Weird Lies

by Cherry Potts (Editor), Katy Darby (Editor), Peng Shepherd (Contributor)

here’s something about Liars’ League that brings out the wildness in the writers’ imaginations. Here we explore myth, fantasy, science fiction, and the indefinable what the – that makes up Weird. In true Liars’ League fashion there is as much humour as there is darkness and poignancy.

More than twenty tales, varying in style from stories not out of place in One Thousand and One Nights, to the completely bemusing.
Discover mirrors that predict the immediate future and museums where your personal future life is exhibited in the kind of ephemeral objects that might normally find their way into a dustbin.
Meet tadpoles, lazy assassins, and assiduous poisoners; observe deals with the devil, and workplace stress taken to its logical conclusion.
Heroes, villains, and animals – anything and anyone could provide the twist in the tale – cursed travellers, persistent dreamers, aliens, robots and even ice might be the object, or source, of love.

Stories from
Alan Graham
Alex Smith
Angela Trevithick
Andrew Lloyd Jones
Barry McKinley
C.T.Kingston
Christopher Samuels
David McGrath
David Malone
David Mildon
Derek Ivan Webster
Ellen O’Neill
James Smyth
Jonathan Pinnock
Joshan Esfandiari Martin
Lee Reynoldson
Lennart Lundh
Maria Kyle
Nichol Wilmor
Peng Shepherd
Rebecca J Payne
Richard Meredith
Richard Smyth
Tom McKay

Genres: Short Stories, Fantasy, Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 26, 2013

About the author

Cherry Potts is a Londoner born and bred. She is the author of two collections of short stories: Mosaic of Air, and Tales Told Before Cockcrow: Fairytales for Adults; a photographic diary of a community opera The Blackheath Onegin, and has had several stories in anthologies. Her Lesbian Fantasy Epic, The Dowry Blade is out in February 2016 and she is currently working on her next collection, a science fiction novel, and a timeslip-young-adult kinda thing. She also runs workshops for writers exploring NLP (Neurolinguistic programming) approaches to language and characterisation and teaches Creative Writing at City University as a visting lecturer.In her spare time Cherry is the owner of Arachne Press, and (co)editor of London Lies, Lovers' Lies: Short Stories, Weird Lies, The Other Side of Sleep, Solstice Shorts and Stations: Short Stories Inspired by the Overground Line.

Reviews

[Cherry Potts · Rating 5 out of 5]

WINNER of the Saboteur2014 best Anthology of the Year. http://sabotagereviews.com/2014/06/01... I edited it. It is really weird. Really.

[Wendle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love short stories, i love science fiction, fantasy and weird stuff. So when i saw this book in a goodreads giveaway, of course i entered it. I was more than pleased when i got the email telling me i’d won a copy. I was super happy when it came through my letter box about a week later, and started reading it as soon as i finished my previous book.

The first thing i loved about this book is that the stories are short enough that i could read one in its entirety on the bus to work. It was the perfect book to carry around with me to read at random opportunities. It has 24 stories over 160 pages, so lots to read in a small enough book that fitted easily into my bag.

With titles like, ‘Haiku Short, Parakeet Prawns, Konnichiwa Peter’ and ‘What Does H₂O Feel Like to the Tadpoles?’ i was more than eager to get reading and see what these stories held. I liked them all–there wasn’t one i didn’t enjoy.

I’m just flicking through the book now, and i can’t decide which stories to mention and praise, because there really was something great about each of them. Some of them were meaningful and poignant, some of them were comical and strange, and some of them were all of those things.

All of them. All of these stories made me smile, laugh, roll my eyes, ponder and help me escape on my dull journey to work. I will definitely be looking into more books from the Liars’ League.

A longer review can be read at my book blog: Marvel at Words.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across this book in Goodreads Giveaway but was unfortunate not to win so purchased it anyway.

I thoroughly enjoy these short stories and found it incredibly difficult to put the book down.

I would recommend this to any fan of short stories.

[Cristiana · Rating 1 out of 5]

These stories seem to have been written for young(er) readers. They certainly did not work for me.

[Sue Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not great. I wanted to read Peng Shepherd’s Free Cake and couldn’t find it anywhere else. Good story. The rest not so much.

[Kate Bystrova · Rating 5 out of 5]

An anthology of ‘science fiction, fantasy and strange stories’ from Liars’ League, Weird Lies brings together a broad range of styles and themes in an array of delectable morsels. It is well written, well edited and, most importantly, consistently engaging – in short it is an absolute pleasure to read, from cover to cover.

Each story stands alone and is, frankly, just pretty darn good. I love being handed a book that I’ve not heard of before (I was sent this through Goodreads’ First Reads, so didn’t know exactly what to expect) and finding that it is this good. The fact that the stories cover a lot of different topics and take on many different styles also makes the reading of it all rather inspiring. If you’re keen on writing yourself, I would heartily recommend this book as well as good anthologies in general (for more inspiration try stories by Donald Barthelme, and prose poetry by Simon Armitage and Luke Kennard).

Among my favourite Weird Lies are ChronoCrisis 3000, which takes the form of an instructional letter from a scientist to a time traveller; Let There Be Light, a story about two people in a dark world; Free Cake, a meditation on explosive workplace stress; Touchdown, a ghost story; Zwo, on monsters; Daphne Changes, metamorphosis with a general Apollo; The Love Below, in which a boy struggles to keep his feet on the ground; Candyfloss, of dreams and nightmares…

Damn, I only wanted to list two or three and, really, I could go on.

Weird Lies is an excellent anthology and if you’re feeling like reading something a little different, something that you can’t just compartmentalise into a handful of genres, then I suggest you grab this. I’m certainly planning to pick up a few of their other collections, which can be found on their site as well as Amazon.

For a longer review (and some other stuff) visit my blog http://www.thelittlecrocodile.com/wei... :)

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking forward to some oddness...got this through a Goodreads Giveaway :-)

***

And most excellent oddness it was too! As in any collection, there are those stories you like more than others - but I definitely felt that was down to my preference, and not quality, and there weren't any stories that I felt didn't belong (I know, how can you define what 'doesn't belong' in a collection of oddities? I don't know, I just know that none of these didn't belong!) All in all, extremely enjoyable, and enough to make me go and investigate what else the Liars' League have done.

[Crisana]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. Review will be added later.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great stories. Each one a real miniature. Surprising twists and turns and all economical and punchy.