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Terrafide
242 pages, Paperback
Published March 24, 2026
About the author
Ryan Hyatt
14 books73 followersRYAN HYATT tells stories about your future. He is a former news reporter, current educator, and author of the Terrafide sci-fi series. He edits the satirical sci-fi news site, The La-La Lander, as well as Not Your Father's Bedtime Stories, kid’s lit he creates with his daughter, author Sage Hyatt. Find him at the beach and his stories across the internet. Connect with him @ucalthisreality.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 30, 2026
**This review was first published on Fanbasepress.com**
I’ve said previously that the most chilling stories are those that are one degree away from reality. Ryan Hyatt is creating a whole universe based on that premise. A world where an alien invasion is merely the background for the real horrors. Sure, it’s a world similar to ours, it’s a Los Angeles that is oddly familiar while being only one or two VR generations from now. It’s a Customer Service complaint by way of the Twilight Zone.
The stories contained in this collection run the gamut. A woman who can’t have a child instead finds a way to save the planet. A defunct punk rock band finds there are worse things than just fading away. An exterminator whose work draws out the worst in people. A store manager dealing with budget cutbacks with extreme security measures. These are all just normal people coping under extraordinary circumstances. It’s not heroes and giants. It’s not geniuses and supermen. And there’s the rub.
Hyatt examines how people react to their rapidly changing world, changes measured not in years or decades, but weeks and days, as the terrifying and intimidating quickly slide into the mundane and boring. Bloody violence becomes dull and daily. Events that would have been greeted with outright horror are dismissed with a casual shrug. Carnage becomes commonplace. And usually in the midst of mundane and unsettling ways.
Hyatt’s stories aren’t all in-your-face, blood and guts and viscera. Sure, there is a good amount of that, but it’s what is layered underneath it that gets to you. They creep up on you. As you read, you think a story means one thing, then find out halfway through that it’s not at all what you imagined. The stellar Lot Lizards will make you seriously reconsider your next visit to an auto dealership. And Bob’s Pest Control could make you treat your neighbors or employees a little better.
Anchoring this collection is the don’t-miss-it story, Enhanced, a film-noir-style murder mystery set in Hollywood of the near future, where AI-generated dead celebrities act as tour guides, advisors, and… entertainment.
If you like your dystopian fiction big-and-trampling or small-and-nibbling, there’s something for you here.
I’ve said previously that the most chilling stories are those that are one degree away from reality. Ryan Hyatt is creating a whole universe based on that premise. A world where an alien invasion is merely the background for the real horrors. Sure, it’s a world similar to ours, it’s a Los Angeles that is oddly familiar while being only one or two VR generations from now. It’s a Customer Service complaint by way of the Twilight Zone.
The stories contained in this collection run the gamut. A woman who can’t have a child instead finds a way to save the planet. A defunct punk rock band finds there are worse things than just fading away. An exterminator whose work draws out the worst in people. A store manager dealing with budget cutbacks with extreme security measures. These are all just normal people coping under extraordinary circumstances. It’s not heroes and giants. It’s not geniuses and supermen. And there’s the rub.
Hyatt examines how people react to their rapidly changing world, changes measured not in years or decades, but weeks and days, as the terrifying and intimidating quickly slide into the mundane and boring. Bloody violence becomes dull and daily. Events that would have been greeted with outright horror are dismissed with a casual shrug. Carnage becomes commonplace. And usually in the midst of mundane and unsettling ways.
Hyatt’s stories aren’t all in-your-face, blood and guts and viscera. Sure, there is a good amount of that, but it’s what is layered underneath it that gets to you. They creep up on you. As you read, you think a story means one thing, then find out halfway through that it’s not at all what you imagined. The stellar Lot Lizards will make you seriously reconsider your next visit to an auto dealership. And Bob’s Pest Control could make you treat your neighbors or employees a little better.
Anchoring this collection is the don’t-miss-it story, Enhanced, a film-noir-style murder mystery set in Hollywood of the near future, where AI-generated dead celebrities act as tour guides, advisors, and… entertainment.
If you like your dystopian fiction big-and-trampling or small-and-nibbling, there’s something for you here.
Review of advance copy received from Author
A great collection of short stories from Ryan Hyatt! You can read my full reviews on each story in this collection, and an author interview, here: https://thereadingwife.com/terrafide/
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews