The Truth Is Out There

X-Files Anthology #2

by Jonathan Maberry (Editor), Sarah Stegall (Contributor), Greg Cox (Contributor)

Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are back in a chilling collection of all-new tales of dark secrets, alien agendas, terrifying monsters and murderous madmen. Featuring original stories by bestselling authors Rachel Caine, Hank Philippi Ryan, Kelley Armstrong, Kami Garcia, Greg Cox and many others. Edited by New York Times bestseller Jonathan Maberry (V-WARS).

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Mystery, Audiobook, Fantasy

360 pages, Paperback

First published February 16, 2016

About the author

JONATHAN MABERRY is a NYTimes bestselling author, #1 Audible bestseller, 5-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, 4-time Scribe Award winner, Inkpot Award winner, comic book writer, and producer. He is the author of more than 50 novels, 190 short stories, 16 short story collections, 30 graphic novels, 14 nonfiction books, and has edited 26 anthologies. His vampire apocalypse book series, V-WARS, was a Netflix original series starring Ian Somerhalder. His 2009-10 run as writer on the Black Panther comic formed a large chunk of the recent blockbuster film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. His bestselling YA zombie series, Rot & Ruin is in development for film at Alcon Entertainment; and John Wick director, Chad Stahelski, is developing Jonathan’s Joe Ledger Thrillers for TV. Jonathan writes in multiple genres including suspense, thriller, horror, science fiction, epic fantasy, and action; and he writes for adults, teens and middle grade. His works include The Pine Deep Trilogy, The Kagen the Damned Trilogy, NecroTek, Ink, Glimpse, the Rot & Ruin series, the Dead of Night series, The Wolfman, X-Files Origins: Devil’s Advocate, The Sleepers War (with Weston Ochse), Mars One, and many others. He is the editor of high-profile anthologies including Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, The X-Files, Aliens: Bug Hunt, Out of Tune, Don’t Turn out the Lights: A Tribute to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Baker Street Irregulars, Nights of the Living Dead, Shadows & Verse, and others. His comics include Marvel Zombies Return, The Punisher: Naked Kills, Wolverine: Ghosts, Godzilla vs Cthulhu: Death May Die, Bad Blood and many others. Jonathan has written in many popular licensed worlds, including Hellboy, True Blood, The Wolfman, John Carter of Mars, Sherlock Holmes, C.H.U.D., Diablo IV, Deadlands, World of Warcraft, Planet of the Apes, Aliens, Predator, Karl Kolchak, and many others. He the president of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, and the editor of Weird Tales Magazine. He lives in San Diego, California. Find him online at www.jonathanmaberry.com

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second of three volumes of original stories based on the long-running television show that Maberry edited. Fifteen case files are included from a nice mix of established horror writers and relative newcomers. As with any such venture, the contents are a little up-and-down, but are overall of good quality and will be enjoyable to both rabid X-Philers and casual readers. It leads off with one of my favorites, Dead Ringer by Kelley Armstrong, a very good, traditional tale; they always did well with creepy children. I didn't like Drive Time, a time travel story, as well, but thought Kami Garcia's Black Hole Son quite good. (Young Fox encounters the Cigarette Smoking Man.) We Should Listen to Some Shostakovich was a little too far out of my perception of canon, an expecting Scully with mother issues. Greg Cox's Mummiya is a good monster-of-the-week, Bev Vincent's Phase Shift is a creepy little shocker, and Kendare Blake's Heart is a familiar theme with an interesting twist. Male Privilege by Hank Schwaeble isn't a great X-File but is the funniest story in the book. (How did Mulder know they were the Tigers?) Pilot by David Liss was another of my favorites; Scully and Mulder are presented with a VHS tape of the pilot episode of a tv series called The X-Files. Rosetta was just all right, but Sarah Stegall's Snowman was a very nifty late-continuity adventurous pairing of Mulder with John Doggett. Voice of Experience by Rachel Caine was another very good one, featuring a writer who's more of a monster than most of the non-humans in the book, and my favorite story in the volume was XXX by Glenn Greenberg, in which Mulder meets one of his favorite pornography stars and finds a much richer character than he imagined. Foundling by Tim Waggoner was another good one (does Ambergris Falls sound like Yellow Springs to you, too?), but had a whole lot going on and I wish it had been longer so as to let some of details and consequences develop more. The book concludes with David Farland's short When the Cows Come Home, a fun little trip to a crop circle.
Grab a pack of Morleys and cue the creepy music.

[Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dead Ringer by Kelley Armstrong ★★★★★
Oh that takes me back! My favorite episodes were the one-off monster tales, the pit stops of strange. Kelley Armstrong, urban fantasy fae mistress, has given us a treat!


