Vague Predictions and Prophecies

by Daisuke Shen

A debut collection of stories from author Daisuke Shen, wherein divine beings and humans alike must rely on omens to navigate the unpredictable lives they find themselves inhabiting.

A couple employs exact clones of their partners, but then slowly begin losing their memories. Four boys with cruel intentions come across a field of statuesque women, unaware of the vengeance that awaits them. Paranoia leads a brilliant engineer into creating a language-processing machine that will tell her the truth of others' emotions.

Vague Predictions and Prophecies explores the myriad ways in which desire structures (and destroys) the self, language, and love, questioning the very nature of human connection. Through beautifully written prose, Shen invokes the surreal to create gigantic worlds packed inside deceptively small packages, emphasizing a resounding truth: that our fractured understandings of each other may yet be enough.

Genres: Short Stories

248 pages, Paperback

First published August 13, 2024

About the author

Daisuke Shen is the author of the short story collection Vague Predictions & Prophecies (CLASH Books 2024), as well as the novella Funeral (with Vi Khi Nao, KERNPUNKT Press 2023). They live in New York City.

Reviews

[nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

“𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱. 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦, 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘤𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴, 𝘢 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧. 𝘔𝘺 𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘎𝘰𝘥. 𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘎𝘰𝘥. 𝘐 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘴. 𝘔𝘺 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦, 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴.”

Strange and wondrous a collection that plays with expectations and anguish in form. Fresh and fervent with an urgency. It’s the scratching and itching to be alive but not knowing how to. The collection starts and ends with strength and lulls in the middle, which I didn’t mind this time around because the characters feel like people I know, almost real, like I’ve been here before, this senseless wandering and wondering, not knowing where to go if there was ever a start in the first place. There’s a way out within, which I mean to say that each character must come out of the hazy shroud they’re in by sitting in themselves, so deep within that it becomes a mud room to something commonplace, somewhere a little more comfortable. And I think that’s how we all inch by, through and through.

[Rebecca Gransden]

The burden of foresight. With Vague Predictions & Prophecies (CLASH Books, 2024) Daisuke Shen mainlines a generation’s insecurities into fiction that is at once ephemeral and psychically probing. These are stories that present longing, whether that be for a sense of solidity, a chance at connection, or a reprieve from aimlessness. Daydreams of lost days and nightmares of days lost. Shen explores how technology melds with the human, and speculates on where consciousness might reside.

Read my interview with the author at XRAY Literary Magazine

[Tracey Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yay for weird short story collections! Daisuke Shen’s debut collection is full of uncanny oddities. Here are some of my favorites:

The Pasture - This opening story truly kicks the door down. A group of awful young boys commit mild terror. They encounter a strange pasture of women, and it does not end well. Such a vivid story.

Damien and Melissa is a moving story about a long-distance couple who attempt to maintain their relationship through cyborgs.

Home Video is incredibly unsettling, centering around a weird, nameless place, from which our narrator is trying to escape. Wonderfully odd.

I especially enjoyed The Aquarium, which is a “choose your own adventure” story set in a seemingly deserted aquarium.

Machine Translation is another moving story of an inventor, trying to juggle parenting her two boys and creating something great.

This is such a strong collection, and I hope it gets a lot of attention.

[Jacqueline Nyathi · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are, as the book’s title says, vague predictions and prophecies aplenty in this novel. It ranges across geographical territories and metaphysical boundaries, with angels, demons, Japanese gods, and ordinary humans combining in wild and sometimes uneasy mixtures. I didn’t always know what I was reading—a feature of weird fiction that I’m comfortable with, except a lot of the images in this novel are completely unsettling (TWs for self-harm, violent death, s*icide, etc.). I pushed through but I knew about 20% in that this was not for me.

So, I guess this book is like death metal; it will please some people, but it didn’t please me. That certainly shouldn’t put any other readers off trying it for themselves: there are glimmerings of stuff I could have liked, and it’s really wildly imaginative. I just didn’t gel with the subjects, themes, or stories in this collection, but it will be a matter of taste for other readers

Thanks to CLASH Books and Edelweiss for early access.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ! Bizarre, creative, disgusting, encouraged …. like nothing I’ve read before. It felt like a found scroll from a million years ago and also like a Tim Robinson sketch. my favs were: Vague Predictions and Prophecies, Damien and Melissa, Good Route, Bad Route, and Machine Translation. So vivid, my red nail polish is streaked on the pages 💧💧💧

[niq hadfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

so good. desire manifesting in the scariest ways, slightly exaggerated but capturing the real intoxication of the feeling. usually I keep track of individual story ratings but I have up for this one after the first 6 in a row were all 5s. instant classic ♥️

[Sophie Abromowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

good gay freak fodder

[ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magically disturbing and real

[Matt Maniquis · Rating 5 out of 5]

mythology and trauma convene into one collection of an emotional tour de force