would be: weird, dreary, and unreal.

[Sea Caummisar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won an audio version of this book in a Librarything giveaway. So anyways, I loved how there were a variety of readers. With so many voices reading different stories, it kept me interested. Full disclosure, I love comedy and horror but sci fi not so much. But I still enjoyed these stories. There was a scene ( and I can't remember it word for word) but it was pretty much like 'I have a hacksaw and now I'm gonna cut off your head'.... I had my headphones on and literally loled. My hubby looked at me like I was crazy, but I love dark humor like that. Anyways, I'm giving this book 4 stars. Some of the stories just weren't for me, but I loved other stories. So on average, it's a4 star book to me

[Tam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite a unique collection of short stories that offered a variety of literary tastes to feast upon from chilling horror to sci-fi with some humor thrown in for added flavor. I liked how some stories seemed to inter-connect with each other. I felt like the collection, as a whole, had a very X-Files/Twilight Zone mashup feel to it. I often wonder where in the world authors like Fowler come up with their fantastical story ideas. Where ever that might be, I'm thankful for their quirky, talented brains!

*I received a complimentary copy of this book in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.

[shannon Stubbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories were pretty creepy. Some of them made me think that the really scary monsters are the ones in our heads. Especially the ones that come around three in the morning.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many realities

Collection of many short stories, mostly unrelated. Quite enjoyable read. A few stories in sequence had connecting elements or ideas.

[Tyrean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unreal Encounters by Milo James Fowler is a great slice of Milo’s excellent short fiction. With over 100 stories published, Fowler chose some of his most chilling tales of humans and “other” life – alien and paranormal. Because I’ve been reading Fowler’s work for several years now and following his fiction avidly, I had read many of these tales in their original publications, but there were some that I had never read before and I’m glad to have some of my old favorites to read again and again. Fowler’s fiction is good enough to re-read because he always includes unexpected plot twists, characters with depth, and endings that leave some food for thought. My favorite story in this collection is “Shadow of Death” – an interesting extra-Biblical re-telling of David and Goliath from King Saul’s tormented perspective. My second favorite is “The Cost of Freedom” which re-imagines JFK’s assassination as part of an alien plot to take over Earth. But Fowler doesn’t just imagine world events, he creates new characters and unexpected encounters like in his story “To Know a Lie from a Hacksaw” – a grim, but humorous story; and “Starlight” – another one of my favorite stories which involving a bullied, young teen with a strange new power. With 40 short stories of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, Fowler offers up some of his best short fiction in this collection.
Readers of speculative fiction who don’t mind a little grim bite to their reading will enjoy this book.