The Sons of Noah & Other Stories

by Jack Cady

For a specific description of this book, please see each individual seller offering.

149 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1992

About the author

Winner of Nebula, Phillip K. Dick, World Fantasy and Bram Stoker awards.

Obituaries:
in Seattle PI
in Peninsula Daily News
in Seattle Times
from Komo News

Reviews

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This is an early contender for best read of the year. I had read one of Cady's books, The Off Season, and loved it, but I was not prepared for these stories.
This is a collection of seven stories, mostly dark fables, with gorgeous prose and buckets of magical realism. The tone is generally ruminative, though there is also dread and some remembered joy. Characters are not the focus here, so most being only sketched is not detrimental. The language and the concepts are emphasized here, and both are brilliant.
If you love short stories and dark fantasy, read this book. It can be a bit opaque and slow-paced, but it is a thing of beauty.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took a writing class from Jack Cady my junior year of college and he was awesome. He was a gruff, weathered man who didn't care what others thought of him or his writing. He was my favorite instructor in college and I was so honored when he offered to read some of my writing and offer me advice. He gave me really great advice: keep working on my colon/semicolon use. He thought I was very publishable, and I've been writing with that advice in my head ever since. I have yet to publish, but my first published work will be dedicated to the memory of Jack Cady (unfortunately, he lost his battle to cancer several years ago so he'll never get to read my novel).

[Trux · Rating 4 out of 5]

The opening story ("Sons of Noah") and the last one are the best in the book. I didn't have a great time reading the other stories, but those two were enough to warrant four stars plus I still love *all* of the stories for this combination of mood, magic, familiarity, human violence and tenderness . . . some Jack Cady-ness that's big, wet, curly, magically-real and woolly-in-the-woods smelling.

Not that I ever smelled Jack Cady.

I did walk past him on a narrow sidewalk once, though, and I believe from one moment of eye contact with him that he was alive with and living in some kind of magic and fully conscious of it. I know, I sound like some lonely, psycho fan calling coast-to-coast am going on about experiencing a telepathic connection with an author I was a stranger to, but I swear, it's not like that; IT'S TRUE! So it's not possible to just read these books without those exceptionally paranormal few seconds being with me as I read them, reinforcing the atmosphere and spiritual framework of these stories and people existing and being aware of where the veil is thin. That time I saw him in real life I actually hadn't read any of his work or even seen a picture of him - I didn't even know WHAT he wrote, so to have this very singular weird experience wasn't something I concocted in my head in response to the kinds of stories he writes.

I am not sure what I'd think of his books if it hadn't been for that unique happening. AND that a lot of his stories take place very physically in the same places I've grown up and live in now.