Fugue XXIX

by Forrest Aguirre

Fugue XXIX is the first full-length collection of short stories available from World Fantasy Award winning editor and author Forrest Aguirre. These marvelous tales come to you from the fringe of speculative literary fiction where innovative minds keep busy dreaming up the future's uncharted territories and mining forgotten treasures of the past. Whether exploring the stars or unearthing ancient cultures these stories will surprise and delight. In Aguirre's world anything can happen, and does, with regularity.

Genres: Bizarro Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 11, 2005

About the author

Forrest's short fiction has appeared in over fifty venues, including Asimov's, Gargoyle, Apex, and Vasterien. He is a World Fantasy Award winner for his editorial work, with Jeff VanderMeer, on the Leviathan 3 anthology. His novel, Heraclix & Pomp was published October, 2014 by the Underland Press imprint of Resurrection House press. His shorter work has been collected in Fugue XXIX (Raw Dog Screaming Press), and is also available at the Kindle store or on Smashwords at:

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...

Reviews

[Screamingbutterfly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aguirre's has a very poetic style and at times it makes for a very difficult read. Nonetheless, there were a lot of gems in this book. The stories actually get better in the second half of the book. My favorite ones being "Beyond The Flame" and "The Further Adventures of Starboy" (which sounds like the title of a children's story but is actually the most depraved tale in the book.)

[Donald Armfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second book i read by Aguirre he has a different way of writing which i enjoy. In this book he uses alot of words in one sentence to describe the story makes alot of the stories hard to follow.
Overall the book is def. well written here is a few of my favorites.

Four Canopus
The Night Factory
Bearing Seed
Frenzy
The Color of Laughter

[Jorge Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Bizarro attempt. Forrest Aguirre's style is something to become accustomed to. His broken sentences and liberality with words makes it an interesting, albeit difficult read for those not familiar with the genre and its many quirks.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a collection of short stories, Fugue XXIX is inevitably somewhat uneven, especially given that many of the pieces herein qualify as experimental fiction. Some of the experimental stories are more successful than others, but there is no doubt that Forrest Aguirre has a bold sense of the possibilities of short fiction, and even the failures are fascinating simply because they represent a sort of risk-taking that most authors avoid.

At the end of the day, the best stories (such as "The Reverie Styx", "The Butterfly Artist", and "Beyond the Flame") make the whole volume worthwhile. The three stories mentioned are boldly imaginative, and "Beyond the Flame" especially manages to create and sustain a complete world of wildly original science fantasy in a mere seven pages, and does so with the creative intensity of a jazz solo.

This is only the second book by Forrest Aguirre that I have read, but it won't be the last - he's starting to take shape as one of my favorite contemporary fictioneers!

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A heady mix of modern fantasy tales.

[Neal Carlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This being a collection of, from what I understand, his earliest writings, it is all over the map stylistically.

I connected with the longer, less surreal or bizarro pieces. I especially liked “The Butterfly Artist.”

Many of these stories take place in or mention Africa, and I’d be interested to read a longer, more in-depth exploration of colonialism in Africa from him. Some of the African stories recalled Catling’s The Vorrh, in a good way!

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I typed the title of this book into the search field to add it, Goodreads responded with 'Did you mean: Nikki Sixx?'.

No, I didn't.