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An A-Z of Possible Worlds (Boxed Set) by A.C. Tillyer (31-Oct-2009) Hardcover
Composed of 26 short stories, each based around a letter of the alphabet and each set in a different imagined land.
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 17, 2010
Now here’s a book which has clearly been made with great care and attention by its publishers (Roast Books of London): An A-Z of Possible Worlds is presented as a box of twenty-six individually-stapled booklets, one for each letter of the alphabet, each containing its own story. Happily, the tales themselves more than live up to the presentation.
Anne Tillyer has written a set of stories which each concern a place that doesn’t exist. Generally speaking, they stand alone: there are several scattered cross-references and commonalities, but the unity of the collection emerges not from them, but from Tillyer’s style, which I’d broadly characterise, rather unhelpfully, as a ‘storytelling’ style – that is, she captures something of the timeless quality, the flowing rhythms, of folktales. This can lend itself to imagery, such as the following evocation of place:
This is a long beginning that repeats its point, but I think that very technique works well here: an accretion of detail, like layers of sediment, that brings home the stifling atmosphere of the bog. (The description continues as Tillyer moves into the story proper, with similarly atmospheric results.)
It’s not all about the imagery, though. There are stories here with fascinating ideas, such as ‘The Labyrinth’, with its people whose ancestors made home on an island generations ago, and who now have no sense of time; reading about their actions is unsettling, but also fires the imagination. There are also tales of the absurd, like ‘The Job Centre’, in which a country’s leader declares that there is full employment in his nation – which is news to the people queuing in the job centre at that moment. A plan must be devised to create work for these people, and the results raise a wry laugh.
As much as the stories in An A-Z of Possible Worlds stand alone, they gain considerably from being part of the whole. Not all of them completely satisfy as stories in their own right – there are some, for example, where a turn of phrase really stands out in my mind rather than the plot – but these are bolstered by other tales, which have complementary strengths. It’s the whole edifice of what Tillyer has created which impresses most, rather than individual pieces of it.
Which is not to say that there aren’t some excellent individual stories here. To pick out two: ‘The Youth Hostel’ concerns a remote hostel which is one day visited by a journalist from an interiors0 magazine, who writes a feature on the place as an example of ‘rustic charm’. The popularity of the youth hostel grows exponentially as a result, but visitors don’t necessarily get what they were expecting. This story is both neatly plotted and makes pointed commentary on attitudes to ‘tradition’.
Another story I liked in particular was ‘The Casino’, which is about a country colonised by the wealthy and turned into their own private playground, where they can enjoy the finest luxuries and the best healthcare. But this lifestyle is threatened by too many people living too long, and the proposed solution is not a pleasant one… Again, this is a nicely constructed tale (there is a certain inevitability about the plotting of both ‘The Casino’ and ‘The Youth Hostel’, but Tillyer’s craft is such that one does not feel short-changed by this), with an added vein of satire, this time on the subject of authority.
The way that Tillyer writes about places in these stories – often in the abstract, without names or many other specifics – they really do become ‘possible worlds’. They’re places that one knows don’t exist, but could, perhaps, if the world had more interstices. Imaginary as they are, though, it is fascinating to explore these worlds in this remarkable collection.
Anne Tillyer has written a set of stories which each concern a place that doesn’t exist. Generally speaking, they stand alone: there are several scattered cross-references and commonalities, but the unity of the collection emerges not from them, but from Tillyer’s style, which I’d broadly characterise, rather unhelpfully, as a ‘storytelling’ style – that is, she captures something of the timeless quality, the flowing rhythms, of folktales. This can lend itself to imagery, such as the following evocation of place:
The central boglands are both the beginning and the end of the world; the place where everything comes to nothing and nothing ever changes. Nature lies in a coma, time has given up trying to pass and the only things that move are the flies and the fog and the driving rain. Here, the natural cycles of birth and decay have unravelled and run in a straight line. Even the rain that falls on the bog is never released into rivers or the roots of trees but seeps from puddle to mud and stagnates there forever. It is the stasis that all life must overcome and to which all life will retu8rn. Evolution never made it past first post… (‘The Bog’, p. 1)
This is a long beginning that repeats its point, but I think that very technique works well here: an accretion of detail, like layers of sediment, that brings home the stifling atmosphere of the bog. (The description continues as Tillyer moves into the story proper, with similarly atmospheric results.)
It’s not all about the imagery, though. There are stories here with fascinating ideas, such as ‘The Labyrinth’, with its people whose ancestors made home on an island generations ago, and who now have no sense of time; reading about their actions is unsettling, but also fires the imagination. There are also tales of the absurd, like ‘The Job Centre’, in which a country’s leader declares that there is full employment in his nation – which is news to the people queuing in the job centre at that moment. A plan must be devised to create work for these people, and the results raise a wry laugh.
As much as the stories in An A-Z of Possible Worlds stand alone, they gain considerably from being part of the whole. Not all of them completely satisfy as stories in their own right – there are some, for example, where a turn of phrase really stands out in my mind rather than the plot – but these are bolstered by other tales, which have complementary strengths. It’s the whole edifice of what Tillyer has created which impresses most, rather than individual pieces of it.
Which is not to say that there aren’t some excellent individual stories here. To pick out two: ‘The Youth Hostel’ concerns a remote hostel which is one day visited by a journalist from an interiors0 magazine, who writes a feature on the place as an example of ‘rustic charm’. The popularity of the youth hostel grows exponentially as a result, but visitors don’t necessarily get what they were expecting. This story is both neatly plotted and makes pointed commentary on attitudes to ‘tradition’.
Another story I liked in particular was ‘The Casino’, which is about a country colonised by the wealthy and turned into their own private playground, where they can enjoy the finest luxuries and the best healthcare. But this lifestyle is threatened by too many people living too long, and the proposed solution is not a pleasant one… Again, this is a nicely constructed tale (there is a certain inevitability about the plotting of both ‘The Casino’ and ‘The Youth Hostel’, but Tillyer’s craft is such that one does not feel short-changed by this), with an added vein of satire, this time on the subject of authority.
The way that Tillyer writes about places in these stories – often in the abstract, without names or many other specifics – they really do become ‘possible worlds’. They’re places that one knows don’t exist, but could, perhaps, if the world had more interstices. Imaginary as they are, though, it is fascinating to explore these worlds in this remarkable collection.
September 17, 2012
A.C. Tillyer manages to pull off an impressive feat, backed up with the exemplary efforts of Roast Books.
The publisher, firstly, serves up a thoroughly impressive packaging coup. A compact maroon-coloured box containing twenty-six individual short stories in A6 format with card covers. The box also contains an additional leaflet about the author and content of the box.
A.C. Tillyer has filled each bookette with a short story, ranging from 8 to 18 pages in length. Each book has an alphabetical link (like R for Reservoir or U for Underground) that forms the focus for the tale. Across twenty-six books you have a varied range of plots and stories, from modern to historical, amusing to horror. The brief format makes them easy to digest, a perfect space filler before bed time, on the loo, while waiting for a bus... whenever. The size of the booklets means you could just stick the next one in your bag or back pocket and not even notice you have it there until you need it.
I don't think a single story disappointed me - and a few left me wanting more. No repetition or similar stories here, each a little breath of fresh air. Sometimes, I found myself desperate for a few more pages, but never left wanting fewer. The author knows how to serve up just enough detail given the space - and in some cases the compact form and need for multiples of four pages leads to several left blank.
Having read through them all, mostly at bedtime, I now quite fancy going back again to re-read those that excited me or provoked me. I strongly urge anyone intrigued by the title or concept to give in to the urge. Given the format, I can't really even hint at the stories without giving something away - and when you only have 8 or 12 pages to read, giving anything away spoils a short tale in a heartbeat.
Thoroughly recommended.
The publisher, firstly, serves up a thoroughly impressive packaging coup. A compact maroon-coloured box containing twenty-six individual short stories in A6 format with card covers. The box also contains an additional leaflet about the author and content of the box.
A.C. Tillyer has filled each bookette with a short story, ranging from 8 to 18 pages in length. Each book has an alphabetical link (like R for Reservoir or U for Underground) that forms the focus for the tale. Across twenty-six books you have a varied range of plots and stories, from modern to historical, amusing to horror. The brief format makes them easy to digest, a perfect space filler before bed time, on the loo, while waiting for a bus... whenever. The size of the booklets means you could just stick the next one in your bag or back pocket and not even notice you have it there until you need it.
I don't think a single story disappointed me - and a few left me wanting more. No repetition or similar stories here, each a little breath of fresh air. Sometimes, I found myself desperate for a few more pages, but never left wanting fewer. The author knows how to serve up just enough detail given the space - and in some cases the compact form and need for multiples of four pages leads to several left blank.
Having read through them all, mostly at bedtime, I now quite fancy going back again to re-read those that excited me or provoked me. I strongly urge anyone intrigued by the title or concept to give in to the urge. Given the format, I can't really even hint at the stories without giving something away - and when you only have 8 or 12 pages to read, giving anything away spoils a short tale in a heartbeat.
Thoroughly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews