Back Through the Flaming Door

by Liz Williams

A new Fallow Sisters story
A new Inspector Chen story set in Singapore Three
A new tale set on the Matriarchal Mars of Winterstrike and Phosphorus
A new story from the world of The Ghost Sister and Bloodmind

All this and so much more in Liz Williams’ stunning new collection. A mix of brand new stories and those only available previously in digital format via subscription comprise the majority of the book, with very few stories available elsewhere. Thirty-two stories that enchant, dazzle, and blur genre boundaries; thirty-two stories that take the reader from realms of wonder and magic to worlds of intrigue and danger.

Take a deep breath, and leap in…

Contents
Introduction
Back Through the Flaming Door
Blackfast
Colder Than the Day
Dog Days in the Ghost Garden
Doveblack and Rosewhite
Flowerface
Greene Lyon
Mow Cop
Nightjar
On Milk Hill
Radioblack
The Teahouse
Saint Cold
Silence in the House of Moths
Swallows
The Book Rustlers
The Darker Half
The Child on the Hill
The Green World
The Ontologist
The White Herd
The Winter Garden
When we go to the island
Ungiven
West Wind
The Wording
Wrecktide
The Man in the Glass Wig
The Salt Star
The Lily White Boys
The Language of Fans
The Seamistress
About the Author

298 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 12, 2024

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Liz Williams is a British science fiction writer. Her first novel, The Ghost Sister was published in 2001. Both this novel and her next, Empire of Bones (2002) were nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.[1] She is also the author of the Inspector Chen series.

She is the daughter of a stage magician and a Gothic novelist. She holds a PhD in Philosophy of Science from Cambridge. She has had short stories published in Asimov's, Interzone, The Third Alternative and Visionary Tongue. From the mid-nineties until 2000, she lived and worked in Kazakhstan.[2] Her experiences there are reflected in her 2003 novel Nine Layers of Sky. Her novels have been published in the US and the UK, while her third novel The Poison Master (2003) has been translated into Dutch.

Series:
* Detective Inspector Chen
* Darkland

Reviews

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely collection of short stories. All have supernatural elements: travel through alternate realities, magic, time shifts etc. Most made me feel that I was reading fairy tales (not the Grimm kind). Some were set in universes familiar to me from other of Ms. Williams books (e.g. The Farrow Sisters, Detective Inspector Chen). Normally I am not a fan of short fiction however, this book was an exception. Although the stories were uneven in quality there wasn't a clunker in the bunch. I am now inspired to read some of the Liz Williams book I haven't gotten around to.

[Susan Peak · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of short stories, covering all the main worlds that Liz Williams has created. They all have an other-worldly feel, either because they are set in alien/different places or because they are folklore/fairy-tale types of story. I didn't find a dud in the book, and I particularly enjoyed the Chen and Fallow sisters-world based stories, these being my favourite of Liz Williams' series. This collection would work both for those familiar with her work and for those new to it.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection of short stories by one of my favorite authors.