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Promise
Promise collects Christi Nogle’s best futuristic stories ranging from plausible tech-based science fiction to science fantasy stories about aliens in our chameleonic foils hover in the skies, you can order a headset to speak and dream with your dog, and your devices sometimes connect not just to the web but to the underworld. These tales will recall the stories of Ray Bradbury, television programs such as Dark Mirror and The Twilight Zone , and novels such as Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin or Under the Skin by Michael Faber. They are often strange and dreadful but veer towards themes of hope, potential, promise
224 pages, Paperback
First published September 12, 2023
About the author
Christi Nogle
63 books138 followersChristi Nogle is the author of the Bram Stoker Award® winning novel Beulah and the short story collections The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future; Promise; and One Eye Opened in That Other Place. Follow her at http://christinogle.com and on most social media @christinogle
Christi is co-editor with Willow Dawn Becker of the Bram Stoker Award® nominated Mother: Tales of Love and Terror and with Ai Joang of Wilted Pages: An Anthology of Dark Academia.
Her short stories have appeared in over fifty publications including Strange horizons, PseudoPod, Vastarien, and Dark Matter Magazine along with anthologies such as C.M Muller’s Nightscript and Flame Tree’s American Gothic and Chilling Crime.
Selected Praise:
One Eye Opened in That Other Place
“An utterly mesmerizing and dreamlike collection. Christi Nogle has a gift for conjuring disquieting stories, often bite-sized, of oddities and secrets, inner selves, and lasting mysteries. In One Eye Opened in That Other Place, things are never quite what they seem. Realities transform, veils are lifted, and you are shepherded across unsettling thresholds like dreams half-remembered. Haunting long after you put the collection down. If you’re after atmospheric tales with indescribably dream-logic, you will find no better.”
—Sofia Ajram, author of COUP DE GRÂCE
Promise
”There's a melancholy underneath every Nogle story, a creeping dread willing to fill any absence it can find. Promise is an exploration of our strange futures all tethered to this unmistakable voice, one that will guide you home through the void it knows all too well."
--Andrew F. Sullivan, author of The Marigold
"Beautifully written tales of the strange possible futures threatening to impinge on us. By turns strange and tender, Nogle's weird SF captures that feeling of disorientation that is at the heart of what it means to be (or to try to be) human in a transforming, damaged world and in all the worlds adjacent to it."
—Brian Evenson, author of The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell
The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future
"An astonishingly original collection of dark tales - mysterious, haunting, challenging and disturbing, written in crystalline prose as compressed as poetry. Read and then reread and be doubly rewarded!"
-- Ramsey Campbell, author of Fellstones
"Without a doubt, Christi Nogle is one of my favorite new voices in horror. Her fiction is by turns devastating, horrifying, and beyond beautiful. With her collection, The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future, she's created something truly remarkable, the kind of horror that's filled with grit and heart. Don't miss this book; it's sure to be one of the very best collections of 2023."
-- Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens and Reluctant Immortals
Christi is co-editor with Willow Dawn Becker of the Bram Stoker Award® nominated Mother: Tales of Love and Terror and with Ai Joang of Wilted Pages: An Anthology of Dark Academia.
Her short stories have appeared in over fifty publications including Strange horizons, PseudoPod, Vastarien, and Dark Matter Magazine along with anthologies such as C.M Muller’s Nightscript and Flame Tree’s American Gothic and Chilling Crime.
Selected Praise:
One Eye Opened in That Other Place
“An utterly mesmerizing and dreamlike collection. Christi Nogle has a gift for conjuring disquieting stories, often bite-sized, of oddities and secrets, inner selves, and lasting mysteries. In One Eye Opened in That Other Place, things are never quite what they seem. Realities transform, veils are lifted, and you are shepherded across unsettling thresholds like dreams half-remembered. Haunting long after you put the collection down. If you’re after atmospheric tales with indescribably dream-logic, you will find no better.”
—Sofia Ajram, author of COUP DE GRÂCE
Promise
”There's a melancholy underneath every Nogle story, a creeping dread willing to fill any absence it can find. Promise is an exploration of our strange futures all tethered to this unmistakable voice, one that will guide you home through the void it knows all too well."
--Andrew F. Sullivan, author of The Marigold
"Beautifully written tales of the strange possible futures threatening to impinge on us. By turns strange and tender, Nogle's weird SF captures that feeling of disorientation that is at the heart of what it means to be (or to try to be) human in a transforming, damaged world and in all the worlds adjacent to it."
—Brian Evenson, author of The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell
The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future
"An astonishingly original collection of dark tales - mysterious, haunting, challenging and disturbing, written in crystalline prose as compressed as poetry. Read and then reread and be doubly rewarded!"
-- Ramsey Campbell, author of Fellstones
"Without a doubt, Christi Nogle is one of my favorite new voices in horror. Her fiction is by turns devastating, horrifying, and beyond beautiful. With her collection, The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future, she's created something truly remarkable, the kind of horror that's filled with grit and heart. Don't miss this book; it's sure to be one of the very best collections of 2023."
-- Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens and Reluctant Immortals
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
September 18, 2023
In a Nutshell: A speculative fiction anthology. The author has imagination for sure, but the content was too unstructured for me.
This is a collection of twenty stories of speculative fiction. However, despite the common genre, the stories are quite distinct from each other in terms of content. The stories come from a variety of sub-genres such as sci-fi, absurdist, horror and light fantasy.
The author’s wild imagination is amply visible in the stories, as she covers themes that are as weird as promised. Every story has an original element, some of which are truly unique. The lengths of the stories vary, but each has enough pages to flesh out its plot.
Based on the above, the collection should have blown me away. But the fact is that none of the stories worked well for me. I am an avid reader of short fiction in varying genres, so it’s not like this failed so miserably for me because of the length or the story structure or the genre. Looking at other readers’ feedback makes me feel like I fell short of the minimum requirements for this novel rather than the other way around.
I knew that the stories would be surreal, I was still hoping that they would have some kind of structure or flow. But they proved too ad hoc in development for my taste. Despite the adequate number of pages in each story, it felt like the ideas were explored only at a surface level. The stories seemed like they began in between a situation, and the endings were also abrupt. Many of the stories appeared to have been terminated at the penultimate point, leaving me dangling in vain for some kind of closure. A couple of the stories left me confused because the narration didn’t offer me any clue about the identity of the narrator, without which I found it tough to visualise the proceedings.
