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Lore & Logos
Twins enter a forest and witness strange phenomena that the other sibling is unable to see. A cat enthusiast wishes to procure a genetically unadulterated breed of feline. A young couple is torn apart as they discover the opportunities and costs of exploration. A scientist’s experiment gone awry contorts her reality into a scrambled mess of terror. Self-aware server code contemplates the meaning and purpose of its existence.
Matthew Buscemi spins his weirdest and most eloquent tales to date in this collection of nine short stories, elegantly weaving the unreal and the strange with the very real calamities of the human heart. Our world’s inherent oddness has never felt more alive.
Matthew Buscemi spins his weirdest and most eloquent tales to date in this collection of nine short stories, elegantly weaving the unreal and the strange with the very real calamities of the human heart. Our world’s inherent oddness has never felt more alive.
66 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 29, 2015
The stories in the book read very well. Every one drew me in. "Secret of the Forest" was probably the highlight for me. There's an energy to the writing and sort of a playfulness that I find lacking in a lot what's being published today.
My one problem with the stories is that I just didn't understand some of them. I don't mind working for a story, but it wasn't complexity of them so much as the way a couple of the stories were constructed that left me not understanding exactly what had happened.
That ambiguity may have been intended. I do not know. I do know that I often find ambiguity to be fun, but just not in the way it manifested in these stories.
Overall, though, the stories are enjoyable, and Buscemi's style is unique. I don't mean a flamboyant Fitzgerald or an wild Kerouac brand of overt uniqueness. It's more subtle than that and hard to define, but the stories don't flow in the formulaic way that so much fiction works today. There's a definite liveliness to the prose.
(Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this work)
My one problem with the stories is that I just didn't understand some of them. I don't mind working for a story, but it wasn't complexity of them so much as the way a couple of the stories were constructed that left me not understanding exactly what had happened.
That ambiguity may have been intended. I do not know. I do know that I often find ambiguity to be fun, but just not in the way it manifested in these stories.
Overall, though, the stories are enjoyable, and Buscemi's style is unique. I don't mean a flamboyant Fitzgerald or an wild Kerouac brand of overt uniqueness. It's more subtle than that and hard to define, but the stories don't flow in the formulaic way that so much fiction works today. There's a definite liveliness to the prose.
(Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this work)
October 10, 2019
Local Seattle author. Several brilliant ideas here captured in not-quite-short-short short story form. Some struck me as the beginning of a far greater story still yet to tell.
Favourites, in particular order:
* Rune-Driven Spellcraft - you know that arrogant, holier-than-thou, Dunning-Kruger prat we all have to work with that we tolerate because they happen to have a narrow band of brilliance? This one is about him. It's some wonderful fantasy; he discovers a little humility in the telling!
* Meerkat and Lynx - brilliant teaser of a world I want to visit. My girlfriend and I refer to this one as "glowberries."
* At Midnight - brilliant teaser of characters I want to visit. A super rich place-time moment takes form as an almost realized third character.
* Felis Catus - cat lovers will appreciate the plot twist at the end; we already suspected.
* Ghost Daemons - cute intro to multi-thread / multi-process computing via self-cognizant workers.
Favourites, in particular order:
* Rune-Driven Spellcraft - you know that arrogant, holier-than-thou, Dunning-Kruger prat we all have to work with that we tolerate because they happen to have a narrow band of brilliance? This one is about him. It's some wonderful fantasy; he discovers a little humility in the telling!
* Meerkat and Lynx - brilliant teaser of a world I want to visit. My girlfriend and I refer to this one as "glowberries."
* At Midnight - brilliant teaser of characters I want to visit. A super rich place-time moment takes form as an almost realized third character.
* Felis Catus - cat lovers will appreciate the plot twist at the end; we already suspected.
* Ghost Daemons - cute intro to multi-thread / multi-process computing via self-cognizant workers.
June 22, 2015
I enjoyed this book of short stories. Lore and Logos starts out strong--a clever short tale with an enjoyable twist. The stories are varied; themes of friendship in different ways are well covered, as well as one cautionary story about a merchant who outsmarts himself in a memorable way. The author apparently has a IT background; I didn't understand one of the IT stories, but the other was accessible and fun. There was one particular story, The Abcontinuum, chilling and effective in conveying a particular sense of horror I haven't encountered before. I read probably 100+ books per year and have for decades. It's always a pleasure to read something new, when one has covered so much ground already, fiction-wise. Lore and Logos provides that.
