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Nordic Visions: The Best of Nordic Speculative Fiction
A Unique Speculative Fiction Collection From The Nordic Countries
Storytelling has been a major force in the Nordic countries for thousands of years, renowned for its particular sense of dark humour, featuring pacts with nature and a view of the world you seldom find in other places.
Perhaps it is the freezing cold winter? The closeness to the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic? Maybe it’s the huge ancient forests...
Most have heard about Nordic crime fiction with its dark noir flare or the Icelandic Sagas. This anthology combines all that is unique about Nordic speculative fiction, from the darkest dystopian science fiction to terrifying horror. From the rational to the eccentric, these stories combine a deep sense of place with social criticism, themes of loneliness and the concern for humanity's impact on the wilderness.
Featuring 16 stories from the best contemporary speculative authors from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and The Faroe Islands, including John Ajvide Lindqvist, Hannu Rajaniemi, Tor Åge Bringsværd and more, many of which are appearing in English for the very first time.
Storytelling has been a major force in the Nordic countries for thousands of years, renowned for its particular sense of dark humour, featuring pacts with nature and a view of the world you seldom find in other places.
Perhaps it is the freezing cold winter? The closeness to the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic? Maybe it’s the huge ancient forests...
Most have heard about Nordic crime fiction with its dark noir flare or the Icelandic Sagas. This anthology combines all that is unique about Nordic speculative fiction, from the darkest dystopian science fiction to terrifying horror. From the rational to the eccentric, these stories combine a deep sense of place with social criticism, themes of loneliness and the concern for humanity's impact on the wilderness.
Featuring 16 stories from the best contemporary speculative authors from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and The Faroe Islands, including John Ajvide Lindqvist, Hannu Rajaniemi, Tor Åge Bringsværd and more, many of which are appearing in English for the very first time.
294 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 10, 2023
80 people are currently reading
3723 people want to read
About the author
Margrét Helgadóttir
31 books99 followersMargrét Helgadóttir is a Norwegian-Icelandic author & anthology editor based in Norway. Her native language is Norwegian, but on her spare time she writes fiction and edits fiction anthologies in English.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
March 9, 2024
A pleasant anthology that covers a wide geographical range with 16 stories divided into six regions and/or countries, and offers a thematic variety too - little mysteries, ghost stories, folkloric parallel universes, animal myths woven into modern tales...
For some reason this collection didn't really grab me though, and apart from a couple of stories I couldn't really connect or warm up. This is a purely personal matter, as especially in short stories, I like writings which can convey powerful feelings which hit me hard, and these stories were of the rather mild sort.
My highlights were The False Fisherman by Kaspar Colling Nielsen (Denmark), which shows how to fake it until you make it as a fisherman; The Abyss by Rakel Helmsdal (The Faroe Islands), is about what I personally assume is a metaphorical presentation of life on the island and As You Wish by Tor Åge Bringsværd (Norway) which tackles a very interesting philosophical question, namely, "Do we have to exploit only because we can?". I was immediately drawn into this universe and would declare this last story my personal winner of the collection.
So there were still a couple of writings which made this work worthwhile for me although most weren't to my personal taste.
For some reason this collection didn't really grab me though, and apart from a couple of stories I couldn't really connect or warm up. This is a purely personal matter, as especially in short stories, I like writings which can convey powerful feelings which hit me hard, and these stories were of the rather mild sort.
My highlights were The False Fisherman by Kaspar Colling Nielsen (Denmark), which shows how to fake it until you make it as a fisherman; The Abyss by Rakel Helmsdal (The Faroe Islands), is about what I personally assume is a metaphorical presentation of life on the island and As You Wish by Tor Åge Bringsværd (Norway) which tackles a very interesting philosophical question, namely, "Do we have to exploit only because we can?". I was immediately drawn into this universe and would declare this last story my personal winner of the collection.
So there were still a couple of writings which made this work worthwhile for me although most weren't to my personal taste.
September 17, 2023
An odyssey into the heart of Nordic storytelling…..
Book Information
“Nordic Visions: The Best of Nordic Speculative Fiction”, edited by Margrét Helgadóttir is a 352-page short story anthology scheduled to be published on October 3, 2023. Thank you to Rebellion Publishing for providing me with an advance reader copy of this book for review.
Summary
This anthology offers a fusion of Nordic speculative fiction, seamlessly blending the dark, noir undertones of Nordic crime fiction with the epic storytelling reminiscent of Icelandic Sagas. These stories, ranging from rational to eccentric, are deeply rooted in their landscapes, exploring themes of isolation and humanity's impact on nature. Featuring Sixteen narratives by leading contemporary speculative authors hailing from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands, this collection promises an immersive journey through the diverse realms of Nordic storytelling.
My Thoughts
"Nordic Visions: The Best of Nordic Speculative Fiction," edited by Margrét Helgadóttir, offers a captivating journey through the world of speculative fiction from the Nordic countries. This anthology showcases an eclectic mix of sixteen stories, each classified by the author's country of origin, providing a unique glimpse into the diverse voices of the Nordic literary landscape.
From Sweden, we encounter the talents of John Ajvide Lindqvist, Maria Haskins, and Karin Tidbeck, whose contributions infuse the anthology with a rich blend of themes. Denmark brings forth the imaginative works of Kaspar Colling Nielsen, Jakob Drud, and Lene Kaaberbø, adding depth and variety to the collection. The Faroe Islands contribute the storytelling of Rakel Helmsdal, while Iceland is represented by the masterful tales of Johann Thorsson and Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson. Norway's presence is felt through the creativity of Tor Åge Bringsværd, Tone Almhjell, Thore Hansen, and Margrét Helgadóttir. Finally, Finland rounds out the anthology with the unique voices of Johanna Sinisalo, Hannu Rajaniemi, and Emmi Itäranta.
One notable feature of "Nordic Visions" is the inclusion of short biographies for each author, making it an excellent introduction to Nordic literary voices for readers unfamiliar with these writers.
The anthology's strength lies in its wide range of topics, encompassing themes such as paranormal, extraterrestrial, sci-fi, technology, folklore, and horror. The stories exhibit remarkable diversity in tones and subject matter, showcasing the breadth of speculative fiction within the Nordic region.
However, it's worth noting that a recurring characteristic of many stories is their abrupt endings, leaving readers wanting more closure. While this might be a characteristic of Nordic or speculative fiction, it could be jarring for those accustomed to more definitive conclusions.
One standout in the anthology is the opening story, "She" by Ajvide Lindqvist, which delivers suspense and tension in a gripping ghost story. Although it offers a fantastic reading experience, some may find the ending a bit vague.
One issue with the book is the lack of clear breaks between stories and the absence of titles for each story within the text. This can make it challenging to discern where one story ends and another begins, disrupting the reader's flow. An introduction to each author or a short teaser for their respective stories would have been immensely helpful in this regard.
Despite this, there are gems to be found within "Nordic Visions." "The Cormorant" by Tone Almhjell and "The Day Jonas Shadowed His Dad" by Thore Hansen are among the stories that stand out.
Additionally, it's worth acknowledging the striking and attention-grabbing book cover, which adds an extra layer of intrigue to this anthology.
Recommendation
"Nordic Visions: The Best of Nordic Speculative Fiction" offers a diverse and intriguing collection of stories from the Nordic region. While it may leave some readers seeking more conclusive endings and a smoother transition between stories, it provides an introduction to the work of talented Nordic authors in the realm of speculative fiction.
Rating
2.5 Nordic Stars
Book Information
“Nordic Visions: The Best of Nordic Speculative Fiction”, edited by Margrét Helgadóttir is a 352-page short story anthology scheduled to be published on October 3, 2023. Thank you to Rebellion Publishing for providing me with an advance reader copy of this book for review.
Summary
This anthology offers a fusion of Nordic speculative fiction, seamlessly blending the dark, noir undertones of Nordic crime fiction with the epic storytelling reminiscent of Icelandic Sagas. These stories, ranging from rational to eccentric, are deeply rooted in their landscapes, exploring themes of isolation and humanity's impact on nature. Featuring Sixteen narratives by leading contemporary speculative authors hailing from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands, this collection promises an immersive journey through the diverse realms of Nordic storytelling.
My Thoughts
"Nordic Visions: The Best of Nordic Speculative Fiction," edited by Margrét Helgadóttir, offers a captivating journey through the world of speculative fiction from the Nordic countries. This anthology showcases an eclectic mix of sixteen stories, each classified by the author's country of origin, providing a unique glimpse into the diverse voices of the Nordic literary landscape.
From Sweden, we encounter the talents of John Ajvide Lindqvist, Maria Haskins, and Karin Tidbeck, whose contributions infuse the anthology with a rich blend of themes. Denmark brings forth the imaginative works of Kaspar Colling Nielsen, Jakob Drud, and Lene Kaaberbø, adding depth and variety to the collection. The Faroe Islands contribute the storytelling of Rakel Helmsdal, while Iceland is represented by the masterful tales of Johann Thorsson and Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson. Norway's presence is felt through the creativity of Tor Åge Bringsværd, Tone Almhjell, Thore Hansen, and Margrét Helgadóttir. Finally, Finland rounds out the anthology with the unique voices of Johanna Sinisalo, Hannu Rajaniemi, and Emmi Itäranta.