As always, I rated the stories individually, but not even one of them touched the four star mark for me. The range of ratings was between 1 star to 3 stars. The best stories for me were “Finishers” and “Cubby”.
The blurb compares the stories to Ray Bradbury’s work, but I honestly feel that the comparison is farfetched. Simply having a futuristic sci-fi vibe in the tales isn’t enough to make it resemble Bradbury’s work.
That said, mine is very much an outlier opinion for this collection. A majority of readers have relished it for the novelty it offers. So do read other reviews before you make up your mind about this anthology.
The author does have potential in terms of imagination, so I won’t write her off my list just yet. But maybe I wouldn’t try an anthology in future but would wait for a longer work. After all, she is the WINNER of the 2022 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel.
2 stars.
My thanks to Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for the DRC of “Promise”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work out better.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
This is a collection of twenty stories of speculative fiction. However, despite the common genre, the stories are quite distinct from each other in terms of content. The stories come from a variety of sub-genres such as sci-fi, absurdist, horror and light fantasy.
The author’s wild imagination is amply visible in the stories, as she covers themes that are as weird as promised. Every story has an original element, some of which are truly unique. The lengths of the stories vary, but each has enough pages to flesh out its plot.
Based on the above, the collection should have blown me away. But the fact is that none of the stories worked well for me. I am an avid reader of short fiction in varying genres, so it’s not like this failed so miserably for me because of the length or the story structure or the genre. Looking at other readers’ feedback makes me feel like I fell short of the minimum requirements for this novel rather than the other way around.
I knew that the stories would be surreal, I was still hoping that they would have some kind of structure or flow. But they proved too ad hoc in development for my taste. Despite the adequate number of pages in each story, it felt like the ideas were explored only at a surface level. The stories seemed like they began in between a situation, and the endings were also abrupt. Many of the stories appeared to have been terminated at the penultimate point, leaving me dangling in vain for some kind of closure. A couple of the stories left me confused because the narration didn’t offer me any clue about the identity of the narrator, without which I found it tough to visualise the proceedings.
As always, I rated the stories individually, but not even one of them touched the four star mark for me. The range of ratings was between 1 star to 3 stars. The best stories for me were “Finishers” and “Cubby”.
The blurb compares the stories to Ray Bradbury’s work, but I honestly feel that the comparison is farfetched. Simply having a futuristic sci-fi vibe in the tales isn’t enough to make it resemble Bradbury’s work.
That said, mine is very much an outlier opinion for this collection. A majority of readers have relished it for the novelty it offers. So do read other reviews before you make up your mind about this anthology.
The author does have potential in terms of imagination, so I won’t write her off my list just yet. But maybe I wouldn’t try an anthology in future but would wait for a longer work. After all, she is the WINNER of the 2022 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel.
2 stars.
My thanks to Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for the DRC of “Promise”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work out better.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog | The StoryGraph | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
August 23, 2023
An excellent collection, positively burning with intelligence and curiosity. Christi Nogle is constantly investigating the spaces between people, and what it is about their relationships with one another that inform each participant. In her first collection, The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future, these stories were grouped loosely around horror, with narrative elements such as werewolves and zombies (among other disturbing images and themes) as the crucible, but here, they are grouped casually around elements of the science fiction genre, such as time-travel, errant technology and extraterrestrial beings.
True to form, Nogle does not allow these trappings of genre to take center stage: they are primarily used to deepen the inquiry of relationship dynamics. The most inhuman is, paradoxically, used to display the most human attributes we possess: love, curiosity, fear. In one of my favorite stories here, "The Laffun Head," for example, the valley of the shadow of death merges seamlessly with the uncanny valley, to shocking and emotional effect. In another of my favorites, "Flexible Off-Time," every writer's dream (more time! more time!) becomes a nightmare, once granted, and Nogle's shifting, elusive prose causes the reader to second-guess what kind of reality the narrator is inhabiting.
Two of the stories here appear to be interlinked in a casual (causal?) way—both "An Account" and "Fables of the Future" have some details in common, and it was delightful for me to encounter that linking factor as I read through the collection. I loved the way Nogle handled the old chestnut of time travel with the former—again, a story more concerned with the relationship between mother and daughter than with character and trope—and in the latter, well...you'll just have to read it to see how they collide.
There are, notably, more pieces of a shorter length in this collection than in the first, which was a welcome change for this reader. I loved the flash piece "What Do You See When You're Both Asleep?" which uses technology and love to astonishing effect, and is so wrenching that it will make you look at your animal companions—should you have any—quite differently by story's end. Another shorter entry, "A Fully Chameleonic Foil," recalls Bradbury in its elliptic, speculative framework, and it's not the only story which hearkens to the author. Indeed, like Bradbury's best, many of these stories linger on the details of the supposedly mundane, but those same details are often transfigured, developing new dimensions over the course of the narrative.
I can without reservation recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys speculative writing where the answers are not always immediately evident. Like the best speculative fiction, these stories pose more questions than they do deliver resolution. They're not interested in proposing solutions or filling in the sketchy details of possible futures—they want to challenge the reader to imagine their own. They are open-ended stories, which ask you to give yourself to their possibilities.
Luckily for us, Nogle is a patient teacher, with a sure, guiding hand. I will surrender to her magic every time.
True to form, Nogle does not allow these trappings of genre to take center stage: they are primarily used to deepen the inquiry of relationship dynamics. The most inhuman is, paradoxically, used to display the most human attributes we possess: love, curiosity, fear. In one of my favorite stories here, "The Laffun Head," for example, the valley of the shadow of death merges seamlessly with the uncanny valley, to shocking and emotional effect. In another of my favorites, "Flexible Off-Time," every writer's dream (more time! more time!) becomes a nightmare, once granted, and Nogle's shifting, elusive prose causes the reader to second-guess what kind of reality the narrator is inhabiting.
Two of the stories here appear to be interlinked in a casual (causal?) way—both "An Account" and "Fables of the Future" have some details in common, and it was delightful for me to encounter that linking factor as I read through the collection. I loved the way Nogle handled the old chestnut of time travel with the former—again, a story more concerned with the relationship between mother and daughter than with character and trope—and in the latter, well...you'll just have to read it to see how they collide.
There are, notably, more pieces of a shorter length in this collection than in the first, which was a welcome change for this reader. I loved the flash piece "What Do You See When You're Both Asleep?" which uses technology and love to astonishing effect, and is so wrenching that it will make you look at your animal companions—should you have any—quite differently by story's end. Another shorter entry, "A Fully Chameleonic Foil," recalls Bradbury in its elliptic, speculative framework, and it's not the only story which hearkens to the author. Indeed, like Bradbury's best, many of these stories linger on the details of the supposedly mundane, but those same details are often transfigured, developing new dimensions over the course of the narrative.
I can without reservation recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys speculative writing where the answers are not always immediately evident. Like the best speculative fiction, these stories pose more questions than they do deliver resolution. They're not interested in proposing solutions or filling in the sketchy details of possible futures—they want to challenge the reader to imagine their own. They are open-ended stories, which ask you to give yourself to their possibilities.
Luckily for us, Nogle is a patient teacher, with a sure, guiding hand. I will surrender to her magic every time.
September 7, 2023
(4.25)
I'm going to preface this review by saying that weird, sparse, science fiction is my genre of choice so my reviews trend higher for books like this.
I absolutely adored Promise. It's a collection of fantastical, weird science fiction, short stories and a fab way to kick off short story month.
In Promise no two stories are the same, they span hard and soft sci-fi, horror and weird fiction. Their were stories in here then left me bereft, some that made my heart ache and some that gave me so much inspirational energy I didn't know what to do with myself. Quite a few times I had to put the book down to sit with the feelings each offering gave.
In the opening story a woman and her daughter hunt their first prey together in the forests near Bend, Oregon, in another a planet of sightless, food obsessed worms explore their consciousness through a quiet observation of earth, later we hear the pitch of a travelling saleswomen trying to sell a weird tinfoil shape-shifting toy to local families. The stories aren't interconnected, I wouldn't even say most the themes travel through the collection but there's something about the way each one made me feel that gave the book a gorgeous cohesiveness.
As with most short story collections the quality is a little uneven but I would say 80% of this was a 5 star read for me and well worth it if you fancy experiencing a whirlwind of feelings.
Thanks Netgalley and Flame Tree Press for this advanced reader copy.
I'm going to preface this review by saying that weird, sparse, science fiction is my genre of choice so my reviews trend higher for books like this.
I absolutely adored Promise. It's a collection of fantastical, weird science fiction, short stories and a fab way to kick off short story month.
In Promise no two stories are the same, they span hard and soft sci-fi, horror and weird fiction. Their were stories in here then left me bereft, some that made my heart ache and some that gave me so much inspirational energy I didn't know what to do with myself. Quite a few times I had to put the book down to sit with the feelings each offering gave.
In the opening story a woman and her daughter hunt their first prey together in the forests near Bend, Oregon, in another a planet of sightless, food obsessed worms explore their consciousness through a quiet observation of earth, later we hear the pitch of a travelling saleswomen trying to sell a weird tinfoil shape-shifting toy to local families. The stories aren't interconnected, I wouldn't even say most the themes travel through the collection but there's something about the way each one made me feel that gave the book a gorgeous cohesiveness.
As with most short story collections the quality is a little uneven but I would say 80% of this was a 5 star read for me and well worth it if you fancy experiencing a whirlwind of feelings.
Thanks Netgalley and Flame Tree Press for this advanced reader copy.
September 10, 2023
When I read a new author I tend to ask myself a couple of questions. Are the characters going to keep me interested and is the story going to move at a pace that will help the book.
This is a bit of a weird story but I can feel fear from the characters as they are infected by something. They keep wanting to do something to get the dogs out of their place and to family. It's the first story. I felt like with the first story you were living their lives with them and were part of the story.
Laurel's first chase. It feels a bit strange and while it is well written and enjoyable it just didn't for me as if it was as good or fantasy story that I have read. It needed a bit more oomph for me to really make it stand out. It did have a good premise and I enjoyed it but I wished to have more background or information of the characters.
Finishers. An interesting idea and I think it shows a lot of what I like in stories. Characters that are interesting even if I am confused with a story that is relatively entertaining. I think that a lot of what I see with this is that it should be a full book with more backstory
A Fully Chameleonic Foil. Interesting item that was created but just seemed like the story was not complete. Well really no story for me but enjoyed the reading about the item .
What do you see when you're both asleep. I giggled at this story as a dog owner this was perfect. I would love to have a translator for the dogs as you know it would be interesting to know what they actually are feeling.
Flexible Off Time. An interesting story but I honestly didn't know what to think as it didn't seem to fit with what I expected.
With all books that have multiple stories it is hit or miss where some stories will wow you and others you will just be bored from.
This is a bit of a weird story but I can feel fear from the characters as they are infected by something. They keep wanting to do something to get the dogs out of their place and to family. It's the first story. I felt like with the first story you were living their lives with them and were part of the story.
Laurel's first chase. It feels a bit strange and while it is well written and enjoyable it just didn't for me as if it was as good or fantasy story that I have read. It needed a bit more oomph for me to really make it stand out. It did have a good premise and I enjoyed it but I wished to have more background or information of the characters.
Finishers. An interesting idea and I think it shows a lot of what I like in stories. Characters that are interesting even if I am confused with a story that is relatively entertaining. I think that a lot of what I see with this is that it should be a full book with more backstory
A Fully Chameleonic Foil. Interesting item that was created but just seemed like the story was not complete. Well really no story for me but enjoyed the reading about the item .
What do you see when you're both asleep. I giggled at this story as a dog owner this was perfect. I would love to have a translator for the dogs as you know it would be interesting to know what they actually are feeling.
Flexible Off Time. An interesting story but I honestly didn't know what to think as it didn't seem to fit with what I expected.
With all books that have multiple stories it is hit or miss where some stories will wow you and others you will just be bored from.
