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Bitter Waters
The average adult male is approximately 60% water. Blood tastes salty as more than two thirds of the sodium circulating throughout your body is carried in arteries and veins. Which means that your heart is like a miniature ocean within your chest. Chaz Brenchley has not only been awarded the British Fantasy Society's August Derleth Award but knows all too well the storms and dangers of the the lofty desires, the grieving nadirs, the tempest of love. In Bitter Watters, his first short story collection devoted to gay readers, Brenchley offers men fantastical instances to effleurer, to break for taller timber, to drown in emotions. And while not every tale in this breathtaking collection involves the sea, tears and bloodshed still need to be navigated. Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBT Fantasy/Horror/Science Fiction!
"This clever and subtle collection, Brenchley’s first since 1996’s Blood Waters, visits 17 unforgettable ports of call." - Publishers Weekly, starred review
"British Fantasy Society August Derleth Award–winner Brenchley provides deft sketches in a range of styles and settings—from age-of-sail adventure to modern urban realism, always with splashes of the supernatural and the macabre.... A fine collection that imbues fantasy, action and horror with real literary depth." - Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"The characters in Brenchley's collection navigate the rough waters and sudden calms of past, present and futures cut short with varying degrees of success, and the reader drawn along on these voyages with varying degrees of peace and discomfort." - Anthony Cardno for Strange Horizons
"One would not think it possible, but this small collection provides an excellent representation of Brenchley’s wide-ranging output, as he casts his all encompassing net far and wide—this collection contains stories that read like historical fiction or realistic fiction, fantasy, horror, and may even include elements of mystery and romance." - Keith Glaeske for Lambda Literary
"This clever and subtle collection, Brenchley’s first since 1996’s Blood Waters, visits 17 unforgettable ports of call." - Publishers Weekly, starred review
"British Fantasy Society August Derleth Award–winner Brenchley provides deft sketches in a range of styles and settings—from age-of-sail adventure to modern urban realism, always with splashes of the supernatural and the macabre.... A fine collection that imbues fantasy, action and horror with real literary depth." - Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"The characters in Brenchley's collection navigate the rough waters and sudden calms of past, present and futures cut short with varying degrees of success, and the reader drawn along on these voyages with varying degrees of peace and discomfort." - Anthony Cardno for Strange Horizons
"One would not think it possible, but this small collection provides an excellent representation of Brenchley’s wide-ranging output, as he casts his all encompassing net far and wide—this collection contains stories that read like historical fiction or realistic fiction, fantasy, horror, and may even include elements of mystery and romance." - Keith Glaeske for Lambda Literary
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First published October 21, 2014
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About the author
Chaz Brenchley
115 books79 followersChaz Brenchley has been making a living as a writer since he was eighteen. He is the author of nine thrillers, most recently Shelter, and two major fantasy series: The Books of Outremer, based on the world of the Crusades, and Selling Water by the River, set in an alternate Ottoman Istanbul. A winner of the British Fantasy Award, he has also published three books for children and more than 500 short stories in various genres. His time as Crimewriter-in-Residence at the St Peter's Riverside Sculpture Project in Sunderland resulted in the collection Blood Waters. He is a prizewinning ex-poet, and has been writer in residence at the University of Northumbria, as well as tutoring their MA in Creative Writing. His novel Dead of Light is currently in development with an independent film company; Shelter has been optioned by Granada TV. He was Northern Writer of the Year 2000, and lives in Newcastle upon Tyne with a quantum cat and a famous teddy bear.
Also known as author Daniel Fox.
Also known as author Daniel Fox.
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July 3, 2019I’m not very good at reading short story collections because a good short-story is such a perfectly enclosed little, err, thing that it feels like a massive emotional effort to move onto the next. Bitter Waters, however, is sufficiently theme-y and well-organised (despite encompassing several time periods and genres) that I managed to move relatively easily through the book. It also helped that while some of the stories were more gripping to me than others, there wasn’t one I didn’t respond to. And the writing, God, the writing is stunning, moving with effortless control from cheesy gothic to melancholy ghost story to darker contemporary tales.
Unfortunately my incapability with regards to short stories extends to writing about them so I’m floundering a bit here. I would say the collection is breaks roughly into three parts: the first grouping of stories concerns of mentorship: relationships between older and younger men, sometimes with romantic elements. The second grouping of stories concerns illness and death. The third centre on Sailor Martin, an immortal adventurer, who moves between both historical, fantastical and modern settings, uniting the themes of the previous two mini-collections—for example, ‘Keep the Aspidochelone Floating’ concerns his relationship with a young boy. And, of course, all the stories are connected by the bitter, uh, fluids of the title: seawater and blood and tears and … y’know … semen. Because gay male desire is also a recurring theme, and woven very naturally into the general tapestry of the stories, along with grief and love and occasionally horror.
As with any collection, there are some stories I liked less than others, and some I really loved. The opening story, I think, is the bleakest which could potentially be a little bit off-putting. I think my favourites included ‘In the Night Street Baths’ (a bit of unabashed high fantasy about the relationship between two eunuchs, one a younger boy, and the other an older man of restricted growth) ‘The Insolence of Candles Against The Night’s Dying’ (a man caring for his dying lover has to deal with is dead Uncle’s tragic past) and ‘Tis A Pity He’s Ashore’ because I’m a sucker for a terrible pun. But, favourites aside, I found the collection in its wholeness deeply satisfying. I loved the way the different stories fit together, sometimes illuminating and sometimes pulling against each other.
I’ve thought about this book a lot since I’ve read it. I anticipate returning to it a lot. Please don’t be put off by my rubbishness in writing about it: it’s haunting, fascinating, moving and beautifully written. I recommend it so hard.
Unfortunately my incapability with regards to short stories extends to writing about them so I’m floundering a bit here. I would say the collection is breaks roughly into three parts: the first grouping of stories concerns of mentorship: relationships between older and younger men, sometimes with romantic elements. The second grouping of stories concerns illness and death. The third centre on Sailor Martin, an immortal adventurer, who moves between both historical, fantastical and modern settings, uniting the themes of the previous two mini-collections—for example, ‘Keep the Aspidochelone Floating’ concerns his relationship with a young boy. And, of course, all the stories are connected by the bitter, uh, fluids of the title: seawater and blood and tears and … y’know … semen. Because gay male desire is also a recurring theme, and woven very naturally into the general tapestry of the stories, along with grief and love and occasionally horror.
As with any collection, there are some stories I liked less than others, and some I really loved. The opening story, I think, is the bleakest which could potentially be a little bit off-putting. I think my favourites included ‘In the Night Street Baths’ (a bit of unabashed high fantasy about the relationship between two eunuchs, one a younger boy, and the other an older man of restricted growth) ‘The Insolence of Candles Against The Night’s Dying’ (a man caring for his dying lover has to deal with is dead Uncle’s tragic past) and ‘Tis A Pity He’s Ashore’ because I’m a sucker for a terrible pun. But, favourites aside, I found the collection in its wholeness deeply satisfying. I loved the way the different stories fit together, sometimes illuminating and sometimes pulling against each other.
I’ve thought about this book a lot since I’ve read it. I anticipate returning to it a lot. Please don’t be put off by my rubbishness in writing about it: it’s haunting, fascinating, moving and beautifully written. I recommend it so hard.
Want to read
June 3, 2015I need to start this with a confession: I bought Bitter Waters because of the cover. Actually, I bought this book twice because of the cover. Once in print and once as an audiobook. As you must know by now, I adore short fiction period, but it’s often harder to find in audio form, so when I find a collection in audiobook I’m over-the-moon.
So, confession over.
One of the things about audiobooks, as I’ve said many times before, is the impact the tone of the narrator can have on the story. Some narrate, some perform – the latter is almost always better – and I’ve often found myself having a different experience reading a book physically than when I listen to it instead. I’ve only listened to this book so far, but I plan to physically read it thereafter.
All that said, I rather wish I’d skipped the introduction. There’s two pieces to that, one minor and one major. The minor point is that there’s a bit of a somewhat-spoiler in the introduction for the first story in the collection – “Another Chart of the Silences.” The major point is that, for lack of a better way of putting it, the introduction’s tone (again, delivered as an audiobook) came across rather patronizing and really off-putting. Had I not been out on a long walk with dog-leash in hand and my iPhone buried in my pocket, I might have turned it off.
This is by no means my way of telling you to skip the book – quite the opposite, as I’ll get to in a moment – but the introduction rubbed me so far the wrong way there was static in what little remains of my hair. Perhaps it was the audio interpretation and performance, but it was like being lectured to from a stuffy parent about how you have no idea what culture is and you’re about to get schooled – schooled, young man – in what you’ve been missing. So shut up and sit down and behave. Even if that’s true – and I’m certainly not saying that my experience with the first short story was anything but sublime – the delivery was just really off.
This introduction did absolutely nothing to entice me in the slightest, and had quite the opposite of the intended effect, I’m sure. So – and I rarely say this – I’d suggest reading the introduction later (or, if you’re listening to the audiobook, skip past it and come back to it later).
“Another Chart of the Silences”
Oh this story. As is often the case in the best short fiction, the narrative is in itself simple – a man who sails wishes to make a chart with original period tools of an area that has a vaguely sinister mythological association. In a library, he meets a young man and the two form a connection that is as tangled in loneliness and brittle self-esteem as it is in something ephemerally stronger and potentially disastrous.
I refuse to spoil anything of this story. The first brush with “the Silences” is hauntingly written, and the slow spiral to the ending starts as a kind of soft ache that builds to such a tight and anxious swell that I found myself pausing at points in my walk, closing my eyes and just listening to the words of the performer, closing out the rest of my senses to get swept up in the narrative.
Ultimately, the story left me feeling a little haunted, and I daresay that was the intent.
I’m going to pace myself with these stories, I think, and allow myself indulgences over as much time as I can stand to draw it out.
So, confession over.
One of the things about audiobooks, as I’ve said many times before, is the impact the tone of the narrator can have on the story. Some narrate, some perform – the latter is almost always better – and I’ve often found myself having a different experience reading a book physically than when I listen to it instead. I’ve only listened to this book so far, but I plan to physically read it thereafter.
All that said, I rather wish I’d skipped the introduction. There’s two pieces to that, one minor and one major. The minor point is that there’s a bit of a somewhat-spoiler in the introduction for the first story in the collection – “Another Chart of the Silences.” The major point is that, for lack of a better way of putting it, the introduction’s tone (again, delivered as an audiobook) came across rather patronizing and really off-putting. Had I not been out on a long walk with dog-leash in hand and my iPhone buried in my pocket, I might have turned it off.
This is by no means my way of telling you to skip the book – quite the opposite, as I’ll get to in a moment – but the introduction rubbed me so far the wrong way there was static in what little remains of my hair. Perhaps it was the audio interpretation and performance, but it was like being lectured to from a stuffy parent about how you have no idea what culture is and you’re about to get schooled – schooled, young man – in what you’ve been missing. So shut up and sit down and behave. Even if that’s true – and I’m certainly not saying that my experience with the first short story was anything but sublime – the delivery was just really off.
This introduction did absolutely nothing to entice me in the slightest, and had quite the opposite of the intended effect, I’m sure. So – and I rarely say this – I’d suggest reading the introduction later (or, if you’re listening to the audiobook, skip past it and come back to it later).
“Another Chart of the Silences”
Oh this story. As is often the case in the best short fiction, the narrative is in itself simple – a man who sails wishes to make a chart with original period tools of an area that has a vaguely sinister mythological association. In a library, he meets a young man and the two form a connection that is as tangled in loneliness and brittle self-esteem as it is in something ephemerally stronger and potentially disastrous.
I refuse to spoil anything of this story. The first brush with “the Silences” is hauntingly written, and the slow spiral to the ending starts as a kind of soft ache that builds to such a tight and anxious swell that I found myself pausing at points in my walk, closing my eyes and just listening to the words of the performer, closing out the rest of my senses to get swept up in the narrative.
Ultimately, the story left me feeling a little haunted, and I daresay that was the intent.
I’m going to pace myself with these stories, I think, and allow myself indulgences over as much time as I can stand to draw it out.
February 25, 2015
Chaz Brenchley hails from Newcastle Upon Tyne near the shores of the North Sea, and the river and sea inform the stories in this collection. From a mystery set aboard a river barge manned by an unlikely group of young men to pirates seeking an island-sized turtle, the salt of the sea mixes with the salt of tears. The character Quin appears in a few of these stories, an educated, witty man who has been struck down with AIDS, who is surrounded by a group of young men who care for him. In contrast is another recurring character, sailor Martin, wise and powerful and dealing with the fate he's delivered.
My favorite story must be "Keep the Aspidochelone Floating", though "In the Night Street Baths" (which uses characters from his "Bridge of Dreams" and "River of the World" novels) was a delightful surprise, and the stories about Quin brought both a tear and a shudder.
This is a powerful, eclectic collection well worth your time.
My favorite story must be "Keep the Aspidochelone Floating", though "In the Night Street Baths" (which uses characters from his "Bridge of Dreams" and "River of the World" novels) was a delightful surprise, and the stories about Quin brought both a tear and a shudder.
This is a powerful, eclectic collection well worth your time.
July 5, 2019
Not surprisingly, I'm concerned about a "first short story collection devoted to gay readers". I have enjoyed offerings from Lethe before, but the production for this ebook seems a bit minimal. (No table of contents, for instance.)
The first few stories are fairly conventional, but have somewhat interesting twists, and are quite enjoyable. Even "The Pillow-Boy of General Shu" (I hear your peals of laughter, GR friends!) is an amusing pastiche, cleanly executed, with an entertaining twist or two.
Then "In the Night Street Baths", unfortunately clogged with the kind of non-essential detail that many fantasy/sf readers seem to enjoy. For example:
Next, "The Insolence of Candles Against the Night's Dying" starts in a reasonably interesting way: gay nephew with dying boyfriend visits house left to him by recently dead uncle. Unfortunately it gets as sentimental as promised by the title. Do we need all the glass and porcelain breakage at the end?
The first few stories are fairly conventional, but have somewhat interesting twists, and are quite enjoyable. Even "The Pillow-Boy of General Shu" (I hear your peals of laughter, GR friends!) is an amusing pastiche, cleanly executed, with an entertaining twist or two.
Then "In the Night Street Baths", unfortunately clogged with the kind of non-essential detail that many fantasy/sf readers seem to enjoy. For example:
From the grandest to the least, from marble halls to stone-slabbed sweat rooms to caves with steaming springs, all baths are built on the same essentials, a source of water and a source of heat.Maybe I'm an old guy, but I doubt that any of the gay men I know need to have "bathhouse" explained to us.
Next, "The Insolence of Candles Against the Night's Dying" starts in a reasonably interesting way: gay nephew with dying boyfriend visits house left to him by recently dead uncle. Unfortunately it gets as sentimental as promised by the title. Do we need all the glass and porcelain breakage at the end?
December 23, 2014
Suffice to say I really enjoyed this book, particularly the stories featuring Sailor Martin and the gothic-pulp-styled "Hothouse Flowers." For my full review, please see Strange Horizons: http://www.strangehorizons.com/review...
November 1, 2017
Melancholy
I bought this one on recommendation from an author I enjoy...then did not read it for months. It is a melancholic, slightly gothic kind of read...not to my taste, but I found myself at work wondering about the next story, or thinking about the last.
I read them back to back as chapters, but they are all short stories, and could be read in any order. Some characters reappear..as different people(?) some reappear in different times. Reading as chapters, the character of Sailor Martin was interesting, and that of Quin...or Glen?
It is all a bitter water that is involved...either bath, bottled, that of the dying, or that of the sea, which dominates the narrative flow of the characters.
There are no happy endings to any of these, in the traditional tied off in bows, some just end, some end sadly, and some end with a little bow.
The writing is excellent, the imagery created as well as the characterisations. The narrative in some stories I lost as to which 'he' has done a thing (the dog for example at the end) as 99 percent of the characters are male, which made me lose the importance of the end as I am trying to figure out 'what'.....or maybe I just missed a point. The rhythm of the Sailor Martin stories, I enjoyed the most.
I think if you like a gothic turn, or a bit of melancholy, tossed in a bit of mythic in some stories, this would be your cup of tea!
I bought this one on recommendation from an author I enjoy...then did not read it for months. It is a melancholic, slightly gothic kind of read...not to my taste, but I found myself at work wondering about the next story, or thinking about the last.
I read them back to back as chapters, but they are all short stories, and could be read in any order. Some characters reappear..as different people(?) some reappear in different times. Reading as chapters, the character of Sailor Martin was interesting, and that of Quin...or Glen?
It is all a bitter water that is involved...either bath, bottled, that of the dying, or that of the sea, which dominates the narrative flow of the characters.
There are no happy endings to any of these, in the traditional tied off in bows, some just end, some end sadly, and some end with a little bow.
The writing is excellent, the imagery created as well as the characterisations. The narrative in some stories I lost as to which 'he' has done a thing (the dog for example at the end) as 99 percent of the characters are male, which made me lose the importance of the end as I am trying to figure out 'what'.....or maybe I just missed a point. The rhythm of the Sailor Martin stories, I enjoyed the most.
I think if you like a gothic turn, or a bit of melancholy, tossed in a bit of mythic in some stories, this would be your cup of tea!
March 21, 2019
This book was marketed as the author's first collection of fiction intended for a gay, male audience. I don't know whether he is gay himself, but Brenchley seems to have a pretty stereotypical view of who gay men are. One or two stories set this way would've been fine, I understand stereotypes, but their persistence over the course of the stories bothered me.
According to this collection, gay men/relationships come in a few forms:
1. A group of men gathered around a dying, bedridden queen (implied that it's AIDS of course)
or
2. In a relationship that can only be defined as pedophilia
There are very few exceptions. Again, I could've looked past a couple instances of these stereotypes, but their consistency in every story was a drawback for me. One which, as a gay man who has had to contend with battling these stereotypes all his life, I couldn't get past.
According to this collection, gay men/relationships come in a few forms:
1. A group of men gathered around a dying, bedridden queen (implied that it's AIDS of course)
or
2. In a relationship that can only be defined as pedophilia
There are very few exceptions. Again, I could've looked past a couple instances of these stereotypes, but their consistency in every story was a drawback for me. One which, as a gay man who has had to contend with battling these stereotypes all his life, I couldn't get past.
July 28, 2024
A fine collection of horror/fantasy short stories by Benchley, all focusing on M/M relationships in one way or another and most dealing with sailing and/or the sea. Brenchley is a good writer and writes very movingly about male relationships and loss (especially loss that came about as a result of the AIDS crisis). As with all collections, readers will have their favorites, of particular note to me were the four stories told by his Sailor Martin character, a seemingly immortal type who faces various supernatural challenges throughout various time periods, also for me worth noting are his story The Insolence of Candles against the Night’s Dying (about generational loss), Hothouse Flowers or the Discreet Boys of Dr. Barnabus (vampires) and In the Night Street Baths (one of the fantasy tales). Recommended.
September 9, 2022
Wow. Just... wow. This is an amazing collection of books about queer men that uses some fantasy elements to explore the trauma many of us experience. The writing is gorgeous and smooth, the stories are impactful, and every one of them is a compelling read. It's not really horror and I didn't find it scary, just thought-provoking. I'll definitely read more of Benchley's work!
November 30, 2021
A very enjoyable book overall. Individually, the stories are excellent, though a few in the middle felt a bit samey when read one after the other.
February 15, 2022
Soo......this was something, huh?
Once work with the short stories, somewhere good somewhere just plain wrong, and somewhere heartbreaking.
Nice....:)
Once work with the short stories, somewhere good somewhere just plain wrong, and somewhere heartbreaking.
Nice....:)
December 9, 2014
Fair warning, I know the author and count him among my friends.
Chaz creates a wonderful world in this collection of short-stories. All tales of the supernatural and horror, I wish I had gotten my hands on this book in October rather than December when the seasonal holidays makes me more in the mood for books like Bitter Waters.
I count a book of short stories a success if I like more than 1/2 of the tales. Chaz does much, much better than this. Only two of his stories left me flat. All the rest, save another three were excellent. Those final three: About a mom waiting for her son to come home from sea; the disposition of a dead friends final things; and a whaling expedition gone wrong each left me wanting more.
And then what happened?
Chaz evokes these four glorious words with his latest offering.
Chaz creates a wonderful world in this collection of short-stories. All tales of the supernatural and horror, I wish I had gotten my hands on this book in October rather than December when the seasonal holidays makes me more in the mood for books like Bitter Waters.
I count a book of short stories a success if I like more than 1/2 of the tales. Chaz does much, much better than this. Only two of his stories left me flat. All the rest, save another three were excellent. Those final three: About a mom waiting for her son to come home from sea; the disposition of a dead friends final things; and a whaling expedition gone wrong each left me wanting more.
And then what happened?
Chaz evokes these four glorious words with his latest offering.
May 27, 2016
“Bitter Waters” is a collection of short stories with the common theme of water, from the ocean to islands to the human body, which is 60% water. The author also intended it for his gay male readers. All the stories deal in some way with relationships between men, and all have some speculative fiction component. I liked the book, and the stories are really well constructed. But this is another case where the prose is so grand it gets in the way of the story telling. I often got so distracted by the long runs of descriptions and similes that I lost the gist of the story. I like good prose, but sometimes it can be too much. In several of the stories, this was the case.
Come visit my blog for the full review…
http://itstartedwiththehugos.blogspot...
Come visit my blog for the full review…
http://itstartedwiththehugos.blogspot...
November 16, 2015
Short stories from one of my favourite writers. I find that Brenchley's prose, whatever genre he's writing, has a perfection that's hard to define. I don't read many short stories but some of these are ones I'll go back to reread over the years, I can tell. Haunting. Their emotional impact strikes deep.
December 23, 2014
Amazing. Brenchley is a hidden talent.
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