One notable feature of "Nordic Visions" is the inclusion of short biographies for each author, making it an excellent introduction to Nordic literary voices for readers unfamiliar with these writers.
The anthology's strength lies in its wide range of topics, encompassing themes such as paranormal, extraterrestrial, sci-fi, technology, folklore, and horror. The stories exhibit remarkable diversity in tones and subject matter, showcasing the breadth of speculative fiction within the Nordic region.
However, it's worth noting that a recurring characteristic of many stories is their abrupt endings, leaving readers wanting more closure. While this might be a characteristic of Nordic or speculative fiction, it could be jarring for those accustomed to more definitive conclusions.
One standout in the anthology is the opening story, "She" by Ajvide Lindqvist, which delivers suspense and tension in a gripping ghost story. Although it offers a fantastic reading experience, some may find the ending a bit vague.
One issue with the book is the lack of clear breaks between stories and the absence of titles for each story within the text. This can make it challenging to discern where one story ends and another begins, disrupting the reader's flow. An introduction to each author or a short teaser for their respective stories would have been immensely helpful in this regard.
Despite this, there are gems to be found within "Nordic Visions." "The Cormorant" by Tone Almhjell and "The Day Jonas Shadowed His Dad" by Thore Hansen are among the stories that stand out.
Additionally, it's worth acknowledging the striking and attention-grabbing book cover, which adds an extra layer of intrigue to this anthology.
Recommendation
"Nordic Visions: The Best of Nordic Speculative Fiction" offers a diverse and intriguing collection of stories from the Nordic region. While it may leave some readers seeking more conclusive endings and a smoother transition between stories, it provides an introduction to the work of talented Nordic authors in the realm of speculative fiction.
Rating
2.5 Nordic Stars
November 13, 2023
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Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
“Nordic Visions” is an anthology of speculative fiction short stories edited by Margrét Helgadóttir, featuring a variety of contemporary Nordic authors. These fifteen stories are grouped by their country of origin, and span different genres: from horror to science fiction and fantasy.
I hadn’t read much Nordic fiction before, so I appreciate the opportunity to do so. I think the only author here whose work I’d read was Lindqvist, with “Let the right one in” (2004).
Here are some brief impressions:
- From Sweden: Lindqvist’s “She” was a terrifying ghost story, and easily one of my favourites from the book. “Lost and found” by Maria Haskins and “Sing” by Karin Tidbeck both dealt with space exploration and colonization, though in different ways. I wish Haskins had been clearer about her character’s motivation, because I liked what I suspected happened, but I’m not sure if I’m right?
- From Denmark: “The false fisherman” by Kaspar Colling Nielsen was an interesting portrait that ultimately dealt with thew different social perceptions of men and women. Jakob Drud’s “Heather country” was a dark and intriguing, yet often confusing, dystopia, and Lene Kaaberbøl’s “The traveller girl” was a simple story of Otherhood.
- From the Faroe Islands: Rakel Helmsdal’s “The abyss” was a little too surrealist for me, I didn’t understand what was going on and it was hard to picture it.
- From Iceland: I enjoyed “The Dreamgiver” by Johann Thorsson, an ominous story with a surprising ending. On the other hand, Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson’s “Hamraborg Babylon” was a sci-fi dystopia that felt overly long and unexplained.
- From Norway: Once again we visit a futuristic space colony in “As you wish”, by Tor Åge Bringsværd, and a grimdark dystopia in “A lion roars in Longyearbyen”, from Helgadóttir. “The cormorant” by Tone Almhjell and “The day Jones shadowed his dad” by Thore Hansen take on a more fantastic quality.
- From Finland: We have two more dystopias from Johanna Sinisalo and Hannu Rajaniemi: “A bird does not sing because it has an answer” and “Elegy for a young elk”. The first one had some interesting ideas and a simple statement ending to make you think, although it was hard to figure out where the story was set. I thought the second one was very confusing. Finally, “The wings that slice the sky” by Emmi Itäranta was a female-centered retelling of the Finnish epic “Kalevala” - sad, but I enjoyed it.
As is evident, this is quite an eclectic collection! Whether you enjoy visiting dystopias and sci-fi settings, or prefer a taste of folk stories, there might be something here for you worth checking out.
Something I wanted to point out is that I think it’s a shame that the editor talks in the introduction about the importance of including all voices, and acknowledges that the Nordic region is also home to indigenous and First Nations peoples, yet she “sadly” didn’t manage to include any of them in this anthology. Why not?
The formatting of my ARC was also not great, unfortunately, which meant I had to constantly refer back to the index to find the title and confirm I’d moved on to a different story.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
“Nordic Visions” is an anthology of speculative fiction short stories edited by Margrét Helgadóttir, featuring a variety of contemporary Nordic authors. These fifteen stories are grouped by their country of origin, and span different genres: from horror to science fiction and fantasy.
I hadn’t read much Nordic fiction before, so I appreciate the opportunity to do so. I think the only author here whose work I’d read was Lindqvist, with “Let the right one in” (2004).
Here are some brief impressions:
- From Sweden: Lindqvist’s “She” was a terrifying ghost story, and easily one of my favourites from the book. “Lost and found” by Maria Haskins and “Sing” by Karin Tidbeck both dealt with space exploration and colonization, though in different ways. I wish Haskins had been clearer about her character’s motivation, because I liked what I suspected happened, but I’m not sure if I’m right?
- From Denmark: “The false fisherman” by Kaspar Colling Nielsen was an interesting portrait that ultimately dealt with thew different social perceptions of men and women. Jakob Drud’s “Heather country” was a dark and intriguing, yet often confusing, dystopia, and Lene Kaaberbøl’s “The traveller girl” was a simple story of Otherhood.
- From the Faroe Islands: Rakel Helmsdal’s “The abyss” was a little too surrealist for me, I didn’t understand what was going on and it was hard to picture it.
- From Iceland: I enjoyed “The Dreamgiver” by Johann Thorsson, an ominous story with a surprising ending. On the other hand, Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson’s “Hamraborg Babylon” was a sci-fi dystopia that felt overly long and unexplained.
- From Norway: Once again we visit a futuristic space colony in “As you wish”, by Tor Åge Bringsværd, and a grimdark dystopia in “A lion roars in Longyearbyen”, from Helgadóttir. “The cormorant” by Tone Almhjell and “The day Jones shadowed his dad” by Thore Hansen take on a more fantastic quality.
- From Finland: We have two more dystopias from Johanna Sinisalo and Hannu Rajaniemi: “A bird does not sing because it has an answer” and “Elegy for a young elk”. The first one had some interesting ideas and a simple statement ending to make you think, although it was hard to figure out where the story was set. I thought the second one was very confusing. Finally, “The wings that slice the sky” by Emmi Itäranta was a female-centered retelling of the Finnish epic “Kalevala” - sad, but I enjoyed it.
As is evident, this is quite an eclectic collection! Whether you enjoy visiting dystopias and sci-fi settings, or prefer a taste of folk stories, there might be something here for you worth checking out.
Something I wanted to point out is that I think it’s a shame that the editor talks in the introduction about the importance of including all voices, and acknowledges that the Nordic region is also home to indigenous and First Nations peoples, yet she “sadly” didn’t manage to include any of them in this anthology. Why not?
The formatting of my ARC was also not great, unfortunately, which meant I had to constantly refer back to the index to find the title and confirm I’d moved on to a different story.
October 10, 2023
“The rattle, the fall, the rope pulled taut, the neck being broken with a crack that made Alice jump and let out a little whimper. Then the dry creaking. And the dripping.”
This definitely had an eclectic mix of stories.
However, the formatting was super strange and annoying in the ARC I received- there were no story titles and some of them just ended and a new one began with no break in between. It was definitely disjointing.
I was also expecting more clear and I guess, obvious, Nordic references or settings in every story, but some were definitely based on/in other places.
The cover art is gorgeous and I definitely enjoyed quite a few stories in this anthology.
Thank you to NetGalley, the authors, and editor, and publishers for a copy!
This definitely had an eclectic mix of stories.
However, the formatting was super strange and annoying in the ARC I received- there were no story titles and some of them just ended and a new one began with no break in between. It was definitely disjointing.
I was also expecting more clear and I guess, obvious, Nordic references or settings in every story, but some were definitely based on/in other places.
The cover art is gorgeous and I definitely enjoyed quite a few stories in this anthology.
Thank you to NetGalley, the authors, and editor, and publishers for a copy!