Read
September 12, 2023PROMISE is another SUPERB batch of strange, eerie, unearthly stories from Christi Nogle. Weird futures, fantastical technologies, and unusual histories populate these worlds where Reality shimmers like a mirage of a dream: it may seem similar to ours, but it's never quite the same.
September 13, 2023
Ever since I read Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others (largely because of the movie Arrival) I've found myself interested in sci-fi anthologies. I've watched Black Mirror and Love, Death and Robots, and I've read a few more written anthologies. Promise is one of the closest that's come to those three aforementioned titles so far.
Everything was weird, and I mean that in a good way! Some were certainly thought-provoking. Some I didn't get, but hey, I can always still enjoy something without fully understanding it. (Case in point: time travel or time-adjacent movies. Predestination always comes to mind. And most recently, Tenet.)
But some of the stories that really caught my attention were:
* Flexible Off-Time - I liked the premise, because I can relate to not having enough time to do everything I want. So the idea of having the chance to do that is promising (see what I did there? 🤭) but also... terrifying. I also loved the Inception-like vibe to it.
* Cubby - I always love time travel shenanigans, but this was kind of sad. I did really like the idea of "the child" and letting children decide what they want to be later on.
* Fables of the Future - So I thought the story pages past, An Account, was pretty interesting, then I got to this one and I was very excited to see they were somehow connected! I was hoping to at least have a third story, at last that wasn't the case. Hopefully at some point.
* Substance - I can't find the words to describe it, but something about this piece just really stuck with me. Maybe it's the strange world and ways of the giant worms. Maybe it's the little queen's strange fascination with the human world that she wanted to become human. It was interesting and vivid and complex and also sad, in some way.
* The Orbital Bloom - I loved the "cycling" theme in this, and the twist at the end. The mother-daughter relationship was a nice touch. I think plenty could relate to that, though we, as of yet, do not have the luxury of resetting. (Or do we? Does forgiveness count? See, these stories make me think and go all philosophical.)
* Viridian Green - Short but entertaining. As I work from home, I found myself relating to it easily.
Everything was weird, and I mean that in a good way! Some were certainly thought-provoking. Some I didn't get, but hey, I can always still enjoy something without fully understanding it. (Case in point: time travel or time-adjacent movies. Predestination always comes to mind. And most recently, Tenet.)
But some of the stories that really caught my attention were:
* Flexible Off-Time - I liked the premise, because I can relate to not having enough time to do everything I want. So the idea of having the chance to do that is promising (see what I did there? 🤭) but also... terrifying. I also loved the Inception-like vibe to it.
* Cubby - I always love time travel shenanigans, but this was kind of sad. I did really like the idea of "the child" and letting children decide what they want to be later on.
* Fables of the Future - So I thought the story pages past, An Account, was pretty interesting, then I got to this one and I was very excited to see they were somehow connected! I was hoping to at least have a third story, at last that wasn't the case. Hopefully at some point.
* Substance - I can't find the words to describe it, but something about this piece just really stuck with me. Maybe it's the strange world and ways of the giant worms. Maybe it's the little queen's strange fascination with the human world that she wanted to become human. It was interesting and vivid and complex and also sad, in some way.
* The Orbital Bloom - I loved the "cycling" theme in this, and the twist at the end. The mother-daughter relationship was a nice touch. I think plenty could relate to that, though we, as of yet, do not have the luxury of resetting. (Or do we? Does forgiveness count? See, these stories make me think and go all philosophical.)
* Viridian Green - Short but entertaining. As I work from home, I found myself relating to it easily.
August 2, 2023
An eclectic and engaging collection of strange science fiction stories that all show the alluring and terrifying promises that the future holds. From uncomfortable possible technological advances, to sci-fi fantasies and terrifying possibilities, every single short story has its own oddly compelling points, but they’re all deeply descriptive and rich, and full of emotions.
One of my personal favourites was just a few pages long but explored an amazing new technology that allowed us to speak to our dogs, share their dreams and communicate like never before — but we also follow stories about the salespeople promoting chameleonic foils that can hover and shift, strange online connections to hell, strange infections with beastly side effects, and a clinic that allows us to fall into a timeless space for when we need time off from our regular lives.
This was such a strong collection that inspired both wonder and terror about the path the future could take, and while it’s definitely a mixed bag with some titles I adored and some I didn’t overly care for with somewhat fractured storytelling styles - it’s definitely a must-read for any lovers of speculative or science fiction.
One of my personal favourites was just a few pages long but explored an amazing new technology that allowed us to speak to our dogs, share their dreams and communicate like never before — but we also follow stories about the salespeople promoting chameleonic foils that can hover and shift, strange online connections to hell, strange infections with beastly side effects, and a clinic that allows us to fall into a timeless space for when we need time off from our regular lives.
This was such a strong collection that inspired both wonder and terror about the path the future could take, and while it’s definitely a mixed bag with some titles I adored and some I didn’t overly care for with somewhat fractured storytelling styles - it’s definitely a must-read for any lovers of speculative or science fiction.
September 19, 2023
The first thing that caught my eye was the psychedelic cover, that looked different depending on the way you looked and thought about it. If you like anything Sci-Fi, Science Fantasy, Aliens etc, you are going to love these stories. I found this a great book that you could dip in and out of whenever you wanted, picking a stories that catches your eye. There are short stories a few pages long, but also longer ones if you need a bit more. I did like 'Lovey' a story of Harmony traveling and living in Lovey. This is something I would love to do, travel around until it was time for me to travel no more
September 15, 2023
This was a very strange one. Some of the stories were good, I liked Cacooning, What Do You See When You're Both Asleep? Flexible Off Time. Some I thought they were quite creepy, E.G The Laffun House and Substance and some I just did not understand what was going on.. but overall a really fun read into some very wierd and strange sci-fi short stories.
September 3, 2023
I received an early reader copy for this book from NetGalley for free.
These stories were strange, imaginative and fun. Again like with most story collection I found myself enjoying some of them more than the others. I'd say this one had couple really great ones, and rest of them were either okay or I didn't really enjoy that much.
Gonna keep my eye out for the author's future work 'cause I did enjoy her writing style.
These stories were strange, imaginative and fun. Again like with most story collection I found myself enjoying some of them more than the others. I'd say this one had couple really great ones, and rest of them were either okay or I didn't really enjoy that much.
