I would like to thank the author for an advance copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review
Published - 31/10
Price - £4.99 ebook $13.99 paperback
Thirteen fantastical stories of strong-willed women in worlds that don't work for them…
Ranging from ancient Greece to the distant future, these thought-provoking fantasy and science fiction tales feature women and girls wrestling with the rage and longings that haunt them.
In old days and to be fair not so old men one when I recall the early 1980s there was a sense women should know their place and not want much more. I’m so pleased that this view has declined although the battle like so many things currently is not yet fully won. We need stories that remind us of this and in Karin J Robinson’s impressive collection Visions & Hauntings - Tales of Women Wanting More we get a great mix of short fiction I found smart, surprising and hugely enjoyable.
This collection is a delicious mix oh short stories and flash fiction or drabbles. Among the stories I enjoyed were:-
This Is My Body - a remarkable story where what appears to be two women on a date becomes a very impressive and poignant evidence fiction story that manages to be unsettling and hopeful on the turn of a sixpence. The character work, the setting and themes are very well handled. It starts the collection and should assure the reader you’re in for a great read .
The Shards of Empire - takes us from SF to fantasy and a woman awaits the return of her husband from the front. What appears to be a domestic tale carries a sense of a woman who has struggled in the Empire she is part of but this homecoming is also the culmination of her own plans. It goes impressively epic in just a few pages.
A Sprinkling of Stardust - now to the modern far and Cromer Pier Theatre. Two would be stars who do not like each other always end up working together. Cassandra Burns has an ambitious streak while Gareth Fisher enjoys his work but perhaps finds settling down more attractive. A fascinating mix of cautionary tale, contemporary fantasy and character work. Thanks to a mysterious magical audience member named Marlon (think about it) they get their ambitions fulfilled but the price is so very high. The resolution is a really impressive one that feels both a bit shocking but also again hopeful as people move on at last.
The Trouble With Jack - when we find Eliza is tormented by Jack and he damages a library book well I am not going to be too synaptic to him but Eliza gets revenge thanks to a. Mysterious fair at night. Again the resolution shocks but entertains but I also liked how in this story is seeded a bigger thread of magical bargains and high prices that entices the reader to wonder what happens next.
Cassiopeia And The Protectors - a skilled disturbing sf tale of a silly child bored of being nice to the drones that surround her. Soon though she finds out being rude has a price. It manages to be on the one hand a tale of a child learning manners but also making the society she lives in look very sinister. Another impressive story.
A Spartan Peace - an unusual post Troy story of Helen a queen who just so happens to be hiding in an inn when an ambitious messenger arrives. A delightfully strange tale that sets up her family backstory, how she survives and a final resolution to her life with her sister. One character’s happy ending may not mean the same for everyone else!
Shouting Distance From The Harbour - a young woman cannot relay visiting the ship in quarantine in the harbour. A kind act that has consequences. What seems a homely take turns sharply into a desperate fight for survival and the end is poignantly ambiguous which ends the collection on a story where it’s us the reader wanting our narrator to get more. A great ending to the collection.
In the stables we get delightfully inventive stories of magical sisters, dangerous libraries, monsters under the bed and more. All display what becomes a clear hallmark of this collection of never quite going where you think.
Story collections that do not quite go where I was expecting combined with the emotional power of these tales and the characters we meet really swept me along and Robinson is definitely an author to watch out for. I highly recommend this collection!