October 7, 2023
This is an exquisite collection of Nordic short stories. The Nordic countries have a thriving literature scene, which is much more than sagas and thrillers. Kudos for the authors to bring these stories to the rest of the world and for not forgetting The Faroe Islands and Finland. I love the eerie atmosphere in this selection of stories and would definitely recommend it.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
July 8, 2025
3.5 - I really enjoyed the majority of the stories, but didn’t quite connect with them all. Came to appreciate the diversity of genres, with a mix of dark sci-fi, horror fantasy, and feel-good fiction. There were some very intriguing and powerful stories packed in here. It takes a seriously good writer to evoke such emotion in a few short pages. I’ll be looking out for more anthologies in the future!
August 26, 2023
[Blurb goes here]
While not all of the stories are "up there," as it often happens with anthologies, there are a lot of jewels in this one. I mean, one of the authors is John Ajvide Lindqvist (Let Me In, Let The Old Dreams Die).
Most of the tales give you hints here and there about the perils faced by the protagonists or about the part they played in landing in such a situation. I found that sense of "drip-fed information" really interesting. Let me elaborate. When reading the usual short stories, one thing happens often: we get spoon-fed the details. Not here. The reader gets to assemble the puzzle all on their own.
While I've never been a fan of the usual "leave the ending to the reader's imagination," it somehow "clicks" in this collection.
The rich descriptions will put you right there, next to the characters, be it inside a deafening storm or a freezing tundra.
The overall translation is spot on; the tales themselves have a wide range of genres: sci-fi, horror, mystery...
I'll visit this book again in the future, something I don't do often.
A widely recommended read, IMHO.
Thank you for the advanced copy!
While not all of the stories are "up there," as it often happens with anthologies, there are a lot of jewels in this one. I mean, one of the authors is John Ajvide Lindqvist (Let Me In, Let The Old Dreams Die).
Most of the tales give you hints here and there about the perils faced by the protagonists or about the part they played in landing in such a situation. I found that sense of "drip-fed information" really interesting. Let me elaborate. When reading the usual short stories, one thing happens often: we get spoon-fed the details. Not here. The reader gets to assemble the puzzle all on their own.
While I've never been a fan of the usual "leave the ending to the reader's imagination," it somehow "clicks" in this collection.
The rich descriptions will put you right there, next to the characters, be it inside a deafening storm or a freezing tundra.
The overall translation is spot on; the tales themselves have a wide range of genres: sci-fi, horror, mystery...
I'll visit this book again in the future, something I don't do often.
A widely recommended read, IMHO.
Thank you for the advanced copy!
October 20, 2023
I found the first two short stories quiet mind boggling because they were quite different from what I have been use too. The third is like if we like pigs and their shit reminds me of if we were run by the communists. I really dislike this book very much.
September 14, 2023
I was incredibly excited when my request was chosen on Netgalley to receive an ARC (Advanced Review Copy) of Nordic Visions in exchange for an honest review.
Reading horror, science fiction, or fantasy anthologies from different places in the world has become something of a yearly or bi-yearly quest for me. I've read both graphic novel anthologies and short story anthologies featuring Indigenous authors, Northern Canadian authors, Chinese authors, or anthologies that feature only women or only LGBTQ+. It is truly a great way to be introduced to authors that you may not hear of otherwise.
Nordic Visions covers all three of the aforementioned genres and is a great introduction to writing from Nordic authors. There were various niches of each genre represented, and it made for an eclectic grouping of stories. A good few of the stories lingered in my thoughts after reading them, as is the goal of speculative fiction. However, a few more just didn't grip me. That said, though, I think this is one of those anthologies where different stories are going to appeal to different people, and the editor chose stories purposefully for this reason. My standout stories include "The First Night," "The Dreamgiver," and "A Lion Roars in Longyearbyen."
The one thing I would have liked was an introduction to the author of each story or the inspiration behind choosing or writing each story. I think it would have helped set the tone of the whole book, especially for those of us who didn't grow up in a Nordic country. I'd definitely recommend this book for anyone looking for a place to start reading Scadinavian genre authors and to broaden their horizons from the more well-known authors in this region.
Reading horror, science fiction, or fantasy anthologies from different places in the world has become something of a yearly or bi-yearly quest for me. I've read both graphic novel anthologies and short story anthologies featuring Indigenous authors, Northern Canadian authors, Chinese authors, or anthologies that feature only women or only LGBTQ+. It is truly a great way to be introduced to authors that you may not hear of otherwise.
Nordic Visions covers all three of the aforementioned genres and is a great introduction to writing from Nordic authors. There were various niches of each genre represented, and it made for an eclectic grouping of stories. A good few of the stories lingered in my thoughts after reading them, as is the goal of speculative fiction. However, a few more just didn't grip me. That said, though, I think this is one of those anthologies where different stories are going to appeal to different people, and the editor chose stories purposefully for this reason. My standout stories include "The First Night," "The Dreamgiver," and "A Lion Roars in Longyearbyen."
The one thing I would have liked was an introduction to the author of each story or the inspiration behind choosing or writing each story. I think it would have helped set the tone of the whole book, especially for those of us who didn't grow up in a Nordic country. I'd definitely recommend this book for anyone looking for a place to start reading Scadinavian genre authors and to broaden their horizons from the more well-known authors in this region.
October 9, 2023
Very interesting and varied selection of recent SF, Fantasy and Horror tales from the Scandinavian areas. Lots to enjoy and a fascinating theme of people living (or trying to) alongside their natural world
Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
July 3, 2024
I might be jumping the gun here - but I think this will be my favorite book this summer. All the shorts in this book are good, all is not for me, but I dislike none. They are written in the Nordic spirit, and I am in love with the concept of this anthology. Please make another one of these 🙏🙏
June 22, 2024
4.5 stars, rounded up to 5. Not all of the stories were wow, but some of them really were something else.
September 30, 2023
Some of these were ok. Strong opener but then a bit of a let down from most subsequent stories. Lots of muddled imagery and weird translations. The stories just didn’t seem to work well together as a collection.
September 26, 2023
An interesting collection of short fiction, with a decent mix of stories to choose from. Back with a more considered review soon.
February 21, 2025
This book was serviceable to good. Nothing fantastic, but nothing really really terrible. I read it while lying next to a pool and it was a good low-commitment read. I think it suffers from the fact that neither the first story nor the last story are particularly strong.
Does reading this make me want to read more “Nordic spec fic”? Honestly, no, but tbf the stories in this are just regular old spec fic set (mostly) in Nordic settings - as far as I could tell, there was no particular insight or tone that made these “Nordic.” Or, there was nothing “Nordic” about these that distinguished them in substance from anything else. I doubt that was intentional, although hey, who knows!
Thoughts below, including spoilers for some of the short stories -
SWEDEN
She, by John Ajvide Lindqvist (trans. Marlaine Delargy) - I did not like that the twist was anti-Semitism/the Holocaust/etc. I can see that the author meant this to imply that “these cheapskates deserved what they got” by importing the cheap (haunted) Polish (Nazi) oak wood for their house, but when the alternative was ~good honest Swedish~ wood, it felt like the implication was that Swedishness is somehow pure and the evil Nazism etc. happens somewhere else and just gets imported in.
I can see also that the author added in the husband’s Nazi grandfather to try to address that, but I just don’t think it worked where the Nazi grandfather did his Nazism in Poland, that ~sketchy~ place, rather than Sweden. And meanwhile the main characters had already been established as this couple who loved each other and were trying to have a child - they were just set up to be too sympathetic, like they were careless and venal at worst and that’s the reason they got wrapped up in this Polish/German ~continental darkness~ or whatever.
I just don’t think anything that happened to the Swedes in this was enough to cosmically balance out the horror of the Jewish girl being lynched - and then being lynched again and again as a ghost. There wasn’t enough blame laid, I guess - the heinousness of that crime feels like it’s mostly blamed on the haunted foreign wood which the Swedes stupidly brought into their country.
And the fact that the story ends with the ghost maybe free but the couple totally alive and fine… it’s like Lindqvist wasn’t willing to pull that final trigger and have actual harm come to anyone Swedish, so instead the story ends with the Jewish woman having been brutally murdered and having to reenact that again and again without being able to avenge her death in any way on-page, while (1) Nazi grandpa died rich and happy, and (2) yuppie Swedish couple are totally fine, still, just a little sleep-deprived. Not satisfying!
*
Lost and Found, by Maria Haskins - Good, not great. My impression may have been colored by having read Invincible by Stanisław Lem directly before this, which touches on some of the same themes but does them god-tier.
*
Sing, by Karin Tidbeck - Dark Becky Chambers (complimentary).
*
DENMARK
The False Fisherman, by Kaspar Colling Nielsen (trans. Olivia Lasky) - funny, pointless, exactly the right length bc it couldn’t have gone longer.
*
Heather Country, by Jakob Drud - Basic (tm).
*
The Traveller Girl, by Lee Kaaberbøl - Decent, with a great last line. I appreciate that this ended realistically & empathetically, rather than in the cliché I expected. (I did not love the exotic, helpful, magically sensitive Travelers, especially coming so quickly after reading Conrad’s Fate by DWJ which had apparently the EXACT same group of Travelers conveniently come through…)
*
FAROE ISLANDS
The Abyss, by Rakel Helmsdal (trans. Marita Thomsen) - Weird and almost pointless, but also great. I liked the full commitment to dream logic.
*
ICELAND
The Dreamgiver, by Johann Thorsson - short, bitter, effective.
*
Hamraborg Babylon, by Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson (trans. Quentin Bates) - decent, but definitely too long for what it was.
*
NORWAY
As You Wish, by Tor Åge Bringsværd (trans. Olivia Lasky) - capital-w Weird. Reminded me of a short film I saw years ago on a rooftop iirc in Sunset Park about a guy in a motel whose TV kept turning to the same strange guy talking to him from the screen with orange spirals in the background, and then he would suddenly be in the woods, and he kept going back to the motel and turning on the tv, and then the guy appeared in a zit on his forehead. In other words, if you don’t make the decision, the decision will make you lol.
*
The Cormorant, by Tone Almhjell - fine, but didn’t go far enough in any direction to reach originality.
*
The Day Jonas Shadowed His Dad, by Thore Hansen (trans. Olivia Lasky) - started interestingly but didn’t really go anywhere (ironically).
*
A Lion Roars in Longyearbyen, by Margrét Helgadóttir - fine. I liked one of the three POVs/plotlines, but the assassin and publicist ones didn’t really do anything.
*
FINLAND
A Bird Does Not Sing Because It Has an Answer, by Johanna Sinisalo - I am neutral on this one. I actually forgot completely what it was about in between reading it and finishing the next two stories/writing this. I think it was trying to say something but the author hasn’t thought it through enough for it to be moving.
*
Elegy for a Young Elk, by Hannu Rajaniemi - I liked the idea of the son becoming a city, but I wasn’t particularly moved by the wannabe wilderness poet dad protagonist.
*
The Wings that Slice the Sky, by Emmi Itäranta - I understand this is meant to be a feminist retelling of the Kalevala where the evil witch is actually the heroine etc etc. I liked the last line but it took too long to get there, and I’m just not particularly moved by this kind of retelling where it’s just - the exact same story, but more clear about how depressing and sexist it is. Give me a little more creativity, give me a little more fun or pathos or SOMEthing other than “then the women suffered some more, in ways that you’re already familiar with.”
The version of this I read was published in 2023 by Solaris, an imprint of Rebellion Publishing (Oxford, UK), and printed in Denmark. The front cover was just the teeniest bit shorter than the first page, which led to immediate page-edge wrinkling, but other than that the book was good/standard in terms of font/design/etc. The cover was done by Head Design (London, UK). Rebellion was credited for the design/typesetting.
Does reading this make me want to read more “Nordic spec fic”? Honestly, no, but tbf the stories in this are just regular old spec fic set (mostly) in Nordic settings - as far as I could tell, there was no particular insight or tone that made these “Nordic.” Or, there was nothing “Nordic” about these that distinguished them in substance from anything else. I doubt that was intentional, although hey, who knows!
Thoughts below, including spoilers for some of the short stories -
SWEDEN
She, by John Ajvide Lindqvist (trans. Marlaine Delargy) - I did not like that the twist was anti-Semitism/the Holocaust/etc. I can see that the author meant this to imply that “these cheapskates deserved what they got” by importing the cheap (haunted) Polish (Nazi) oak wood for their house, but when the alternative was ~good honest Swedish~ wood, it felt like the implication was that Swedishness is somehow pure and the evil Nazism etc. happens somewhere else and just gets imported in.
I can see also that the author added in the husband’s Nazi grandfather to try to address that, but I just don’t think it worked where the Nazi grandfather did his Nazism in Poland, that ~sketchy~ place, rather than Sweden. And meanwhile the main characters had already been established as this couple who loved each other and were trying to have a child - they were just set up to be too sympathetic, like they were careless and venal at worst and that’s the reason they got wrapped up in this Polish/German ~continental darkness~ or whatever.
I just don’t think anything that happened to the Swedes in this was enough to cosmically balance out the horror of the Jewish girl being lynched - and then being lynched again and again as a ghost. There wasn’t enough blame laid, I guess - the heinousness of that crime feels like it’s mostly blamed on the haunted foreign wood which the Swedes stupidly brought into their country.
And the fact that the story ends with the ghost maybe free but the couple totally alive and fine… it’s like Lindqvist wasn’t willing to pull that final trigger and have actual harm come to anyone Swedish, so instead the story ends with the Jewish woman having been brutally murdered and having to reenact that again and again without being able to avenge her death in any way on-page, while (1) Nazi grandpa died rich and happy, and (2) yuppie Swedish couple are totally fine, still, just a little sleep-deprived. Not satisfying!
*
Lost and Found, by Maria Haskins - Good, not great. My impression may have been colored by having read Invincible by Stanisław Lem directly before this, which touches on some of the same themes but does them god-tier.
*
Sing, by Karin Tidbeck - Dark Becky Chambers (complimentary).
*
DENMARK
The False Fisherman, by Kaspar Colling Nielsen (trans. Olivia Lasky) - funny, pointless, exactly the right length bc it couldn’t have gone longer.
*
Heather Country, by Jakob Drud - Basic (tm).
*
The Traveller Girl, by Lee Kaaberbøl - Decent, with a great last line. I appreciate that this ended realistically & empathetically, rather than in the cliché I expected. (I did not love the exotic, helpful, magically sensitive Travelers, especially coming so quickly after reading Conrad’s Fate by DWJ which had apparently the EXACT same group of Travelers conveniently come through…)
*
FAROE ISLANDS
The Abyss, by Rakel Helmsdal (trans. Marita Thomsen) - Weird and almost pointless, but also great. I liked the full commitment to dream logic.
*
ICELAND
The Dreamgiver, by Johann Thorsson - short, bitter, effective.
*
Hamraborg Babylon, by Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson (trans. Quentin Bates) - decent, but definitely too long for what it was.
*
NORWAY
As You Wish, by Tor Åge Bringsværd (trans. Olivia Lasky) - capital-w Weird. Reminded me of a short film I saw years ago on a rooftop iirc in Sunset Park about a guy in a motel whose TV kept turning to the same strange guy talking to him from the screen with orange spirals in the background, and then he would suddenly be in the woods, and he kept going back to the motel and turning on the tv, and then the guy appeared in a zit on his forehead. In other words, if you don’t make the decision, the decision will make you lol.
*
The Cormorant, by Tone Almhjell - fine, but didn’t go far enough in any direction to reach originality.
*
The Day Jonas Shadowed His Dad, by Thore Hansen (trans. Olivia Lasky) - started interestingly but didn’t really go anywhere (ironically).
*
A Lion Roars in Longyearbyen, by Margrét Helgadóttir - fine. I liked one of the three POVs/plotlines, but the assassin and publicist ones didn’t really do anything.
*
FINLAND
A Bird Does Not Sing Because It Has an Answer, by Johanna Sinisalo - I am neutral on this one. I actually forgot completely what it was about in between reading it and finishing the next two stories/writing this. I think it was trying to say something but the author hasn’t thought it through enough for it to be moving.
*
Elegy for a Young Elk, by Hannu Rajaniemi - I liked the idea of the son becoming a city, but I wasn’t particularly moved by the wannabe wilderness poet dad protagonist.
*
The Wings that Slice the Sky, by Emmi Itäranta - I understand this is meant to be a feminist retelling of the Kalevala where the evil witch is actually the heroine etc etc. I liked the last line but it took too long to get there, and I’m just not particularly moved by this kind of retelling where it’s just - the exact same story, but more clear about how depressing and sexist it is. Give me a little more creativity, give me a little more fun or pathos or SOMEthing other than “then the women suffered some more, in ways that you’re already familiar with.”
The version of this I read was published in 2023 by Solaris, an imprint of Rebellion Publishing (Oxford, UK), and printed in Denmark. The front cover was just the teeniest bit shorter than the first page, which led to immediate page-edge wrinkling, but other than that the book was good/standard in terms of font/design/etc. The cover was done by Head Design (London, UK). Rebellion was credited for the design/typesetting.
January 24, 2024
A very interesting collection of speculative stories from Scandinavia. Was their a 'Nordic'-atmosphere in these stories? I think there was a peculiar feel to most of them. I haven't read enough fiction from these countries to really explore my suspicions and give evidence, but I felt in these stories a kind of stillness and isolation, the feeling of man alone in nature (nature being beautiful and dangerous at the same time). Home as a sanctuary was explored here, but also the close relationship people must have with nature and with each other to survive the harsh winters of the region. A relationship that can sour on a dime. The horror in here often had a bit of a dry, wry tone to it, that I could appreciate.
The stories in here were ordered by the country of origin of the author. On the basis of this collecion, I must say my interest in Finnish SFF is definitely piqued. But then I already was a fan of Hanny Rajaniemi. Sadly his story included here is not a new one, but one that I had already read, in his 'Collected Fiction' for one. I had hoped to read something new by him - but later this year we'll get a new novel, so I just have to be more patient. His story, 'Elegy for a Young Elk' is one of his trademark 'post singularity' stories, with computertechnology developed so far as to seem almost like magic, but people still remaining people. I didn't mind reading it again in this collection. 'A bird does not sing because it has an answer' by Johanna Sinisalo was almost as good and combined far future technology with an environmentalist streak (a theme that returned more in this collection). The Kalevala-retelling 'The wings that slice the sky' by Emmi Itäranta was a powerful mythical story, that kept me involved and made me interested in the source material.
The stories from other countries were not all that strong. Some very good ones were the touching 'A lion roars in Longyearbyen', from editor Margrét Helgadóttir herself, that had the relationship between men and nature at its heart. 'Sing' by Karin Tidbeck was a great SF-tale about another world where the moons have a strange effect on life and one person arrives who wants to stay and another wants to leave. Great characterisation. The guilt and mental anguish in Sf-nal survival story 'Lost and Found' was also well realised, even if I would have liked a bit more clarity myself. The opening story 'She' was a great ghost story, with a wry twist in the end. There were more ghost stories with wry twists in here, like 'The Dreamgiver' by Johann Thorsson that made me smile at the end. Lene Kaaberbøl’s 'The traveller girl' was more of a folk tale than fantasy, but in all its seeming simplicity the story of community and otherhood was powerful.
The other stories didn't stand out to me. 'The day Jonas shadowed his dad' by Thore Hansen for example was a great fable like tale about growing up and imagination, that would have been even better if it was just a bit longer, with more of a conclusion. Some other stories , like Rakel Helmsdal’s surrealist dreamlike story 'The abyss' and the bewildering landscape of Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson’s 'Hamraborg Babylon', felt more like images or fragments, created to convey mood, but not narrative. I would have like more conclusive stories (when coupled with the prose and imagery they would be very good, I feel, now I was let down by their puttering out).
All in all a good collection, recommended for short story lovers wanting to explore international SFF.
The stories in here were ordered by the country of origin of the author. On the basis of this collecion, I must say my interest in Finnish SFF is definitely piqued. But then I already was a fan of Hanny Rajaniemi. Sadly his story included here is not a new one, but one that I had already read, in his 'Collected Fiction' for one. I had hoped to read something new by him - but later this year we'll get a new novel, so I just have to be more patient. His story, 'Elegy for a Young Elk' is one of his trademark 'post singularity' stories, with computertechnology developed so far as to seem almost like magic, but people still remaining people. I didn't mind reading it again in this collection. 'A bird does not sing because it has an answer' by Johanna Sinisalo was almost as good and combined far future technology with an environmentalist streak (a theme that returned more in this collection). The Kalevala-retelling 'The wings that slice the sky' by Emmi Itäranta was a powerful mythical story, that kept me involved and made me interested in the source material.
The stories from other countries were not all that strong. Some very good ones were the touching 'A lion roars in Longyearbyen', from editor Margrét Helgadóttir herself, that had the relationship between men and nature at its heart. 'Sing' by Karin Tidbeck was a great SF-tale about another world where the moons have a strange effect on life and one person arrives who wants to stay and another wants to leave. Great characterisation. The guilt and mental anguish in Sf-nal survival story 'Lost and Found' was also well realised, even if I would have liked a bit more clarity myself. The opening story 'She' was a great ghost story, with a wry twist in the end. There were more ghost stories with wry twists in here, like 'The Dreamgiver' by Johann Thorsson that made me smile at the end. Lene Kaaberbøl’s 'The traveller girl' was more of a folk tale than fantasy, but in all its seeming simplicity the story of community and otherhood was powerful.
The other stories didn't stand out to me. 'The day Jonas shadowed his dad' by Thore Hansen for example was a great fable like tale about growing up and imagination, that would have been even better if it was just a bit longer, with more of a conclusion. Some other stories , like Rakel Helmsdal’s surrealist dreamlike story 'The abyss' and the bewildering landscape of Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson’s 'Hamraborg Babylon', felt more like images or fragments, created to convey mood, but not narrative. I would have like more conclusive stories (when coupled with the prose and imagery they would be very good, I feel, now I was let down by their puttering out).
All in all a good collection, recommended for short story lovers wanting to explore international SFF.
September 11, 2023
First of all, many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for kindly offering an ARC to review! ‘Nordic Visions’ was a great read, especially since I had no idea Scandinavian fiction went beyond thrillers and crime books. I was aware of John Ajvide Lindqvist, of course, after the English translations of his consistently brilliant output, and Hannu Rajaniemi was not unknown to me, as he’s been a widely acknowledged terrific science fiction author (his story in the anthology, in fact, has already appeared many times before in English SF anthologies). The rest, however, I'd never heard of before and were totally unfamiliar to me. Consider my eyes opened: I'd love to read more English translations of Scandinavian speculative fiction, and if this awesome anthology gives any indication, Nordic authors have great stories up their sleeves, all of which would make a fantastic contribution to the genre, whether weird fiction, horror, fantasy or science-fiction.
‘Nordic Visions’ offers sixteen stories classified by country of origin, though this does not really matter since the stories’ settings and the country of the author often diverge, going for literary enjoyment rather than setting up some sort of ‘Nordic fiction’ or something similar. Perhaps this explains the lack of non-fictional essays and/or commentaries or story notes, providing us a glimpse into the context of the stories. Taking them at face value, they are all connected via the common theme of technology, folklore, and the contrast of the natural to the mythical or the scientific. Some good honest horror is included, too, creepy and atmospheric tales such as “The Dreamgiver” by Johann Thorsson and ”She” by Lindqvist himself. Along with these two amazing stories, my particular standouts were “Heather Country” by Jakob Drud, “As You Wish” by Tor Åge Bringsværd, “The Cormorant” by Tone Almhjell, the superb “A Lion Roars in Longyearbyen” by Margrét Helgadóttir, and the sublime “A Bird Does Not Sing Because It Has an Answer” by Johanna Sinisalo. Reading just these convinced me that Scandinavian speculative fiction has much to offer and should be translated into English as soon as possible!
‘Nordic Visions’ offers sixteen stories classified by country of origin, though this does not really matter since the stories’ settings and the country of the author often diverge, going for literary enjoyment rather than setting up some sort of ‘Nordic fiction’ or something similar. Perhaps this explains the lack of non-fictional essays and/or commentaries or story notes, providing us a glimpse into the context of the stories. Taking them at face value, they are all connected via the common theme of technology, folklore, and the contrast of the natural to the mythical or the scientific. Some good honest horror is included, too, creepy and atmospheric tales such as “The Dreamgiver” by Johann Thorsson and ”She” by Lindqvist himself. Along with these two amazing stories, my particular standouts were “Heather Country” by Jakob Drud, “As You Wish” by Tor Åge Bringsværd, “The Cormorant” by Tone Almhjell, the superb “A Lion Roars in Longyearbyen” by Margrét Helgadóttir, and the sublime “A Bird Does Not Sing Because It Has an Answer” by Johanna Sinisalo. Reading just these convinced me that Scandinavian speculative fiction has much to offer and should be translated into English as soon as possible!
September 21, 2025
I’m thankful to be able to read this collection of short stories from Nordic authors. I liked this for the most part: there were some terrifically varied stories in this collection.
If I were to give an average rating of 3/5 for the 16 stories in this collection, it would be a total score of 48. After scoring each story, I had an overall score of 54.
My favorite stories from this collection (5/5 scores ) were:
Sweden - Sing by Karin Tidbeck - great intro, intriguing world and a thoroughly enjoyable story
Iceland - The Dreamgiver by Johanna Thorsson - Freaky! Some great visceral writing that I felt throughout the story.
Iceland - Hamraborg Babylon by Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson - Atmospheric world that I felt like I wanted more in that world!
Norway - As You Wish by Tor Åge Bringsværd - Really tense and interesting story that made me do a lot of thinking after reading.
Finland - A Bird Does Not Sing Because It Has An Answer by Johanna Sinisalo - Loved the premise and was amazing fleshed out for being a short story
That being said, all stories were well done and I didn’t feel like any weren’t well done in some way. The book says it showcases tales of the dark, fantastical and delightfully strange from the best voices in Nordic fiction and I’d absolutely attest to this.
If I were to give an average rating of 3/5 for the 16 stories in this collection, it would be a total score of 48. After scoring each story, I had an overall score of 54.
My favorite stories from this collection (5/5 scores ) were:
Sweden - Sing by Karin Tidbeck - great intro, intriguing world and a thoroughly enjoyable story
Iceland - The Dreamgiver by Johanna Thorsson - Freaky! Some great visceral writing that I felt throughout the story.
Iceland - Hamraborg Babylon by Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson - Atmospheric world that I felt like I wanted more in that world!
Norway - As You Wish by Tor Åge Bringsværd - Really tense and interesting story that made me do a lot of thinking after reading.
Finland - A Bird Does Not Sing Because It Has An Answer by Johanna Sinisalo - Loved the premise and was amazing fleshed out for being a short story
That being said, all stories were well done and I didn’t feel like any weren’t well done in some way. The book says it showcases tales of the dark, fantastical and delightfully strange from the best voices in Nordic fiction and I’d absolutely attest to this.
September 1, 2023
Thanks to the publisher for providing me with an ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.
Full review here.
Like most short story collections out there (that I've read at least), this anthology doesn't contain only hits, however, for me, this anthology has no misses. At worst, some of the stories just fizzled out without a proper ending (a problem that I've had with many short stories), but they're not bad. And at best, some of these stories are probably gonna stick in my mind for a while, which isn't very common for short stories. The stories here are really diverse and different from each other, from horror, to science fiction, fantasy, and even things in between those genres, this anthology had it all. Some of my favorite stories here include "She" by John Ajvide Lindqvist (the writer of "Let the Right One In") with its gripping horror, "A Lion Roars in Longyearbyen" by Margrét Helgadóttir, a brilliant short story that uses multiple PoVs really well, and "The Dreamgiver" by Johann Thorsson that reminded me of Neil Gaiman's Sandman in the best ways.
Full review here.
Like most short story collections out there (that I've read at least), this anthology doesn't contain only hits, however, for me, this anthology has no misses. At worst, some of the stories just fizzled out without a proper ending (a problem that I've had with many short stories), but they're not bad. And at best, some of these stories are probably gonna stick in my mind for a while, which isn't very common for short stories. The stories here are really diverse and different from each other, from horror, to science fiction, fantasy, and even things in between those genres, this anthology had it all. Some of my favorite stories here include "She" by John Ajvide Lindqvist (the writer of "Let the Right One In") with its gripping horror, "A Lion Roars in Longyearbyen" by Margrét Helgadóttir, a brilliant short story that uses multiple PoVs really well, and "The Dreamgiver" by Johann Thorsson that reminded me of Neil Gaiman's Sandman in the best ways.
November 5, 2023
Thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion Publishing for providing me with an advanced copy of this text in exchange for a honest review.
'Nordic Visions: The Best of Nordic Speculative Fiction' is a selection of short stories written by Speculative Fiction authors from the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway etc.) with the themes often focusing on the dark and surreal.
I found that this selection of stories was interesting to read, with a few in particular grabbing my interest, such as "The Cormorant" by Tone Almhjell and "She" by John Ajvide Lindqvist. However my main qualms come from the ranging genres of stories that are contained, I feel that one genre throughout would've gripped me much more!
The cover artwork for this book is utterly stunning and it belongs on anyone's bookshelf for that alone!
'Nordic Visions: The Best of Nordic Speculative Fiction' is a very interesting and great introduction to reading speculative fiction and I would definitely recommend reading a few of these stories to my fellow book fans!
⭐⭐⭐/5
'Nordic Visions: The Best of Nordic Speculative Fiction' is a selection of short stories written by Speculative Fiction authors from the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway etc.) with the themes often focusing on the dark and surreal.
I found that this selection of stories was interesting to read, with a few in particular grabbing my interest, such as "The Cormorant" by Tone Almhjell and "She" by John Ajvide Lindqvist. However my main qualms come from the ranging genres of stories that are contained, I feel that one genre throughout would've gripped me much more!
The cover artwork for this book is utterly stunning and it belongs on anyone's bookshelf for that alone!
'Nordic Visions: The Best of Nordic Speculative Fiction' is a very interesting and great introduction to reading speculative fiction and I would definitely recommend reading a few of these stories to my fellow book fans!
⭐⭐⭐/5
January 31, 2025
This collection once again confirmed that I need to read more John Ajvide Lindqvist. Mike Flanagan collaboration on that first short story when!?
The rest of the stories were also enjoyable, but the first one was frankly the strongest. I would've prefered it as a closer rather than an opener. In general, the tone of the collection was unclear as "speculative fiction" was taken to mean anything non-realistic: folk tales, horror, scifi, fantasy. I did however appreciate getting a taste of a writer from most (all?) Nordic nations.
Ill admit that my expectations were partially shaped by the excellent Never Whistle at Night, a short story collection of dark fiction by authors indigenous to North America. And also partially shaped with the incredible John Ajvide Lindqvist short story collection, Let the Old Dreams Die. This was my least favorite of the 3, and I leave it with a 2.75 stars.
The rest of the stories were also enjoyable, but the first one was frankly the strongest. I would've prefered it as a closer rather than an opener. In general, the tone of the collection was unclear as "speculative fiction" was taken to mean anything non-realistic: folk tales, horror, scifi, fantasy. I did however appreciate getting a taste of a writer from most (all?) Nordic nations.
Ill admit that my expectations were partially shaped by the excellent Never Whistle at Night, a short story collection of dark fiction by authors indigenous to North America. And also partially shaped with the incredible John Ajvide Lindqvist short story collection, Let the Old Dreams Die. This was my least favorite of the 3, and I leave it with a 2.75 stars.
January 5, 2024
Nordic Visions is a collection of short stories, and thus it’s a bit inconsistent by nature—there are highs and lows. None of the lows are THAT bad, but weak links do exist. I personally found the first tale (a great ghost story by John Ajvide Lindqvist, of Let the Right One In fame) and the last tale (a fantastic retelling of The Kalevala from Dame Louhi’s perspective by Emmi Itäranta) to be the best. Inbetween it varies with some fun stories, some atmospheric stories, and some weak stories. Overall, the book is a solid compendium of Nordic speculative fiction (heavier on scifi than fantasy or horror) which is a part of the world very much overlooked in the English-speaking lands for the genre.
May 27, 2025
She 4
Lost And Found 3
Sing 3
The False Fisherman 4
Heather Country 2
The Traveller Girl 2
The Abyss 3
The Dreamgiver 4
Hamraborg Babylon 5
As You Wish 5
The Cormorant 2
The Day Jonas Shadowed His Dad 1
A Lion Roars in Longyearbyen 3
A Bird Does Not Sing Because It Has An Answer 3
Elegy For A Young Elk 5
The Wings That Slice The Sky 4
Lost And Found 3
Sing 3
The False Fisherman 4
Heather Country 2
The Traveller Girl 2
The Abyss 3
The Dreamgiver 4
Hamraborg Babylon 5
As You Wish 5
The Cormorant 2
The Day Jonas Shadowed His Dad 1
A Lion Roars in Longyearbyen 3
A Bird Does Not Sing Because It Has An Answer 3
Elegy For A Young Elk 5
The Wings That Slice The Sky 4
June 26, 2024
Comme toujours avec ces recueils certaines nouvelles nous accrochent et d'autres non, mais celles qui m'ont plu m'ont beaucoup plu. Je recommande ++
January 15, 2025
3.75 stars. Interesting to see the Nordic take on spec fic
March 11, 2025
Very mixed short stories, loved the first few but they became increasingly average.
December 3, 2024
My top 5:
1) The Cormorant
2) The Dreamgiver
3) The False Fisherman
4) The Abyss
5) The Traveller Girl
1) The Cormorant
2) The Dreamgiver
3) The False Fisherman
4) The Abyss
5) The Traveller Girl
December 3, 2025
Loved some of these! Was cool to read about Nordic myths and spirituality,,
January 16, 2024
This collection of stories from outside the usual Anglosphere of science fiction writings gives me hope for the future of "speculative" literature; hence, it's a pretty good way to kick off my 2024 in reading. I'd meant to read this is 2023 as part of my "read-more-translated-fiction" goals, but one thing led to another and now I'm coming from you of January of 2024. I'd like to go through each story in this collection one-by-one, but first, give a quick overview on its virtues.
About half of this collection is science fiction and half is fantasy (besides the opening story, there's really not much for horror). I found the SF half much better than the fantasy (probably because of who I am), but I thought both modes of genre were interesting and worthwhile. The science fiction is largely entrenched in the inference-based worldbuilding that runs through a lot of contemporary English-language SF, but its done in a more engaging way than that. There seems to be less of a focus on identity politics and more of a focus on... well, everything else, and it just feels different and more committed to the stories and worlds they writers have dreamt up. The fantasy stories have a similar Nordic flavor on the surface of it, but the stories really are just retellings of similar myths and morals that most of the triter fantasy of today seems to be concerned with. It's largely good and well-written, but it's not as inventive. Alright, enough of me being a critic; let's talk about the stories one-by-one.
SWEDEN:
--"She" by John Ajvide Lindqvist (the guy who wrote *Let the Right One In*) is the book's first and only bona fide horror story. It's about a young couple who have just moved into a new house, but the husband keeps waking up in the middle of the night to the sound and then sight of . The couple's reaction to this gruesome horror is pretty well done and, I think, realistic; denial, the Internet, and sleep deprivation all play their role in the events leading to . The explanation to everything is predictable but subtle at the same time, and the more I think about it the more this story *works*. Still, it's just a haunting for me, so it gets 7.5/10.
--"Lost and Found" by Maria Haskins is probably my least favorite SF story in the collection. It's from the overly paranoid yet stranded perspective of a woman who's the last surviving member of an exoplanet exploration team as she tries recording weather patterns from a colonization-candidate's surface. I don't think I was in the right space when reading so it's not entirely Haskins' fault, but I felt it to be a bit thin even through the commentary on mental health. It didn't connect even though the ending where is pretty well-done. 7/10.
--On the other hand, "Sing" by Karin Tidbeck is one of the collection's highlights. It's about a man who journeys to a planet in order to study their lichen and his growing interest in the culture and how it deals with the strange moons/artificial objects orbiting the world that dictates what sounds can be heard when they're in the sky. For example, when one of the "moons" is up no one can speak audibly, just "sing"; this singing is some strange acclimation to the planet that is prescribed at birth, and the man's quest to discover it puts him into a precarious situation with the local shopkeeping woman who he's become close with despite her deformities. It's kind of a deep story with a strange world that's a perfect representation of this book's approach to SF while showcasing a rather LeGuin-ian style. It's stuck with me and has fermented into something greater; 8.25/10.
DENMARK:
--"The False Fisherman" by Kaspar Colling Nielsen isn't really a speculative story, but there sure is something weird about the main character, a middle-aged man who's never fished before but has invested himself in the hobby and fishes all the time despite only ever catching one fish. This new hobby seems to change him and his relationship with his wife and children in a strange, possibly Eldritch way; it was a bit unnerving and thoroughly engrossing despite being more or less about nothing. Or possibly, everything. 7.5/10.
--Jakob Drud's "Heather Country" is another standout. It takes place in a "post-impact" Denmark (remember, context- and inference-based worldbuilding here) where our main character is an indentured servant to this nation-state-corporation that won't let him go because he's so good at completing odd jobs for them, like finding the son of a heather farmer up north (they use heather for energy in this future). This guy gets a different servant's head implanted into his spine for this job, which is also wonderfully revealed. The delivery about this off-kilter world and the way that the main characters insert themselves into the world of heather farmers, pig farmers, and youthful teenage rebellion is pretty cool, and I just loved the concept of this Witcher-esque main character and would love to read more about him. Another brilliantly-laid-out SF story; 8.25/10.
--"The Traveler Girl" by Lene Kaaberbol, in which a boy engaged to the princess meets a wild and untamed nomad (Traveler) girl and grows suspicious of his father-in-law-to-be's angry treatment of the wanderers, is the first of these fantasy stories which tread literary water but manage to bring their own native flair to the story. It's not anything too special, but the more I think about this one the more the main character's growth sticks with me. The hallmark of short stories (more so than novels) is how well they stick and grow with you, and so far, every story in this book accomplished that. 7.5.
THE FAROE ISLANDS
--I saw a lot of Nordics cite the inclusion of an author from the Faroe Islands (Rakel Helmsdal and her story "The Abyss") as a major cap in the editor's feather, and while I don't love this story, I can definitely appreciate this region's inclusion and cite it when calling this an authentic anthology that all readers interested in this geological area's fiction should read. The story itself is this strange fantastical tale of a girl who lives her life on this big ladder mired in this abyss, and while it lacks the subtle worldbuilding and the poise of the other stories' characters, it keeps up the good writing and makes me think that this ladder-world is drawn from Nordic mythology that would make more sense and have more of an impact if I was from this area. I still enjoyed it and its weirdness, just not to a huge degree. 7/10.
ICELAND:
--"The Dreamgiver" by Johann Thorsson is a contemporary fantasy about a dreamcatcher used to catch a young child's nightmares and his father's encounters with . It's not hugely potent, but its atmosphere is strong and I do feel like it's drawn from an intriguingly alien culture. 7.25/10
--"Hamraborg Babylon" by Alexander Dan Vilhjalmsson is one of the more confusing stories here. It's about this woman entering into this decadent technological city under the ruins of an old metropolis. She's searching for something - the - but despite the atmosphere's oozing of decay and how it intersects with technology, it didn't click with me. It feels like a Darnoc problem, though, so I maybe I should give this another go someday. 7.25
NORWAY:
--We keep the SF-train going with Tor Age Bringvaerd's "As You Wish," a near-future story about a bunch of sex robots meant to service miners whose appearances can be changed based on the whims of those they're servicing. The ending (when the man who administration frowns upon for being nice to his sexbot and treating it like a real woman ) is creepy but a bit ambiguous so I'm not really sure what the point was, but depictions of institutionalized sex robots are always creepy and the way that the mine's overseers frown upon faux-human connections might just betray deeper ways that technology is used by the bad people in charge of the world. 7.75/10.
--"The Cormorant" by Tone Almhjell and its use of the titular bird as a symbol instead of, say, the swan that literature of other European strains would use, is a great example of how *Nordic Visions*' fantasy is different than that which you'll find in run-of-the-mill American collections. That being said, "The Cormorant" and its portrayal of mother-and-daughter hiding from the is very Rapunzel-esque. It's still drawn in an engaging way by Almhjell's prose and feels fresher than it probably should; maybe its lack of info-dumped world helps with that. 7.5/10
--"The Day Jonas Shadowed His Dad" by Thore Hansen is probably the most disappointing story in the book despite having the best title in its roster. It's about a boy following his depressed, nascent dad to see what he does during the day. He ends up going into a . I thought this'd have some cool commentary on how people try to escape their lives and tragedies and whatnot, but if it's there, I'm really not seeing it... still, my complaints are more about what it wasn't versus what it was, so it still pulls through with a 7/10.
--"A Lion Roars in Longyearbyen" is not just an editor's self-insert piece but also a near-future short story about something that's rarely portrayed in SF but is one of my favorite things: zoos. Specifically, it's about the last wild-born lion in existence and how its keeper despises the media spectacle made of its death and how it mysteriously disappears... There's a cool bounty hunter searching for the lion and while I feel the story doesn't do as much as it could with the idea and that it's missing the coolness/slickness of other SF stories in here, I still quite appreciate it and will give it 7.5/10.
FINLAND:
--"A Bird Does Not Sing Because It Has An Answer" by Johanna Sinisalo is another dystopian piece laced with natural themes (I love that so many of these tales are centered around animals, by the way). This time, there's a black box recording bird movements in an isolated reserve hoping to gather information to save Earth's collapsing ecosystem. The actual story's about a woman who controls a drone that's supposed to collect information from said black box and her emotional involvement with her "subjects". Interesting story even if, like "A Lion Roars...", it lacks the punch and poise of "Heather Country" or "Sing." 7.5/10.
--"Elegy For A Young Elk" by Hannu Rajaniemi throws a little bit of everything - sentient bears, sky-bound AI, genetic manipulation plagues, etc. - at the wall to see what sticks. What results reminds me of Jeff Vandermeer, and I'm all for it. I didn't exactly grab how the city's firewall or the "plague gods" worked, but I held on tightly enough to realize that the plot (in which ) is pretty interesting and that the reveal of what happened to his son and how he blamed himself and how it relates to how I think of AI is... really well-positioned. Still, I'm rambling a bit too much for this have made perfect sense and enjoyment for me, so... 7.75/10.
--The book closes with a story that's the epidemy of the fantasy blanket statement I made towards the start of this review: "The Wings That Slice the Sky" by Emmi Itaranta. It's about an old woman looking through her ancient past by looking at this tapestry of three men (a sorcerer and a fisherman and - someone else) and how they were related to her losing her children and becoming a crazy old widow-queen. I believe the author's biography said something about this story being crafted from her native mythology, and it shows. It's cool that those myths are making their way over here to America through this book., but... that being said... it lost me a bit, more because of the content than its fragmentary and leapfrog nature. Still a good 7.25/10.
As you could probably tell, I don't really think there's a dud in this collection. It's very well assembled and I really liked the flavors it propagated. I'm tempted to give the book an 8.5/10, but time will tell if that's warranted - it really is amazing how well these stories have fermented and seeped into my mind. Maybe it's because I read this at the start of the year and I was in the clutch of an existential high, but maybe it's because these foreign stories really are a great introduction to the region to someone who doesn't read much of it, like me. Some of this SF was cutting-edge and awesome, and time will tell if this is anything more than it guaranteed 8/10. I'll definitely keep a look out for more collections like this from Solaris Publishing and more contemporary translated-SF (I read *The Anomaly* shortly before this, but it didn't really do it for me), and I hope you'll keep just a close eye on reviews from me. Thanks for reading this review, and if you follow me and read the book, I hope you find it just as enlightening as I did.
About half of this collection is science fiction and half is fantasy (besides the opening story, there's really not much for horror). I found the SF half much better than the fantasy (probably because of who I am), but I thought both modes of genre were interesting and worthwhile. The science fiction is largely entrenched in the inference-based worldbuilding that runs through a lot of contemporary English-language SF, but its done in a more engaging way than that. There seems to be less of a focus on identity politics and more of a focus on... well, everything else, and it just feels different and more committed to the stories and worlds they writers have dreamt up. The fantasy stories have a similar Nordic flavor on the surface of it, but the stories really are just retellings of similar myths and morals that most of the triter fantasy of today seems to be concerned with. It's largely good and well-written, but it's not as inventive. Alright, enough of me being a critic; let's talk about the stories one-by-one.