Gonna keep my eye out for the author's future work 'cause I did enjoy her writing style.
September 1, 2023
A strong, varied collection. Quite memorable and unique stories. Nicely done.
Thanks very much for the free copy for review!!
Thanks very much for the free copy for review!!
September 22, 2023
Thanks to NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review!
This collection was heavy on vibes and light on substance. It was like reading the outlines or synopses for a bunch of stories rather than reading the stories themselves. Many of the stories fell into the trap of being vague in an attempt to be mysterious/engaging, but instead they were just confusing and not fleshed out.
This collection was heavy on vibes and light on substance. It was like reading the outlines or synopses for a bunch of stories rather than reading the stories themselves. Many of the stories fell into the trap of being vague in an attempt to be mysterious/engaging, but instead they were just confusing and not fleshed out.
August 21, 2023
I’ll be honest that I’m writing this review having read about 3/4 of the book - I’ll absolutely be finishing it, maybe just not very quickly.
This is a really, really good scifi short story collection and so many of them have fascinating premises. The writing is excellent and I’d definitely recommend it.
The thing that doesn’t quite work for me, and the reason I think it might take me a while to finish it, is that I find myself wishing the stories or characters were more fleshed out. That said, this is more my preference for longer novels where I can really get sucked into the plot and care about the characters rather than a criticism of this book. Maybe I just need to read more short stories!
In any case, I’ve really enjoyed this and I’m looking forward to reading the last few stories in this.
This is a really, really good scifi short story collection and so many of them have fascinating premises. The writing is excellent and I’d definitely recommend it.
The thing that doesn’t quite work for me, and the reason I think it might take me a while to finish it, is that I find myself wishing the stories or characters were more fleshed out. That said, this is more my preference for longer novels where I can really get sucked into the plot and care about the characters rather than a criticism of this book. Maybe I just need to read more short stories!
In any case, I’ve really enjoyed this and I’m looking forward to reading the last few stories in this.
August 20, 2023
I’ve yet to be disappointed by a series of short stories on here! Each of them kept my attention and weren’t too long and had creepy endings in some of them!
August 18, 2023
This is a great collection of short stories from Christi Nogle. I don’t often see a lot of science fiction short stories, so I was really looking forward to this book! Some of the stories were a little reminiscent of The Twilight Zone, just strange enough to make you uncomfortable. I will definitely be revisiting some of these stories!
September 11, 2023
Is this the third release from Christi Nogle in under two years? What did we do to deserve this?
Nogle is back with Promise, another banger of weird shorts, albeit of a different style than those collected in The Best of Our Past, The Worst of Our Future. If domesticity and home life were the dominant themes of that previous collection and Beulah, here she seems more interested in bodies; in particular, abjection of the body—blurring the lines between human and animal, human and human (sometimes literally), consciousness and dream state.
Her writing style is surreal and dreamy. As usual, Nogle asks the reader to do a lot of interpretive work; themes and allegories are whatever-is-the-opposite-of-spoon-fed. However, as also usual, the effort is always worth it. The stories in Promise are significantly shorter on average than those in the previous collection, keeping the pace sharp and brisk.
Though there are a number of standouts, my personal favorite is “Flexible Off-Time,” which I can only describe as a wild mashup of Total Recall, “San Junipero” (Black Mirror episode), and Junji Ito’s “Long Dream.” It engages with the Janus-faced writing anxieties of finding enough time to write, and the unholy mess that sometimes results of writing too much—writers will undoubtedly relate—while dishing out some seriously delirious sci-fi horror.
Nogle is back with Promise, another banger of weird shorts, albeit of a different style than those collected in The Best of Our Past, The Worst of Our Future. If domesticity and home life were the dominant themes of that previous collection and Beulah, here she seems more interested in bodies; in particular, abjection of the body—blurring the lines between human and animal, human and human (sometimes literally), consciousness and dream state.
Her writing style is surreal and dreamy. As usual, Nogle asks the reader to do a lot of interpretive work; themes and allegories are whatever-is-the-opposite-of-spoon-fed. However, as also usual, the effort is always worth it. The stories in Promise are significantly shorter on average than those in the previous collection, keeping the pace sharp and brisk.
Though there are a number of standouts, my personal favorite is “Flexible Off-Time,” which I can only describe as a wild mashup of Total Recall, “San Junipero” (Black Mirror episode), and Junji Ito’s “Long Dream.” It engages with the Janus-faced writing anxieties of finding enough time to write, and the unholy mess that sometimes results of writing too much—writers will undoubtedly relate—while dishing out some seriously delirious sci-fi horror.
July 26, 2023
A thank you to Net Galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Promise by Christi Noble is a collection of weird, science fiction short stories that are reminiscent of The Outer Limits or The Twilight Zone. Many are focused on futuristic technologies, or bizarre body tales. One example is a device where you can communicate with your dog, another is a story about two people that "feed" off from others.
What worked: The author did a good job of eliciting the bizarre factor, and some stories were interesting concepts.
What didn't work: Some of the stories were confusing, and I had difficulty imaging what the author was trying to portray. Also, most were written in first person voice, which got tiring after a while. Better character development would have been nice, as these are short stories and it's even more important to draw the reader in .
I am giving this three out of five stars.
Promise by Christi Noble is a collection of weird, science fiction short stories that are reminiscent of The Outer Limits or The Twilight Zone. Many are focused on futuristic technologies, or bizarre body tales. One example is a device where you can communicate with your dog, another is a story about two people that "feed" off from others.
What worked: The author did a good job of eliciting the bizarre factor, and some stories were interesting concepts.
What didn't work: Some of the stories were confusing, and I had difficulty imaging what the author was trying to portray. Also, most were written in first person voice, which got tiring after a while. Better character development would have been nice, as these are short stories and it's even more important to draw the reader in .
I am giving this three out of five stars.
October 18, 2025
★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S PROMISE?
This is a collection of 21 short stories. The cover calls them "weird Science Fiction" stories—this is true. When Nogle described herself in a Q&A here last year, she described herself as "focusing on horror and horror-adjacent work." I'd say most of these qualified as Horror-adjacent; there's just something unnerving about just about every one of these. Now, I grant you that my tolerance/acceptance of Horror is pretty low, so while I might call these Horror-adjacent, real Horror fans might roll their eyes. That's fine, I get it. But some of these are really unnerving/creepifying.