Mummiya by Greg Cox ★★★★★
Oh yes, now that is an episode of X-Files! Ancient lore, crime, love, mystery, violence, action, and ending you will not forget. Excellent work.


Black Hope Son by Kami Garcia ★★★★½
Our first dip back into the great conspiracy! For the non megafans, Fox’s father was known for eating sunflower seeds.

I enjoyed seeing the teenage Fox, much of his past is a mystery. The extra half star was for the kiss, there was a time I would have parted with all my shoes and handbags to have been that girl in the watermelon lip gloss.

And the Smoking Man made his first appearance!


Snowman by Sarah Stegall ★★★★☆
Best abominable snowman story I’ve ever read. The glacier burials were inspired!


We Should Listen to Some Shostakovich by Hank Phillippi Ryan ★★★★☆
This is exactly how I pictured a domestic Mulder & Scully! Now I have to watch all those revamp episodes I was initially ecstatic about then completely forgot. Life.

They are adorable together.

The mystery of the story was low key with just enough spook to hold my attention.

“Maybe another entity is helping them decide what to say, helping them communicate.”

I’m nearly halfway through reading all my Lovecraft and I can tell you Aldebaran is mentioned frequently. The Great Ones, they do whisper from their onyx castles in unknown Kadath.

And now I need to reread Carter & Lovecraft, which was Lovecraft and X-Files combined.


XXX by Glen Greenberg ★★★½☆
Mulder finally gets to meet his favorite porn actress when her costars keep exploding... blood and brains.

I thought it was funny to hit on this part of Mulder’s life and humanizing to the actress. They have a tragic suicide rate.


The Voice of Experience by Rachel Caine ★★★½☆
This was a good spooky tale of an emotional vampire.


Male Privilege by Hank Schwaeble ★★★☆☆
A mildly entertaining fairytale.


Rosetta by David Sakmyster ★★★☆☆
Lol, you have to feel for Skinner when the kids raise hell... and it’s not even an X-File.


Foundling by Tim Waggoner ★★★☆☆
After a shocking and dispiriting beginning we get a story of a missing town and a gifted baby girl.


When The Cows Come Home by David Farland ★★★☆☆
“No one was supposed to get hurt, I was just calling them home.”

Crop circles or cow circles? Land and cattle disputes can be vicious, see Yellowstone,
especially if you add magic.


Pilot by David Liss ★★★☆☆
The real Mulder and Scully get to watch the pilot episode of X-Files from a parallel universe where they are fictional characters.

This was a fun idea but still a middle child of a story.

Heart by Kendare Blake ★★½☆☆
Another dud.


Drive Time by Jon McGoran ★★☆☆☆
This was an outlandish version of season four’s chilling Synchrony.

Phase Shift by Bev Vincent ★☆☆☆☆
Well, that was boring. One star off for the dog.

Average 3.33 which I will round up to four because I was entertained overall and this rekindled my love for the show. Season One held up!

[Scott Rhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

X-Philes (to the goyim, this word refers to anyone who loved the TV show “The X-Files” with a fanaticism that bordered on the religious) rejoiced when FOX brought back the series in 2016. It was, to the faithful, much like returning to the Holy Land. If fans were feeling verklempt in any way, it was due to the fact that the season only ran six episodes and it ended on the mother of all cliff-hangers, without knowing whether the show was going to be renewed for the fall. It turns out, it wasn’t. At least, not initially. The confusion and hurt that us X-Philes were feeling was palpable and real. It was meshuganeh.

Thankfully, the schmucks at FOX finally came to their senses. Only two years later, but whatever. Recently, FOX announced that a new ten-episode season was in production for late 2017 or early 2018. Yay!

Which, unfortunately, means we still have several months to wait, I’m sure. In the meantime, IDW Publishing has released three volumes of short story anthologies by some well-known and some fairly unknown writers working in the field of science fiction/fantasy/horror and YA.

Volume one, “Trust No One”, would have been a much more exciting entry into the oeuvre of X-Files fiction---and it was, don’t get me wrong---had it not been for some extremely egregious editorial mistakes. Editor Jonathon Maberry did a decent job of finding good writers for the anthology, but he did a horrible job of actually editing. Volume one was plagued with a plethora of completely unacceptable typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors that should have been caught before going to print.

Thankfully, these mistakes are avoided in “The X-Files Volume 2: The Truth is Out There”. The stories in this anthology, also edited by Maberry, are a mixed bag, ranging in quality from mediocre to decent. While there are no real stand-outs within this collection, the stories are at least entertaining and do a good job of attempting to capture what was special about the TV show.

Missing, unfortunately, are the seriously well-known authors that at least provided some headliner status in the first volume. There is no equivalent to a Kevin J. Anderson, Max Allen Collins, Brian Keene, or Heather Graham in this volume. Not that the up-and-comers in this volume are in any way less deserving of recognition.

The three best stories, by default or design, happen to be, in my opinion, the first three stories in the book.

Kelley Armstrong’s “Dead Ringer” is a creepy story about changelings, supernatural creatures that assume the form of the recently murdered and torment the murderers until they are driven insane. Agents Mulder and Scully suspect that something is not quite right about a young boy who is found wandering in the woods, days after going missing. When the body of the young boy is found decomposing, normally-skeptic Scully is forced to admit that something supernatural is going on.

Jon McGoran’s “Drive Time” is only one of two X-Files stories (that I can immediately think of) that deals with the idea of time travel. When Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate something strange at a small college in Massachusetts, they discover two rival “mad” scientists competing to be the first to invent a time machine. A third party shows up, claiming to be from the future and intent on stopping the scientists. The stranger offers a warning to the FBI agents: don’t mess with time travel, it will fuck you up.

Kami Garcia’s “Black Hole Son” takes fans on a trip down memory lane. Well, Fox Mulder’s memory lane, that is. In this story, Fox is a brooding, nerdy teenager, dealing with high school issues like bullying and ineffectual parents and, on top of all that, guilt over the disappearance of his younger sister. Garcia’s story has the feel of an excerpt from a longer story, hopefully a soon-to-be-published novel.

Other notables: Kendare Blake’s “Heart”, about an ordinary law-abiding peaceful guy who receives a heart transplant from a violent mobster, and his new heart is out for blood; and Rachel Caine’s “Voice of Experience”, in which the mysterious death of an ex-girlfriend leads Agent Mulder to a best-selling author who may also be a quite literal emotional vampire.

My one complaint overall is that a few of the stories seem to be written by people who aren’t very knowledgable of the show’s mythos or basic history. In one story, set in 2014, the Lone Gunmen play a major part. Never mind the fact that they all died in 1998. In another story, set in 2017, Mulder and Scully appear to be married, and Scully is pregnant with a little girl. I could almost buy this IF it fit their characters, which it doesn’t. Then again, who knows? Maybe the author of this story knows something I don’t.

Overall, not bad. Not great, either, but it does temporarily satiate the appetite until the new season of the X-Files starts up again soon.

[Mohammed Arabey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another 15 Episodes Stories of the Legendary The X-Files world.

Loved many stories, but some weren't as original Mulder & Scully..

My very favourite screen couple.

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

My rating for the stories in this book averages to 3.3. Rounding to the nearest whole number, three.

The stories in this book are uneven. But there were three stories I highly enjoyed--I feel that they would be worthy of inclusion in a Year's Best Anthology. Those stories are:

"Dead Ringer" by Kelley Armstrong

The anthology starts out strong with "Dead Ringers" by Kelley Armstrong.

A boy who went missing was found, with evidence of physical injuries.

When this boy is returned to his home, however, the father claims that this is not his son, and this person is stalking him.

Mulder and Scully investigate. They research a case with a similar pattern years ago, but that time it was a girl.

Like the TV show, the story draws from paranormal literature. This story would make a fine TV episode of The X Files .


"Mummiya" by Greg Cox

A homeless person informs authorities that a mummy approached him and he stabbed the mummy in self defense.

Mulder and Scully determine that the person who was mummified in ancient Egypt style is a female college student who was reported missing.

Mulder discovers who mummified the college student. Mulder, however, winds up in serious danger. The story has a twist ending.

"Snowman" by Sarah Stegall

The story makes reference to the Dyatlov Pass Incident, a historical event which is like a X Files story:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov...

Mulder and Doggett investigate the disappearance of US Marines at Mt. Rainier, Washington.

Mulder and Doggett come across Sasquatches.

But there is more to the story.

The missing marines were directed to test a new weapon, which, using sound, can break up glaciers.

The new weapon got the Sasquatches riled up.

Mulder and Dogget confront the military figure who ordered the marines to test the new weapon. It was side effects of the new weapon which killed the marines.

I found the climax of the story thrilling.

---
My review of the stories can be found in this thread, posts #214 to #228:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Michael Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

My original The X-Files: The Truth Is Out There audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

The X-Files: The Truth Is Out There is the second prose anthology in IDW Publishing’s series edited by bestselling author Jonathan Maberry.

As a long-time fan of The X-Files, going back to the pilot episode in 1993, I’m delighted by the resurgence and interest in the on-going investigations led by FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully (aka, The FBI’s Most Unwanted), and the anthology format provides readers and audiobook listeners with plenty of interesting new cases from various writers. However, while I mostly enjoyed my time with The Truth Is Out There, I can’t help but feel that it is a weaker anthology than its predecessor, Trust No One. There are several stories that stand out as being incredibly strong, but there are also a number of mediocre entries, and one, “We Should Listen To Some Shostakovich,” that is downright awful.

Kelley Armstrong and Jon McGoran get the book off to a strong start, the latter presenting a really interesting story of time travel. Bev Vincent’s “Phase Shift,” was easily the highlight of the anthology for me, and centers around a house and its inhabitants confronted by a strange anomaly. This is a really good story with a strong, and strongly executed, premise, the ending of which highlights the particular darkness one may confront in such an odd situation. Sorry for being vague, but this is a good one to go into blindly.

Hank Schwaeble brings a welcome dose of ludicrousness to the table with “Male Privilege,” where the men of a small town have suddenly grown breasts. Over the years, The X-Files has shown considerable elasticity in the nature of its premise, ranging from ultra-serious to straight-up goofball comedy, and “Male Privilege” runs to the latter end of this continuum, feeling a bit like a Darin Morgan tribute. On the other end of the continuum then, is Sara Stegall’s “Snowman,” a terrific conspiracy and monster caper involving a search for missing Marine’s in the wintry woods of Washington, and reunites Mulder and John Doggett. Props to Stegall for bringing Doggett, an X-Files alum who has been underserved in the latest renaissance of The X-Files, back into the fold for a brief time.

Glenn Greenberg’s “XXX” revolves around murder on a porn set, which sounds like Mulder’s dream case but is nicely understated and provides some solid twists. As somebody who has read several titles by Tim Waggoner in the past, I was excited to note his inclusion in this anthology and expected a solid effort from him. Thankfully, “Foundling,” did not disappoint and revolves around Mulder and Scully discovering an abandoned baby in an eerily, and suddenly, empty town.

Of the fifteen stories comprising this anthology, the above-mentioned are the ones that really stood out to me. Unfortunately, “We Should Listen To Some Shostakovich,” by Hank Phillipi Ryan, stood out as well, but for entirely different reasons. Set in 2017, the story is far out of continuity with the series and its recent reboot and features a married Mulder and Scully who are expecting a child. I could have given this premise a pass, but Ryan’s characterizations are so out of synch with the character, and the central mystery surrounding numerology and a painting of the composer Shostakovich making its way to their apartment door, is so lackluster it barely feels like an X-File at all. Not much happens aside from the intrepid FBI agents staring at the painting and Googling stuff.

Those who listened to the previous anthology will know what to expect in terms of narration. Bronson Pinchot and Hillary Huber return, and take turns narrating individual stories depending on who the central point of view character is. If it’s primarily a Mulder story, Pinchot delivers a fairly flat voiceover, which turns even more monotone during Mulder’s dialogue in an effort to capture actor David Duchovny’s performance. Overall, though, Pinchot seems flatter in this anthology than he did with the previous one. Huber does solid work, which struck me as an improvement over her prior turn with these characters and their stories. Unfortunately, neither know how to pronounce the name of Frohike – long-time fans will know the Lone Gunman’s name is said “fro-hickey” and not “fro-hike” as it appears in print.

On the production side of things, there’s little to complain about. The sound quality is fine and the narrator’s maintain consistent tones and levels in their work. For whatever reason, the introduction by Lone Gunman actor Dean Haglund, which appears in the print volume, was not recorded (which is a shame, as I would have liked to have heard it).

The X-Files: The Truth Is Out There provides some solid entertainment over the course of 13 hours, even if it doesn’t quite hit the mark as well as Trust No One did. Still, it’s worth a listen and die-hard fans will find plenty of stories, the majority set during the series initial nine-year run, enjoyable and familiar enough to satisfy their itch for fresh cases of alien abductions, haunted houses, weird science, physics gone awry, and the occasional exploding head or two.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice collection of stories. I like how it has stories that only involve Skinner and ones that deal with just Fox before the X Files.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology of X-Files stories was much better than the previous one in this series. For the most part, the authors had a better feel for how an X-File story should play out, though a couple still seemed like they didn't pay much attention to the show. But a few tales felt like they could have been actual X-Files episodes. Looking forward to reading more like these in the future.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another set of great X Files that are quick, to the point, and still manage to build up the same level of mystery and atmosphere as any of the episodes or movies.

[Mia Jo Celeste · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am an X-Files fan. I loved the show. My favorite thing about these stories is that Mulder and Scully are exactly like I’d expect them to be. Their relationship is as real and as complex as it was in the show. Their banter is fun and their personalities are how I’d imagine them. Also, the other characters like Skinner and The Lone Gunmen appear and their reactions are true to their character in the series. I found the files and concepts they investigate in these stories to be intriguing, well-written and definitely worth my time.

If you miss X-Files like me, you’ll find this an enjoyable and fresh blast from the past.

[Laura de Leon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very uneven, some stories were much better than others.

[Gretchen Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some gems in here!

[Matt Spaulding · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent collection of X-Files stories. Maberry definitely knows how to curate for this property and all the authors clearly know and love these characters and this world.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book was enjoyable and easy to read, as with all collections of stories some are always better than others.

[Amy H. Sturgis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Truth Is Out There is a stronger X-Files collection than Trust No One. "Dead Ringer" by Kelley Armstrong opens the collection on an extremely powerful (and poignant) note with a case that would have made an excellent episode, and several other standouts (including the meta tale "Pilot" by David Liss) continue the trend. I especially enjoyed Sarah Stegall's masterful shout-out to the real-life Dyatlov Pass incident, "Snowman," which also includes a welcome dose of John Doggett alongside Fox Mulder.

More than one story in Trust No One read as if the author were new to the X-Files franchise; in this book, only Hank Phillippi Ryan's "We Should Listen to Some Shostakovich" strikes a jarringly discordant note by ignoring all that audiences know of Scully's mother and apparently confusing her with the matriarch from Arrested Development -- a particularly unfortunate move, given what occurred in the recent X-Files miniseries event.

All in all, this collection is more satisfying than its predecessor.

[Emily Park · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason, I was expecting these stories to all align with the show's canon, but several clearly do not. That didn't really bother me, as I like to imagine that the Lone Gunmen are still alive and that the events of the final episode of the reboot never happened...

The stories come from different points in the series' timeline, ranging from Mulder's teen years to a story set in 2017. All of the stories in this anthology were enjoyable. Often when I read short story collections, there are at least a couple that I dislike. There were none of those in this collection, although some contributors were better than others at capturing the spirit of the show. My favorite stories were Dead Ringer, We Should Listen to Some Shostakovich, Pilot, and Voice of Experience.

[Liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

I selected a handful of short stories from this anthology to read (based on authors), so I didn't read the entire book. However, based on what I read, I thought they were well written and the stories were short and yet interesting and intriguing.

The benefit of writing an anthology based on the X-Files theme was that readers would likely be familiar with the premise and characters already so there was very little that needed to be done about quick world building. The authors were able to dive right into a particular investigation or story. This brought back fond memories of the TV series, which I loved as a kid.

Excellent idea and an excellent compilation!

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're a fan at all you'll enjoy this collection of stories. They are true to the Mulder and Scully universe with one notable exception: chapter 14. For some reason the author of this story kept using the names Fox and Dana! It was very annoying and kinda ticked me off (which sounds stupid, I know, but it did.) Anyone who knows anything at all about these people know that it is only extremely rarely that they ever call each other that and no one else does either (except for their moms, lol). I almost skipped that story just because of that. But other than that read em and have fun!

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read - several of the authors hit spot on the voices and banter of Mulder and Scully. Several of the storylines were also pretty clever and amusing (I particularly liked 'Pilot'). A couple didn't hold my interest or had the wrong tone in my opinion, but overall it was a very good compilation. The stories ranged from periods all throughout the series, and a couple dealt with possible past or future events from the lives of Mulder and Scully. For any fan of the series, this is a good read.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love these short story anthologies based around the X-files and really hope they keep making them. The stories are stronger than the last one and far better than the season ten that just aired. Plus there are more married stories of Mulder and Scully and I just find the inner workings of that adorable.

[Martyn Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely only for fans of the X-Files, really unlikely to be of much interest to anyone not already familiar with the show and the characters. But if you like X-Files, keep reading…

Dead ringer - Kelley Armstrong - 4/5

This is a clever little story that just feels 100% X-Files. I loved how the missing child appearing in a woods 200miles away just 2hrs later was the core mystery, and how it subverted expectations from aliens to something else entirely.

Drive Time - Jon McGoran - 4/5

Another great short story. This one exploring a favourite of mine, time travel. Mulder finds himself intervening when a time travelling assassin tries to attack an inventor of time travel on the eve of his first major experimental breakthrough. Really interesting and exciting short story.

Black Hole Son - Kami Garcia - 3/5

Decent job, feels like an initial run at the much longer dedicated novel that was written in the X-Files origins series. Interesting enough and featuring the same plot and characters as the dedicated novel. Even as a short, the ending feels rushed.

We should listen to some Shostakovich - Hank Phillippi Ryan - 3/5

An interesting short story which takes some time to get going. After a mysterious painting arrives on the doorstep of a pregnant Scully and Mulder living together in 2017, the duo soon realise it could be another X-File. A slow story with a satisfying ending.

Mummiya - Greg Cox - 4/5

Greg Cox is always good for a decent adaptation. And this is a great little story. Is it a an actual mummy or is it a weirdo uni student that’s dumped a body? This story is proper retro mid 90s X-Files at its best.

Phase shift - Bev Vincent - 3/5

A family held hostage in their own home by an invisible alien force field. This has elements reminiscent of Under the Dome by Stephen King. I liked the concept; even if the final few paragraphs left a bad taste in the mouth.

Heart - Kendare Blake - 4/5

Really enjoyed this tale, all told from the point of view of a heart transplant survivor. It’s a classic tale of inherited soul traits from the donor’s organ, but it’s done well. Mulder and Scully appearing as tertiary characters in this man’s life is a unique way of them featuring in the story which worked well.

Male privilege - Hank Schwaeble - 2/5

In the first few pages of this short story I was interested. It read like one of the rare, but always excellent, comedy X-Files episodes. A rare curse has subjected all males in town to a pair of breasts. Scully has a theory whilst Mulder thinks it’s somehow connected to rumours of a dragon. Any sense of humour dissipated fast and all that remained was a generic and pretty average dragon in a cave story.

Pilot - David Liss - 4/5

Good fun. A story about a young man who may or may not have a means of travelling through time (or parallel universes). When his house suddenly explodes, Mulder and Scully investigate and get an opportunity to learn more than they ever have before through a very unique and meta concept.

Rosetta - David Sakmyster - 3/5

Another solid entry here as Mulder and Scully investigate a NASA probe, with they help of the Lone Gunmen, which may or may not have picked up a communication from extra terrestrial life. Good story with plenty of action.

Snowman - Sarah Stegall - 5/5

This felt like one of those rare season 8 episodes where Mulder and Doggett were in the same story together. Those episodes were fun, as was this story. The hunt for Bigfoot and a squad of missing military men. The plot is typical X-Files, mixing mystery and sci-fi, with great interplay between Mulder and Doggett.

Voice of experience - Rachel Caine - 5/5

For me this story features the best writing in the entire book, focussing on people not plot. The story keeps you guessing as a chance meeting between Mulder and an ex-lover leads to the investigation into her sudden death hours later. Brilliant story.

XXX - Glenn Greenberg - 4/5

Pretty fun. Mulder and Scully investigate exploding heads on a porn shoot, that’s heads on neck and shoulders. This is filled with the typical Mulder humour and feels like a true classic case file that strikes the balance between mystery, gore and comedy.

Foundling - Tim Waggoner - 3/5

Bit of a strange one. This had a relatively disconnected cold opening which was a nice idea, with the fallout of the opening events affecting Mulder’s emotional stats in his subsequent investigation. The following investigation is a bit choppy with a few too many ideas thrown in, missing towns folk, rival investigation, super powered babies, it’s ok, just a bit messy.

When the cows come home - David Farland - 2/5

Meh. Really generic story to finish the whole anthology on. This should have been positioned somewhere in the middle of the pack with a real strong entry to close the book with. As it stands we get a flashing lights, crop circles, Navajo Indians tale of really below average fare. Not a great ending.

Summary recommended?:

The anthology is a great addition for any X-Files fan that misses the good old days of weekly new episodes. As an anthology of short stories, this really does feel like a collection of TV episodes. All of the stories capture the true essence of the show, some of which are better than others. The great news is most of these stories are well written and great fun.

[LeAnne Franke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It's split into several short stories, some I liked better than others but they are all entertaining. They span the full run of the xfiles series time wise and cover everything from aliens to time warps to monsters of the week. I have the other book, can't wait to read more!

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe the second time's the charm?

This is the second book in an anthology series about your and my favourite FBI agents specializing in paranormal investigations. I've read and reviewed the first outing already, and while there were a couple of good stories in there, it wasn't as good as I was hoping for. It feels to me that in this second anthology, they saved more of the good stories for this second volume (Which doesn't seem like a good way to get a second volume published at all, but what I know about the world of publishing books wouldn't get anyone very far in that particular career path.) I digress. And I'll comment on specific stories that stood out to me, good or bad:

First up, Dead Ringer, a story of apparent abduction that builds well to a completely unexpected supernatural explanation, and has a very satisfying finish.

Drive Time is pretty good too, leveraging a tried and true scifi trope to tell its own unique story. This one ends up playing a little too fast and loose with its story device to make a lot of sense at the end, but it holds up well enough.

And as much as I enjoyed the intimacy and peek into the personal life of an older Scully and Mulder in We Should Listen to Some Shostakovich, I found trying to keep up with the unraveling of the mystery way more difficult than I would have preferred. If you don't have Masters degrees in both astrophysics and musical theory, you might find it similarly difficult. And I'm in the middle of a series (re)watch, having made it to the end of the show's original 9 seasons many times but not having seen any of seasons 10-11. So this story, taking place after the furthest I've seen, has me hoping that very little of its contents make it into the show's canon. I listened carefully to it and I still don't know WTF it was about.

I am a fan of meta and fourth-wall breaks and stories like Pilot just put a big smile on my face. I really enjoyed that one.

I recommend this be the anthology you read versus it's predecessor. Many of the stories really seem to nail the characterizations of Mulder and Scully correctly, and so, for me at least, they're a lot more fun to read.

[Jana P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jako fanouška Akt X mne tahle povídková kniha rozhodně nemohla minout. A já jsem ráda, že se mi kniha dostala do rukou.
Moje hodnocení je nakonec průměrné, což je dáno hlavně tím, že některé povídky mi sedly trochu méně, některé mne zase bavily hodně (Dvojník, Syn černé díry, Mumie, Fázový posun, Hlas zkušenosti, XXX). Celkově však musím říct, že ve mně celý svazek vyvolal neuvěřitelnou nostalgii a chuť si celý seriál zase pustit od začátku.
Ať už mi povídky zápletkou či stylem psaní seděly nebo ne, mají všechny jedno společné. Věrně se drží toho, co jsem měla na seriálu tak ráda. Hlavně to, že to ve vás vyvolává spoustu otázek ohledně bytí, ohledně něčeho nedosažitelného - prostě takový ten tajemný pocit, že tu nejsem sami a že existují věci, kterým zatím nerozumíme a které nás přesahují. Je to taková ta chuť snít s otevřenýma očima o tom "co by, kdyby" - o věcech, které jsou těžko uchopitelné, ale které člověka nějak vnitřně lákají a tak trochu vzrušují.
Zároveň si cením toho, jak se autoři snažili udržet tu doplňující se protikladnost Muldera a Scullyové, kdy Mulder je víře v nadpřirozeno a v cokoliv mimozemského nakloněn velmi výrazně a s touhou sobě vlastní se do neobvyklých případů vrhá po hlavě (skoro až bezhlavě), zatímco Scullyová je skeptičtější a drží se se svým racionálním uvažováním nohama při zemi.
Musím říct, že některé ty povídky bych dost ráda viděla zfilmované, rozhodně mají potenciál. Celkově tedy 3 hvězdy. A stále ve mně hlodá ta myšlenka si fakt ten seriál zas pustit... :-D

[Cassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every collection has its up and downs. While this one may not have been so successful for me overall as the first, it was no less enjoyable. As with the first it wonderfully captured the tone of the series and swept me up in the delights of nostalgia.

I will say there were some narration choices at points I felt rather grating. But overall both the work and the auditory component of my experience was simply fun. I was also delightfully surprised to see that one author I really love the original work of had contributed to this collection! It's probably not a surprise that one was a highlight for me.

[Ystyn Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this volume more than the first. The stories seemed a little closer to what I experienced watching the original show, even though they varied in quality, and the dry humour was better here. My biggest issue was that the stories were chronologically out of order which meant jumping in and out of different contexts and timelines which was really jarring. I’ll never get tired of spending time with Mulder and Scully though.

[Chrissy]

Only read "Dead Ringer" by Kelley Armstrong

4 stars
Mulder and Scully investigate a case of mysteriously disappearing and then reappearing children (is it alien abduction? or something else?). The solution was pretty good, the original characters introduced during the case were interesting, and from the very limited amount of X-Files episodes I've seen, Scully and Mulder seemed true-to-character, though I don't feel like I know the X-Files well enough to really be a judge of that.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories that feature the characters of Special Agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder from the X-files. If you miss the show like I sometimes do and want new episodes, these books are just the thing. They are short stories written by different authors. The stories are usually not longer than an hour in length, just like the show. Each story has a distinct beginning and ending, unlike the tv show sometimes with its long story arcs.

[Gavin Felgate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compliation of short stories, based on the TV show, The X-Files, with a mixture of serious dramas and more humourous stories; I noticed also that the stories took place in different parts of the timeline, with some set in modern times, others set in the early 1990s, parallel with the older seasons of the show.

The stories are as follows:

Dead Ringer, by Kelly Armstrong: Seems at first like a simple alien abduction story, but soon becomes something more sinister; really creepy stuff.

Drive Time, by Jon McGoran: A hard-core sci-fi story involving time travel that felt mainly tongue in cheek, and where I tried not to look to hard into the logic behind the story's denouement. It felt a bit like the plot from an episode of Rick and Morty or Futurama, but it was fun anyway.

Black Hole Son, by Kami Garcia: Effectively, a story about how Mulder's sister was abducted, from Mulder's point of view; I found this one to be quite compelling, and moving.

We Should Listen to Some Shostakovich, by Hank Phillipi Ryan: Set in 2017, this one felt like a typical shipper fanfic that could be found on several internet sites. At the start, Mulder and Scully are said to be married, and the story was not overtly paranormal, but there was a lot of numerology stuff that I was fascinated by. This was a decent enough story, but it's something that's unlikely to happen on the show soon, if it gets renewed for an eleventh season and beyond, and the show's tenth season has somewhat rendered it non-canon by the appearance of a recurring character that got killed off.

Mummiya, by Greg Cox: A story involving mummification, which took some unexpected twists.

Phase Shift, by Bev Vincent: A family are trapped in a house that has been somehow temporally displaced using some sort of forcefield. The science was bizarre, and the ending contained some unexpected (and pitch-black) humour.

Heart, by Kendare Blake: This one opens with a man getting a heart transplant, and then starting to behave strangely - it didn't seem that original, and I wasn't surprised at where it ended up going, but the different storytellng style, told from the point of view of a character other than Mulder and Scully, was refreshing.

Male Privelage, by Hank Schwaeble: Another one that felt like it was straight off the internet, this one felt unusually wacky as it veered into hardcore fantasy territory, involving curses and dragons. This was the only one I was nonplussed by, as the introduction of some sort of ancient ritual involving local boys and a dragon just felt too silly, and it didn't feel like an X-Files plot at all, but something off another show, like Doctor Who.

Pilot, by David Liss: A quirky, and mostly humourous story that reminded me of one of the stranger fanfictions I wrote when I was younger. This eventually involves Mulder and Scully discovering that in a parallel universe they are fictional characters on a TV show. It was a little strange, but I enjoyed the whole concept of Mulder and Scully watching episodes of their life being played out and warned not to "watch ahead". I wondered what I would do if that ever happened to me.

Rosetta, by David Sakmyster: A claustrophic story involving an isolated location, and lots of apparent mind games. It was a bit hard to explain what this one was really about, particularly with all the technical language, but the atmosphere was satisfyingly creepy. It seemed to be based on the same canon as Joe Harris' comic strips, as it featured characters that so far, only these have resurrected after their deaths in the show's ninth season.

Snowman, by Sarah Stegall: A story that possibly some of the fanboys and fangirls will not like, as it pairs Mulder with John Doggett from the show's eighth and ninth seasons while they search for the sasquatch. It had a similar feel to HP Lovecraft's "Into the Mountains of Madness", but had a couple of neat twists towards the end.

Voice of Experience, by Rachel Caine: An old flame of Mulder's apparently commits suicide; it doesn't feel supernatural at first, but leads to an X-Files case nothing like any on the show. I was interested that it featured Mulder and Scully meeting Assistant Director Skinner, although it was dated prior to his first appearance on the show.

XXX, by Glenn Greenberg: An oddly flippant take on "Scanners" that opens with a porn actor's head exploding, to which his co-stars remark, "Not again". It was slightly predictable, but did provide some good red herrings involving alien viruses.

Foundling, by Tim Waggoner: Opens with a harrowing scene involving a mother shooting her baby, the story then involves Mulder and Scully finding a baby abandoned in a mysterious, seemingly deserted, town, and having to look after it. My guess was that the writer wanted to imagine Mulder and Scully as parents.

When the Cows Come Home, by David Farland: Short story involving a rancher being attacked by cattle and crop circles. It seemed to take place during the time when Mulder was on an alien spaceship himself, but involves him and Scully anyway. A decent final story, and went in a direction I did not expect.

Overall then, with one exception, a good selection of stories that I'd recommend trying to any fan of The X-Files.

[Mike Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hey very entertaining group of stories based on the X-Files TV series. All of the stories were excellent and very entertaining if you are in X-Files fan you would like it and need to check it out. Each story was told from the point of view of either Fox Mulder for Dana Scully and you will be entertained