SWEDEN:
--"She" by John Ajvide Lindqvist (the guy who wrote *Let the Right One In*) is the book's first and only bona fide horror story. It's about a young couple who have just moved into a new house, but the husband keeps waking up in the middle of the night to the sound and then sight of . The couple's reaction to this gruesome horror is pretty well done and, I think, realistic; denial, the Internet, and sleep deprivation all play their role in the events leading to . The explanation to everything is predictable but subtle at the same time, and the more I think about it the more this story *works*. Still, it's just a haunting for me, so it gets 7.5/10.
--"Lost and Found" by Maria Haskins is probably my least favorite SF story in the collection. It's from the overly paranoid yet stranded perspective of a woman who's the last surviving member of an exoplanet exploration team as she tries recording weather patterns from a colonization-candidate's surface. I don't think I was in the right space when reading so it's not entirely Haskins' fault, but I felt it to be a bit thin even through the commentary on mental health. It didn't connect even though the ending where is pretty well-done. 7/10.
--On the other hand, "Sing" by Karin Tidbeck is one of the collection's highlights. It's about a man who journeys to a planet in order to study their lichen and his growing interest in the culture and how it deals with the strange moons/artificial objects orbiting the world that dictates what sounds can be heard when they're in the sky. For example, when one of the "moons" is up no one can speak audibly, just "sing"; this singing is some strange acclimation to the planet that is prescribed at birth, and the man's quest to discover it puts him into a precarious situation with the local shopkeeping woman who he's become close with despite her deformities. It's kind of a deep story with a strange world that's a perfect representation of this book's approach to SF while showcasing a rather LeGuin-ian style. It's stuck with me and has fermented into something greater; 8.25/10.
DENMARK:
--"The False Fisherman" by Kaspar Colling Nielsen isn't really a speculative story, but there sure is something weird about the main character, a middle-aged man who's never fished before but has invested himself in the hobby and fishes all the time despite only ever catching one fish. This new hobby seems to change him and his relationship with his wife and children in a strange, possibly Eldritch way; it was a bit unnerving and thoroughly engrossing despite being more or less about nothing. Or possibly, everything. 7.5/10.
--Jakob Drud's "Heather Country" is another standout. It takes place in a "post-impact" Denmark (remember, context- and inference-based worldbuilding here) where our main character is an indentured servant to this nation-state-corporation that won't let him go because he's so good at completing odd jobs for them, like finding the son of a heather farmer up north (they use heather for energy in this future). This guy gets a different servant's head implanted into his spine for this job, which is also wonderfully revealed. The delivery about this off-kilter world and the way that the main characters insert themselves into the world of heather farmers, pig farmers, and youthful teenage rebellion is pretty cool, and I just loved the concept of this Witcher-esque main character and would love to read more about him. Another brilliantly-laid-out SF story; 8.25/10.
--"The Traveler Girl" by Lene Kaaberbol, in which a boy engaged to the princess meets a wild and untamed nomad (Traveler) girl and grows suspicious of his father-in-law-to-be's angry treatment of the wanderers, is the first of these fantasy stories which tread literary water but manage to bring their own native flair to the story. It's not anything too special, but the more I think about this one the more the main character's growth sticks with me. The hallmark of short stories (more so than novels) is how well they stick and grow with you, and so far, every story in this book accomplished that. 7.5.
THE FAROE ISLANDS
--I saw a lot of Nordics cite the inclusion of an author from the Faroe Islands (Rakel Helmsdal and her story "The Abyss") as a major cap in the editor's feather, and while I don't love this story, I can definitely appreciate this region's inclusion and cite it when calling this an authentic anthology that all readers interested in this geological area's fiction should read. The story itself is this strange fantastical tale of a girl who lives her life on this big ladder mired in this abyss, and while it lacks the subtle worldbuilding and the poise of the other stories' characters, it keeps up the good writing and makes me think that this ladder-world is drawn from Nordic mythology that would make more sense and have more of an impact if I was from this area. I still enjoyed it and its weirdness, just not to a huge degree. 7/10.
ICELAND:
--"The Dreamgiver" by Johann Thorsson is a contemporary fantasy about a dreamcatcher used to catch a young child's nightmares and his father's encounters with . It's not hugely potent, but its atmosphere is strong and I do feel like it's drawn from an intriguingly alien culture. 7.25/10
--"Hamraborg Babylon" by Alexander Dan Vilhjalmsson is one of the more confusing stories here. It's about this woman entering into this decadent technological city under the ruins of an old metropolis. She's searching for something - the - but despite the atmosphere's oozing of decay and how it intersects with technology, it didn't click with me. It feels like a Darnoc problem, though, so I maybe I should give this another go someday. 7.25
NORWAY:
--We keep the SF-train going with Tor Age Bringvaerd's "As You Wish," a near-future story about a bunch of sex robots meant to service miners whose appearances can be changed based on the whims of those they're servicing. The ending (when the man who administration frowns upon for being nice to his sexbot and treating it like a real woman ) is creepy but a bit ambiguous so I'm not really sure what the point was, but depictions of institutionalized sex robots are always creepy and the way that the mine's overseers frown upon faux-human connections might just betray deeper ways that technology is used by the bad people in charge of the world. 7.75/10.
--"The Cormorant" by Tone Almhjell and its use of the titular bird as a symbol instead of, say, the swan that literature of other European strains would use, is a great example of how *Nordic Visions*' fantasy is different than that which you'll find in run-of-the-mill American collections. That being said, "The Cormorant" and its portrayal of mother-and-daughter hiding from the is very Rapunzel-esque. It's still drawn in an engaging way by Almhjell's prose and feels fresher than it probably should; maybe its lack of info-dumped world helps with that. 7.5/10
--"The Day Jonas Shadowed His Dad" by Thore Hansen is probably the most disappointing story in the book despite having the best title in its roster. It's about a boy following his depressed, nascent dad to see what he does during the day. He ends up going into a . I thought this'd have some cool commentary on how people try to escape their lives and tragedies and whatnot, but if it's there, I'm really not seeing it... still, my complaints are more about what it wasn't versus what it was, so it still pulls through with a 7/10.
--"A Lion Roars in Longyearbyen" is not just an editor's self-insert piece but also a near-future short story about something that's rarely portrayed in SF but is one of my favorite things: zoos. Specifically, it's about the last wild-born lion in existence and how its keeper despises the media spectacle made of its death and how it mysteriously disappears... There's a cool bounty hunter searching for the lion and while I feel the story doesn't do as much as it could with the idea and that it's missing the coolness/slickness of other SF stories in here, I still quite appreciate it and will give it 7.5/10.
FINLAND:
--"A Bird Does Not Sing Because It Has An Answer" by Johanna Sinisalo is another dystopian piece laced with natural themes (I love that so many of these tales are centered around animals, by the way). This time, there's a black box recording bird movements in an isolated reserve hoping to gather information to save Earth's collapsing ecosystem. The actual story's about a woman who controls a drone that's supposed to collect information from said black box and her emotional involvement with her "subjects". Interesting story even if, like "A Lion Roars...", it lacks the punch and poise of "Heather Country" or "Sing." 7.5/10.
--"Elegy For A Young Elk" by Hannu Rajaniemi throws a little bit of everything - sentient bears, sky-bound AI, genetic manipulation plagues, etc. - at the wall to see what sticks. What results reminds me of Jeff Vandermeer, and I'm all for it. I didn't exactly grab how the city's firewall or the "plague gods" worked, but I held on tightly enough to realize that the plot (in which ) is pretty interesting and that the reveal of what happened to his son and how he blamed himself and how it relates to how I think of AI is... really well-positioned. Still, I'm rambling a bit too much for this have made perfect sense and enjoyment for me, so... 7.75/10.
--The book closes with a story that's the epidemy of the fantasy blanket statement I made towards the start of this review: "The Wings That Slice the Sky" by Emmi Itaranta. It's about an old woman looking through her ancient past by looking at this tapestry of three men (a sorcerer and a fisherman and - someone else) and how they were related to her losing her children and becoming a crazy old widow-queen. I believe the author's biography said something about this story being crafted from her native mythology, and it shows. It's cool that those myths are making their way over here to America through this book., but... that being said... it lost me a bit, more because of the content than its fragmentary and leapfrog nature. Still a good 7.25/10.
As you could probably tell, I don't really think there's a dud in this collection. It's very well assembled and I really liked the flavors it propagated. I'm tempted to give the book an 8.5/10, but time will tell if that's warranted - it really is amazing how well these stories have fermented and seeped into my mind. Maybe it's because I read this at the start of the year and I was in the clutch of an existential high, but maybe it's because these foreign stories really are a great introduction to the region to someone who doesn't read much of it, like me. Some of this SF was cutting-edge and awesome, and time will tell if this is anything more than it guaranteed 8/10. I'll definitely keep a look out for more collections like this from Solaris Publishing and more contemporary translated-SF (I read *The Anomaly* shortly before this, but it didn't really do it for me), and I hope you'll keep just a close eye on reviews from me. Thanks for reading this review, and if you follow me and read the book, I hope you find it just as enlightening as I did.
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