When trying to come up with a good way to describe this collection, I saw the back of the cover blurb and decided that I couldn't do better.
I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS...
A little over halfway through my notes, I wrote, "I have so many questions about her process." I can't tell you exactly what prompted that, but I'm pretty sure the question had been building. And I'd still like to ask a few now that I've been prompted.
Sure, there's the old chestnut of "where do you get your ideas?" I know authors hate that question (and I get it), but...just how does someone come up with these? And beyond the generic planner v. pantser, I really wonder how much of these strange worlds she has worked out before she starts to tell a story in them, and how much she figures out along the way.
But also—what does the first draft look like compared to the final? Does she write everything and then pare it down to just the essentials? How does she choose the starting point for these? I know my reflex would be to start most of these stories about 8 paragraphs of story earlier than she does (and generally to give another few paragraphs at the end). How does she choose the twist/reveal/whatever it is that clues the reader into everything that's going on?
I guess I'm just looking for a DVD commentary on each of these. Something about Nogle's construction makes me more curious about her approach than I usually am.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT PROMISE?
So, two of these stories did nothing for me (2 out of 21 is a great number). Several I'd just qualify as "good," but a handful wowed me. There are a couple I'm still thinking about all these months later (not steadily, mind you, but every now and then the mind will wander a bit—or I'll see this cover, and...pow, I'm back in it).
I love Nogle's prose and approach to storytelling. There's some variation because no two stories have the same voice—but generally, I can say she gives you just enough to know what's going on, but you have to use your imagination and think about it to really understand the story. There's no spoon-feeding here, but nothing so cryptic or ambivalent as to be obscure or oblique.
Was I satisfied with the conclusion of every story? No—but I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be. Particularly the couple that really don't conclude, but just end.
Creepy, mind-bendy, the kind of short story you can vanish into and leave the world behind. These stories will leave you feeling the way that the Black Mirror or The Twilight Zone episodes do. I rather enjoyed almost all of these and think you will, too. (and many of you will really get into the ones that left me cold, and won't be wigged out by those that got me...we can compare lists later)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
WHAT'S PROMISE?
This is a collection of 21 short stories. The cover calls them "weird Science Fiction" stories—this is true. When Nogle described herself in a Q&A here last year, she described herself as "focusing on horror and horror-adjacent work." I'd say most of these qualified as Horror-adjacent; there's just something unnerving about just about every one of these. Now, I grant you that my tolerance/acceptance of Horror is pretty low, so while I might call these Horror-adjacent, real Horror fans might roll their eyes. That's fine, I get it. But some of these are really unnerving/creepifying.
When trying to come up with a good way to describe this collection, I saw the back of the cover blurb and decided that I couldn't do better.
A young woman confronts her digital doppelganger at a creepy academy. A mother and daughter struggle underground, finishing robots the rich will use. A loving couple find that their mirrors are very different than mirrors used to be. You can order a headset to speak with your dog, and your devices sometimes connect not just to the web but to the afterlife.
Be prepared for strangeness here. We have several types of aliens, cults devoted to contacting alternate dimensions, virtual-reality writing retreats, time-travel games and timetravel tragedies, augmented consciousness, cosmic artforms and living paintings, haunted Zoom meetings, giant worms, and guesthouses for the dead. These stories reflect the weird and unknowable future. They are often bizarre and dreadful, but they also veer towards themes of hope, potential...and promise.
I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS...
A little over halfway through my notes, I wrote, "I have so many questions about her process." I can't tell you exactly what prompted that, but I'm pretty sure the question had been building. And I'd still like to ask a few now that I've been prompted.
Sure, there's the old chestnut of "where do you get your ideas?" I know authors hate that question (and I get it), but...just how does someone come up with these? And beyond the generic planner v. pantser, I really wonder how much of these strange worlds she has worked out before she starts to tell a story in them, and how much she figures out along the way.
But also—what does the first draft look like compared to the final? Does she write everything and then pare it down to just the essentials? How does she choose the starting point for these? I know my reflex would be to start most of these stories about 8 paragraphs of story earlier than she does (and generally to give another few paragraphs at the end). How does she choose the twist/reveal/whatever it is that clues the reader into everything that's going on?
I guess I'm just looking for a DVD commentary on each of these. Something about Nogle's construction makes me more curious about her approach than I usually am.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT PROMISE?
So, two of these stories did nothing for me (2 out of 21 is a great number). Several I'd just qualify as "good," but a handful wowed me. There are a couple I'm still thinking about all these months later (not steadily, mind you, but every now and then the mind will wander a bit—or I'll see this cover, and...pow, I'm back in it).
I love Nogle's prose and approach to storytelling. There's some variation because no two stories have the same voice—but generally, I can say she gives you just enough to know what's going on, but you have to use your imagination and think about it to really understand the story. There's no spoon-feeding here, but nothing so cryptic or ambivalent as to be obscure or oblique.
Was I satisfied with the conclusion of every story? No—but I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be. Particularly the couple that really don't conclude, but just end.
Creepy, mind-bendy, the kind of short story you can vanish into and leave the world behind. These stories will leave you feeling the way that the Black Mirror or The Twilight Zone episodes do. I rather enjoyed almost all of these and think you will, too. (and many of you will really get into the ones that left me cold, and won't be wigged out by those that got me...we can compare lists later)
September 16, 2023
The stories in Promise, by Christi Nogle, span science fiction and science fantasy, exploring subjects such as aliens, androids, the future of work and creativity, and the potential negative consequences of bending time and defying death.
They range in length from just a couple of pages to around 30, and contain a lot of interesting ideas that made me go ‘I wish I’d thought of that!’. It was exciting, and often surprising, to see where Nogle took each premise.
While technological innovation drives the plots, something that especially jumped out at me was how human these stories are.
People continue to put their loved ones first, accustom themselves to the new and strange while paying more attention to their everyday and personal lives, rebel, find ways to take advantage of others, and be drawn to creative pursuits. My favourite question, ‘where does human end and android begin?’ crops up in a few stories.
Many of the stories focus on how relationships – frequently parent-child, but also with other family members, spouses, and pets – could play out amid technological advancements and unusual events.
I was most impressed by the stories where people lose one another, whether that’s through death or something else. These – along with tales that are tinged with sadness for other reasons – give this collection a distinctly poignant vibe, which I loved.
Some of my favourite stories here (Paper Dragonfly, Paper Mountain; The Laffun Head, Guesthouse) question whether preserving people’s consciousness in jars, computers, or other conducive objects is truly beneficial to them or their loved ones. In others (An Account; Cubby), time travel complicates close relationships.
My absolute favourite in the collection, though, was Flexible Off-Time, where the innovation is a virtual reality you can inhabit for what feels like a couple of weeks, but is a day for every minute in real time. The main character uses the facility to write a biography of her elderly father without leaving him for too long, but things don’t go according to plan.
As well as finding this story highly inventive, well thought-through, trippy, scary, and sad, I loved its mini-examination of what makes a biography. The character initially drafts a straightforward account of her father’s life, then improves it by adding her own thoughts and memories, but eventually over-eggs the pudding as her “subjective time” away stretches on and on and she keeps writing.
Similarly, Fables of the Future, as well as the title story, appealed to me because in them, characters are given time and space to try to create something, albeit in unconventional circumstances. Maybe I need a writing retreat myself… I don’t think I’ll be utilising Flexible Off-Time’s services though, somehow!
Promise is a creative, poignant, and very human science fiction and science fantasy collection.
They range in length from just a couple of pages to around 30, and contain a lot of interesting ideas that made me go ‘I wish I’d thought of that!’. It was exciting, and often surprising, to see where Nogle took each premise.
While technological innovation drives the plots, something that especially jumped out at me was how human these stories are.
People continue to put their loved ones first, accustom themselves to the new and strange while paying more attention to their everyday and personal lives, rebel, find ways to take advantage of others, and be drawn to creative pursuits. My favourite question, ‘where does human end and android begin?’ crops up in a few stories.
Many of the stories focus on how relationships – frequently parent-child, but also with other family members, spouses, and pets – could play out amid technological advancements and unusual events.
I was most impressed by the stories where people lose one another, whether that’s through death or something else. These – along with tales that are tinged with sadness for other reasons – give this collection a distinctly poignant vibe, which I loved.
Some of my favourite stories here (Paper Dragonfly, Paper Mountain; The Laffun Head, Guesthouse) question whether preserving people’s consciousness in jars, computers, or other conducive objects is truly beneficial to them or their loved ones. In others (An Account; Cubby), time travel complicates close relationships.
My absolute favourite in the collection, though, was Flexible Off-Time, where the innovation is a virtual reality you can inhabit for what feels like a couple of weeks, but is a day for every minute in real time. The main character uses the facility to write a biography of her elderly father without leaving him for too long, but things don’t go according to plan.
As well as finding this story highly inventive, well thought-through, trippy, scary, and sad, I loved its mini-examination of what makes a biography. The character initially drafts a straightforward account of her father’s life, then improves it by adding her own thoughts and memories, but eventually over-eggs the pudding as her “subjective time” away stretches on and on and she keeps writing.
Similarly, Fables of the Future, as well as the title story, appealed to me because in them, characters are given time and space to try to create something, albeit in unconventional circumstances. Maybe I need a writing retreat myself… I don’t think I’ll be utilising Flexible Off-Time’s services though, somehow!
Promise is a creative, poignant, and very human science fiction and science fantasy collection.
March 19, 2024
I wish I could give this collection of stories 3 1/2 stars.
Yet, it came sooooo close to being an 5. Nogle can write, and some of the stories show the ability to create fascinating, living characters.
But her big strength is her _ideas_. The book is subtitled, "A Collection of Weird Science Fiction Stories," and some of them are among the weirdest things I've read since John Shirley's collection _Really, Really, Really, Really Weird Stories_ -- many of which deserved at least three of those "really"s.
The _problem_ is that many of them are barely stories, existing only to exhibit her latest cool idea. There are several excellent, well-developed stories among the twenty-one (though the ToC on this Ebook only lists 20 of them) stories herein; the rest are, alas, trivial as stories, no matter how good the ideas are. Several times I found myself thinking thoughts like "What a shame, she could have done _so_ much more with that idea" -- and some of the stories ("Flexible Off-Time," "Fables of the Future," "The Earthly Garden," and the hidden "The Orbital Bloom," cowritten with Eileen Gunnell Lee, to name four) show that, indeed, she _could_ have done so.
But we have the book we have, not the one we could have had, more's the pity.
Yet, it came sooooo close to being an 5. Nogle can write, and some of the stories show the ability to create fascinating, living characters.
But her big strength is her _ideas_. The book is subtitled, "A Collection of Weird Science Fiction Stories," and some of them are among the weirdest things I've read since John Shirley's collection _Really, Really, Really, Really Weird Stories_ -- many of which deserved at least three of those "really"s.
The _problem_ is that many of them are barely stories, existing only to exhibit her latest cool idea. There are several excellent, well-developed stories among the twenty-one (though the ToC on this Ebook only lists 20 of them) stories herein; the rest are, alas, trivial as stories, no matter how good the ideas are. Several times I found myself thinking thoughts like "What a shame, she could have done _so_ much more with that idea" -- and some of the stories ("Flexible Off-Time," "Fables of the Future," "The Earthly Garden," and the hidden "The Orbital Bloom," cowritten with Eileen Gunnell Lee, to name four) show that, indeed, she _could_ have done so.
But we have the book we have, not the one we could have had, more's the pity.
July 23, 2023
True to the subtitle this is a collection full of weird scifi stories. A lot of the stories feel very black mirror-esque in that they take place in a world that seems not too far into the future but are startlingly different from ours.
What Nogle does best is often drop the reader into a world and leave us playing catch-up as we learn the ins and outs of the world through the character's eyes a piece of everyday info they casually drop revealing something surprising and uncanny.
The one thing that didn't work for me so much was that a lot of the stories felt more like little amuse-bouches of strange worlds and just when I was getting excited to see what would happen I would turn the page to find out the story had ended. Still that's reader preference and it seemed very much as if was an affect Nogle was aiming for.
