Uncertain Sons And Other Stories By Thomas Ha

I would like to thank the author and Undertow Publications for an advance copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Undertow Publications

Published – Out Now

Price – £15.99 paperback £7.12 ebook

Uncertain Sons is a startling and masterful collection exploring familial love and trauma; societal and technological anxieties; identity and class; and alternate near-future irrealities. Sharp, incisive, imaginative, and visionary, Thomas Ha's debut heralds the arrival of a vital new voice.

PRAISE FOR UNCERTAIN SONS

"You! Yes, you! You need this book! The stories in Uncertain Sons already feel like classics of the uncanny. As inventive as Ray Bradbury, as unsettling as Thomas Ligotti or Carmen Maria Machado, Ha knows how to produce that peculiar, pleasurable, creeping sense of wrongness and dislocation so particular to weird horror. I am such a fan of Thomas Ha's writing-and I expect that you will be, too."

-Kelly Link, Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Award-winning author of The Book of Love and Get in Trouble

A really good short story collection for me helps you understand an author’s range and their use of voice. You get the feel for the type of story they may like to tell and the way they can tell it. Thomas Ha’s new collection Uncommon Sons and Other Stories proved a challenge I that regard because what we have are a powerful suite of very different stories, a variety of themes and just the unifying element of all being excellent that also cements a really exciting voice in the speculative genre.

We start off with ‘Window Boy’ which seems initially quite old school and sweet. Jakey looks out of his nighttime window and meets someone he knows as the ‘window boy’. Two teenagers bonding and slightly against the rules is something that could appear in any drama but Ha starts to unpeel the world these kids are part of and its not at all reassuring. The elements explaining why Jakey is confined to the house and the many dangers outside are subtly explained and here the sense is less of people coming together but very slowly life as we know it falling apart and being hidden from a child. By the end the story feels far more sombre and downbeat than we were expecting.

Massive change of subject matter leads us to the mysterious named ‘Cretins’ Our narrator appears to be narcoleptic and we find he is one of several people affected by a new illness. We get to see the way society treats those with long-lasting conditions and disabilities which is really powerfully described. Then Ha introduces an element of the thriller as our character described how he realised there is someone purposely hunting hm and touches his body while he is asleep. At this point the story does some really amazing flips as we solely uncover what is going on and just when we think that is understood Ha plays a blinding reveal. It is delivered very subtly and very much makes you re-appraise the whole story

We move into he realm of fantasy when we follow our narrator on a long journey who is being followed by the title character of ‘The Mub’. Of course, here you and I are at a disadvantage why on earth should we fear the Mub – what is a Mub? It appears innocuous, looks a bit rubbish and weirdly seems more focused on discussing its limited artwork. As our narrator’s journey continues though we start to recognise that the Mub may indeed be linked to the ending of the world. So harmless, so keen to please and yet slightly rubbish at anything it touches? A story that is satirical, funny and yet also can be alarming in the final scenes is very impressive.

With ‘House Traveller’ we are again thrown into the deep end. A household of five seemingly unrelated people make our narrator seek out a person known as The Liar. It’s a desperate mission; the wider world seems dangerous and very little is being explained. Slowly the story gets bigger and more arming as the second party of the main character’s mission believes the simple act of entering a house. Ultimately, we find we are in a world where reality has been put through the wringer, now a desperate act of survival actually has consequences for everyone else. The swirling nature of this reality and its uncertainness really makes this tory work and make a long-lasting impact that also carries emotional depth as we feel the cast are increasingly running out of options for escape.

Back into fantasy with the wonderful ‘Where The old Neighbours Go’ A young smartly dressed neighbour knocks on the door of the old woman everyone tries to stay clear of. Mary, we find has objected to his new home being built and what ever happened the old man who used to live there. In some ways this is clash of the old and new and yet also links wonderfully to a much older type of folk tale. Ha though gives Mary huge depth and a glimpse of her own personal tragedy that may have made her the person she now is. It finally looks like her luck has ended and the conclusion is very skilfully delivered. An old tale with an impressive modern approach.

We move more firmly into post-apocalyptic horror with the innocently named ‘Balloon Season’ a family prepare for the evening by setting up false doors, locking windows and more. We find a household under siege and our narrator’s brother slowly sneaks in. ha makes us understand the world is here under attack and one brother has taken the fight to the invaders while the other focuses on his family. I really liked the personal nature of the relationship between these two brothers and then we get shown the alien and truly disturbing creatures they are up against. It raises the question of would we all choose to be heroes when the world would be in danger. How you judge the answer given here may be thought-provoking.

Another innocently titled tale is ‘Sweetbaby’ a man and woman and our young narrator go to visit this monstrous creature that bewitched by switching lights and then promptly tears someone’s arm off. Things get stranger from there as our character wakes up to do this all again. We slowly discover we are on a very alien world and that the characters are all not telling the truth to one another. Our narrator tries to end a cycle and instead finds they’re just another step in the process. It is a story that could easily have just been pure horror but actually for me seems to be about finding peace in the moment which was not where I expected to be by the end.

There is a fascinating ominous nature to ‘The Sort’ as a parent takes their child on a road trip. It appears the two can talk telepathically and that the son can enter a fugue state attracting attention. Here two people in a small town in the middle of nowhere seem to seek shelter and yet actually star to stand out. Here I find we have a story where the world is more hinted at than endlessly explained and so we feel the things the parent wants to hide from their child, but we start to sense that the wider world is finally gaining on them. The feeling of danger rises and rises and is intriguingly mixes with an allegedly charming countryside tradition that reveals the darker side of human nature. Garlic is here more sinister than you’d expect and there is not a vampire in sight. One of my favourites in this collection.

A standout classic awaits in ‘The Brotherhood of Montague St Video’ our narrator who recently lost their mother has inherited a ‘dead book’ one made of paper. This simple act slowly changes our main character’s entire world. He finds himself finding a printed text of ambiguity and strangeness - one that all electronic copies no longer show as that is deemed not useless for the audience. The book has attracted the attention of a very rich and dangerous man, and our narrator starts to see the world he lives in anew and is troubled by it. This is a story about the power of story, the dangers of impermanence and why a simpler world is often one that is just hiding the truth from our eyes. That we need to see the good and bad in life at the same time to make it worthwhile. A beautiful story and one character talking about how change is often mistaken for improvement will stay with me for a long time. It’s a delight to read.

So, what kind of story do you expect with a title such as ‘Alabama Circus Punk’? A masked repairman comes to a house. We realise the ‘family’ here are robotic so what is going on? This is a tale where language is key to understanding the story and as that slowly shifts, we realise what is really going on. The finale of which explains things and the impact on our narrator is harrowing and shows the cruller side of human beings at work.

Speculative fiction does enjoy the power of the circus and in ‘The Fairgrounds’ we seem to be in the country and a young man creeping out to meet the girl he dreams of dating. But slowly we see this is not a quite the old school Bradbury style tale we expected as we see VR rides, automatons and more. Our narrator goes to get his fortune told and as that goes wrong he makes a new unusual friend who just wants to go outside the tents. A tale that feels like it is the seed of much greater trouble to come and our main character we realise is just the catalyst for what is to come, It is deliciously strange, eerie and menacing.

Off one lats time to a post-apocalyptic world with the title story ‘Uncertain Sons’ as we follow one man who seems to be playing a long game. Taking part in fending off an menacing very alien entity terrorizing a town and now on a trip to the mountains for reasons unclear. This story has one of the most unique narrators you’ll ever meet (No, I’m not going to tell you who sorry!) This mission gets stranger as he meets up with a desperate father seeking a lost child, brave villagers teaming up to help one another and yet they are all up against an entire world that seems to be alive and very malicious and incredibly dangerous. A series of devastating encounters follow, and our main character must figure out the way forward. There are echoes of House Traveller in this world which is dealing with some form of breached reality and the way it has changed is described in details and pure strangeness. There is a powerful emotional finale and it’s the emotional bonds between the characters and especially our narrator which really give the tale its heft.

Uncertain Sons and Other Stories is one of those collections that you dive into and soon find that the water is deeper than you expect. It is where the things you thought you saw under the surface from afar are now looking very different up close; sometimes fantastical and sometimes very menacing. It’s a trip into the imagination and just brilliant storytelling. One of the best collections of the year and Thomas Ha is a name to look out for.