August 27, 2016
A clever and thought provoking foray, with a certain descriptive economy prevailing throughout. A measure of fine short fiction, it’s one that Matthew Buscemi delivers against as he weaves graphic inventiveness with vivid imagination and style. Avoiding the pitfalls of flat and prescriptive dialogue, he confidently conveys the emotional vulnerability of his characters which in turn makes unfolding events all the more poignant. Short but very enjoyable.
August 5, 2015
I enjoyed this book a lot. I don't usually read speculative fiction much, but this collection of short stories is diverse and entertaining (although one story left me scratching my head a bit). For those who enjoy short stories AND speculative --or you just want something a little different-- then give this book a try.
June 21, 2015
Loved this collection! It's a great mix of topics and tones, and each story has a magic all its own. I was quite sad when I got to the end and there weren't any more to read. When's the next collection coming out???
September 4, 2015
I came to this book in kind of a round-about way. Matt is one of our newer folks in the Queer Sci Fi group, and he posted this one a few weeks ago on a Me Me Monday.
The cover is soooo NOT sci fi – but there’s a reason for that – you’ll just have to read the Acknowledgement.
We ended up talking a bit online, and he offered to send me a copy.
Great, I thought, another eBook to throw on the stack.
But Matt surprised me – he’s kind of old school, and really likes printed books – something about the experience of reading a “real” book that you just don’t get from an eBook. So he said sure, he’d send me the eBook. But he wanted to send me a printed copy too.
I said ok, and forgot all about it, at least until the book arrived. It’s a slender volume – just eleven stories in all. But there’s a story behind the stories, which are all flash fiction. The longest is eight pages, and most are just three or four.
Matt started a writing group at his local Barnes & Noble, and as part of the group and to foster a more hands-on experience, he had everyone spend an hour writing a short story, and then another hour sharing their story with one other person.
Out of this crucible were born the stories in this book.
Fair warning – only two of the stories really qualify as “gay”, though one of those, “The Worlds of Things”, is my favorite story in the book, both for the boundless creativity it displays and for the emotional hook at the end.
Matt’s imagination really does wander here. We get stories on genetically modified animals, fake christmas trees, obstinate computer viruses, ghosts in the machine, and much more. And they are fascinating, every one. Perhaps Matt will take one or more of these and expand them to novella or novel length at some point in the future.
But the brevity of these stories is also a feature. I won’t tell you where I read them – let’s just say it was in a place where I had short bits of time to kill, three or four times a day. But the book filled my time, and brilliantly.
I hate the whole “star rating” thing, so let’s just say that if you like innovative, cutting edge sci fi, go buy this book now. The eBook is just a buck. Or you can treat yourself and get the paperback for just $5.
Matt’s right. There’s something about having a “real” book.
The cover is soooo NOT sci fi – but there’s a reason for that – you’ll just have to read the Acknowledgement.
We ended up talking a bit online, and he offered to send me a copy.
Great, I thought, another eBook to throw on the stack.
But Matt surprised me – he’s kind of old school, and really likes printed books – something about the experience of reading a “real” book that you just don’t get from an eBook. So he said sure, he’d send me the eBook. But he wanted to send me a printed copy too.
I said ok, and forgot all about it, at least until the book arrived. It’s a slender volume – just eleven stories in all. But there’s a story behind the stories, which are all flash fiction. The longest is eight pages, and most are just three or four.
Matt started a writing group at his local Barnes & Noble, and as part of the group and to foster a more hands-on experience, he had everyone spend an hour writing a short story, and then another hour sharing their story with one other person.
Out of this crucible were born the stories in this book.
Fair warning – only two of the stories really qualify as “gay”, though one of those, “The Worlds of Things”, is my favorite story in the book, both for the boundless creativity it displays and for the emotional hook at the end.
Matt’s imagination really does wander here. We get stories on genetically modified animals, fake christmas trees, obstinate computer viruses, ghosts in the machine, and much more. And they are fascinating, every one. Perhaps Matt will take one or more of these and expand them to novella or novel length at some point in the future.
But the brevity of these stories is also a feature. I won’t tell you where I read them – let’s just say it was in a place where I had short bits of time to kill, three or four times a day. But the book filled my time, and brilliantly.
I hate the whole “star rating” thing, so let’s just say that if you like innovative, cutting edge sci fi, go buy this book now. The eBook is just a buck. Or you can treat yourself and get the paperback for just $5.
Matt’s right. There’s something about having a “real” book.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews