punkPunk!

by Andrew Hook (Editor), Mark Slade, Alexei Kalinchuk

"Let me tell you about punk music, about what it meant to us. Or to me, at least. It wasn’t about anarchy - we weren’t anarchists, you have to study to be an anarchist. It was simpler than that: for the first time, or at least the first time for white kids since skiffle, pop music became something you could do instead of just something you consumed."
From Mat Coward’s "You Can Jump".

This eclectic mix of stories shows punk is not simply a static component of history, but a process of evolution and revolution which extends from the heady days of 1976 right into the now. Are you ready to jump into contemporary punk-inspired fiction? It’s not a nostalgia trip.

Containing stories by Joe Briggs, Gio Clairval, Gary Couzens, Mat Coward, Sarah Crabtree, Adam Craig, Richard Dellar, Terry Grimwood, Andrew Hook, Alexei Kalinchuk, P.A.Levy, Richard Mosses, Douglas J. Ogurek, Stephen Palmer, Jude Orlandos Enjolras, Mark Slade, L A Sykes and Douglas Thompson.

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Andrew Hook is a European writer who has been published extensively in the independent press since 1994 in a variety of genres, with over 170 short stories in print, including notable appearances in Interzone, Black Static, and several anthologies from PS Publishing and NewCon Press. His fiction has been reprinted in anthologies including Best British Horror 2015 and Best British Short Stories 2020, has been shortlisted for British Fantasy Society awards, and he was longlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize in 2020. As editor/publisher, he has won three British Fantasy Society awards and he also has been a judge for the World Fantasy Awards. Most recent publications include several noir crime novels through Head Shot Press, a novella written in collaboration with the legendary San Francisco art collective known as The Residents, and his tenth collection Candescent Blooms (Salt Publishing) which received a 5-star review in The Telegraph and was recently shortlisted for a British Fantasy Society award for best collection.

Andrew is currently working on three separate short story collections.

Reviews

[E.S. Wynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

punkPunk is one of the best books to come out of the indie scene that I have ever read. The editing is impeccable, the stories are detail dense and fascinating without dragging. Every story in this collection grabbed me and kept me reading. Highly recommended.

[Joseph Patchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lives up to its name stepping out of the homogenization chamber. Check my full review out on www.lurid-lit.com.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of short stories that offer different perspectives on punk from its beginnings to the present. Like the punk phenomenon itself, in these stories the poignant exists alongside the banal, energy and dynamism alongside mindless violence, a refusal to conform alongside a need to be shocking and gross.

I felt the editor started the collection with one of the weaker stories, making me apprehensive that it would be a series of bleak and depressing reads, but in fact it was worth persisting as there were some real gems included here, thought provoking and full of light and shade. Original and refreshing examples of contemporary fiction.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a free copy of the book as a Goodreads giveaway.

I like short stories and although the punk era totally passed me by, I was interested to give it a shot. After reading this collection, my overall view remains unchanged. I am pleased I never engaged with the movement.

Some of the stories were quite poor, most were mediocre, only the odd one was significantly more enjoyable.

In any collection of stories, it is hard to reach an overall rating, so I settled on a somewhat unsatisfactory rating of 'OK'.

I can appreciate however that if you were/are a punk, the whole thing might go down better.