My favourite stories were Finishers, about a mother-daughter team building automatons and Flexible Off-Time, about a woman who is the main care-taker for her father who wants to take a writer's retreat.
Creepy and delicious!
What Nogle does best is often drop the reader into a world and leave us playing catch-up as we learn the ins and outs of the world through the character's eyes a piece of everyday info they casually drop revealing something surprising and uncanny.
The one thing that didn't work for me so much was that a lot of the stories felt more like little amuse-bouches of strange worlds and just when I was getting excited to see what would happen I would turn the page to find out the story had ended. Still that's reader preference and it seemed very much as if was an affect Nogle was aiming for.
My favourite stories were Finishers, about a mother-daughter team building automatons and Flexible Off-Time, about a woman who is the main care-taker for her father who wants to take a writer's retreat.
Creepy and delicious!
November 20, 2023
I'm already a fan of Christi's work, so I knew I'd enjoy this collection (even though science fiction isn't generally my favorite). I loved diving into these little visions of the future, many of which were filled with longing and sadness. I love the title - Promise. The future holds promise, but who makes the promises, and how can we trust them? The stories here explore that question from various surprising angles. Many of these stories are little coming-of-age tales, and there's a touching innocence that so many of the characters hold onto as they enter dehumanizing systems. Where else do they have to go?
Many of these stories will stick with me. "Flexible Off-Time," for example, and "Fables of the Future." I love how they describe how enticing the comforts of technology are, even as we're eaten alive. So many great stories of difficult parent/child relationships here, too. Overall, a very thought-provoking collection, and one that left me with a lingering uneasiness and a tiny bit of hope in humanity.
Many of these stories will stick with me. "Flexible Off-Time," for example, and "Fables of the Future." I love how they describe how enticing the comforts of technology are, even as we're eaten alive. So many great stories of difficult parent/child relationships here, too. Overall, a very thought-provoking collection, and one that left me with a lingering uneasiness and a tiny bit of hope in humanity.
December 5, 2023
I really liked the ideas, the weirdness behind most of the stories. I give 3 stars because despite the book being full with original ideas, somehow it felt incomplete to me.
The stories generated more questions than they could have answered, and although I know a good story raises questions, I don't think it should raises major plot related questions that remain unanswered or questions due to missing links between happenings.
Often I felt the stories are rambling too fast between ideas and it causes hastily endings. A lot of ideas are not explained in enough details in my opinion which caused some confusion or the feeling of left them unfinished. I craved for more details and less jumps in what's happening.
Overall very good and original, so I definitely will keep the author on my radar and I hope she will devote more time to unfold her ideas.
The stories generated more questions than they could have answered, and although I know a good story raises questions, I don't think it should raises major plot related questions that remain unanswered or questions due to missing links between happenings.
Often I felt the stories are rambling too fast between ideas and it causes hastily endings. A lot of ideas are not explained in enough details in my opinion which caused some confusion or the feeling of left them unfinished. I craved for more details and less jumps in what's happening.
Overall very good and original, so I definitely will keep the author on my radar and I hope she will devote more time to unfold her ideas.
October 8, 2023
Christi Nogle is a master of subtly unsettling her readers through sparse yet precise prose and uniquely evocative situations. Her stories in this collection not only exhibit incredible imagination, but also a keen ability to play with ambiguities. She doesn't spoon-feed the reader but instead inspires the reader to draw their own conclusions and wonder further on the possibilities and questions about humanity presented. I couldn't stop thinking about these stories after I'd finished reading them. I love this kind of weird philosophical science-fiction that probes the boundaries of our world and knowledge, and that explores other forms of existence and consciousness. Nogle is absolutely a must-read author.
November 28, 2023
Chrisi Nogle shares A LOT of creativity in this collection. However, a lot of the stories felt incomplete to me. Perhaps if you read them in a book club the vague endings and ambiguous meanings would be a fun starting point for discussions. I liked about half of the stories in this collection.
Enjoyed the most:
Finishers (favorite)
A Game Like They Play in the Future (most memorable, reflective)
An Account (best ending)
Lovey (reflective)
Cubby (good ending, emotional)
Fables of the Future (good ending, weird, matrix vibes)
Substance (the weirdest)
Thank you to Net Galley for the review copy!
Enjoyed the most:
Finishers (favorite)
A Game Like They Play in the Future (most memorable, reflective)
An Account (best ending)
Lovey (reflective)
Cubby (good ending, emotional)
Fables of the Future (good ending, weird, matrix vibes)
Substance (the weirdest)
Thank you to Net Galley for the review copy!
June 24, 2024
As a fantasy reader since I was a teen, I love becoming immersed in a strange new world and zipping through the character's story so fast that I'm dizzy by the end. Nogle's stories are nothing like that. I need to sip and think between each story. Every story had me thinking about the world we live in and how different it could be if tech were more advanced or our biology evolved differently. I'm also a writer, and while reading this book, I was inspired to draft a very short weird fiction piece that creeped me out. It was great!
November 2, 2023
Promise is a collection of short stories that I would describe as more science fiction/speculative/dystopian than horror, although a couple of the stories are quite disturbing. Subjects range from people in pods and a yellow backpack that allows time travel to alternate worlds, worm queens, and robots.
This collection was a mixed bag for me. Some stories left me wanting more while I struggled to finish others. If you enjoy the genre, it's worth a read, but I recommend skipping any stories that don't immediately grab your attention.
This collection was a mixed bag for me. Some stories left me wanting more while I struggled to finish others. If you enjoy the genre, it's worth a read, but I recommend skipping any stories that don't immediately grab your attention.
December 23, 2023
This was a good selection of science fiction stories. Perfect for those who want to explore this genre. It is also a good book to take along during a commute since the stories can be read if you have a short period of time without having to wait to finish them.
October 4, 2023
A good collection of speculative short stories
For a full review, please go to https://areviewerdarkly.blogspot.com/... and follow me on X @josenher
For a full review, please go to https://areviewerdarkly.blogspot.com/... and follow me on X @josenher
December 30, 2023
Well. The subtitle is right, these are weird. Most of them read like horror stories which aren’t quite my thing. Maybe yours?
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