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Genius Loci: Tales of the Spirit of Place
Tales of guardian spirits and divine powers by Seanan McGuire, Ken Liu, Alethea Kontis, Laura Anne Gilman, Scott Edelman and more. Guardian spirits. Divine presences. Demonic powers. Ghosts. The concept of "genius loci" is indeed an ancient one, found in nearly every human mythology. Genius Loci is a huge anthology of 31 all-new fantasy and science fiction stories drawing on the rich tradition of place-as-person. Within its pages, the authors present stories of sentient deserts, beneficent forests, lonely shrubs, and protective planetary spirits, highlighted by the fantastic art of Lisa A. Grabenstetter and Evan M. Jensen., and edited by Jaym Gates.
476 pages, Paperback
First published June 21, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 24, 2016
Thoroughly loved illustrating these tales. The reading beforehand was a delight, and I can't wait for the world to get to read them all.
October 2, 2016
So, the way this works is that I'm going to review every short story by itself, and have an individual rating there. Afterwards, I'll average the rating and pick the amount of stars I want to give it. You can see them right now, but I haven't tapped it yet as of this writing. I read one short story every day, which was definitely a nice experience, haven't read a collection this way in a long time.
Anyway. Let's get to it!
Vivienne Pustell - The City - 5/5
The opening story very quickly turned into one of my favorites. My main qualm with this one was that I didn't get enough, which is always a good qualm to have; Vivienne Pustell understood the idea of this anthology very, very well, and chose to have it take place in a sort-of secondary world. It's the only story in the anthology that did it like that, but it was amazing and haunting and so well-described. So of course it gets the full stars.
Thoraiya Dyer - The Grudge - 4/5
This story also had a lot going for it. The whole premise of the grudge is an interesting take on the story it's based on, which I was introduced to before reading the short story. (The introductory explanation lines worked very well, by the way) The only problem I had was that there was a bit much in the whole story, and because of the way the rift worked it got really hard to tell what was going on near the end. It felt a little unresolved to me, which is why that cost it a star. Still great though.
Heather Clitheroe - Coaltown - 5/5
Oh my gosh this story was so haunting. It had shades of a short story I had tried to write a while back but my version fell flat on its face. Clitheroe does it beautifully, so much better than I ever will. The whole concept of the children was amazing and the ending works on so many different levels. Well done.
Haralambi Markov - The Town The Forest Ate - 5/5
Another 5/5? Yes, and another deserved one. This one, too, is very haunting. It's about parents slowly losing their minds, and now everything's left to the children. After the samodiva explanation, I was not expecting to read a story like this, but I was pleasantly surprised. It ties very well into the mythology. Another great one.
B. Morris Allen - Blackthorn - 3/5
And here's the first one I didn't like. The story starts with the usual mythological explanation, but the story itself puts a spin on it. A rather minor one, actually, and it starts by re-explaining what I already read at the start. In addition to that, the ending felt a little undeserved to me. I think the author could've gone so many ways with this legend, so to stick with it for the most part was a little disappointing.
Caroline Ratajski - The Forgetting Head - 4/5
I really liked the idea of telling a story through the perspective of flowers. It sounds incredibly silly when I write it here, but Ratajski pulls it off very well, in a very short amount of pages. But because of that short amount, the story didn't feel as much as a story as it felt like a concept, an idea. There wasn't really a plot, just a whole lot of explaining. Otherwise, this was good stuff.
K.C. Norton - Reef - 5/5
This was the first one not based in mythology! But also done really well. The loci is amazing and the green aesop that plays a role in there is done very well. This was a thoroughly enjoyable and refreshing read, and the ending was very well set-up and deserved. Made me smile.
J. Daniel Batt - Ouroboros in Orbit - 3/5
Gosh this was such a cool concept. Concept, not a story. It starts off by explaining what the main mythology in this story does, and that's all it sticks to; it's an explanation, nothing more. Batt could've gone anywhere with this, so I was a wee bit disappointed with where it didn't go. Remember when I said that 'I want more' is a good problem to have? Well, unless it's like this. I needed more to understand and to empathize. Both were lacking. Such a shame.
Damien Angelica Walters - In The Water, Underneath - 2/5
Another one I didn't like. This, too, was a concept, except that it wasn't quite that as well. I don't quite understand who 'him' is in the story, I don't quite get the whole idea or the plot it tries to make. I reread it for this review because so little of it has stuck in my mind, and I still have no idea what was going on through the story, and the pre-story explanation only helped a little bit. Also a shame.
Wendy N. Wagner - Scab Land - 4/5
Perhaps Wagner works in the setting best of all. Her descriptions might be the best throughout the collection, it was impossible not to put imagine myself there. It was a whole lot of fun to read throughout.
The only problem I had is that the character arc felt a bit out of place, that it was a little bit shoehorned in. Nonetheless, good stuff.
Gemma Files - Twilight State - 5/5
This one was pretty darn big. And pretty darn fun as well, certainly one of the best. It's as big as it needs to be for the characters and the setting to work; and oh boy, it does. It combines mythology and therapy, two things that usually don't go together, extremely well. And then there are the relationships among the characters that were a lot of fun to read about. Certainly one of the best.
Mercedes M. Yardley - Cactus Flowers and Bone Flutes - 5/5
Gosh this one was hard to rate. It was so short and I felt a little bereft, wanting more. But I couldn't pinpoint my problem, so I think there wasn't one to begin with, other than that I didn't get enough. It did everything it was supposed to do. Loved the way the desert played a role in the story!
Ken Scholes & Katie Cord - Drowning Again in the Ocean of Her - 4/5
This had a really cool concept and a really cool title. And in general, this was a lot of fun to read too. But the ending? Gosh that was pointless, and made the whole short story feel pointless as well to keep up the air of mystery, undoing even the little bit of character development that it got. So it loses a star, though it was fun.
Andy Duncan - Santa Cruz: A True Story - 3/5
I did not expect to like this story as much as I ended up doing. The whole autobiographical style felt like I was listening to this guy telling me the story in a bar, which is fine in a bar, but only okay in a collection. The way it was laden with description also sometimes lost my attention. But still, I liked it a lot more than I thought at first glance. The tiny scope just made it feel a little pointless, but maybe that's just my taste talking.
Scott Edelman - And The Trees Were Happy - 5/5
I have never read The Giving Tree, but I know the idea of the story and this is more or less like that. Except with a twist near the end that should look ridiculous on paper; but it works amazingly well, much better than I was expecting. This one was fun throughout and the ending is very well-deserved!
Zm Quýnh - The South China Sea - 4/5
I could tell while reading this that there were lots of autobiographical elements hidden in there, and most of them worked very well. It's a beautiful piece firmly rooted in Vietnamese mythology, that I don't hear that much about, which made it all the more interesting. But Quýnh tried to attach a happy ending, and to me, it just came out of nowhere. Which was a bit of a disappointment.
Steven H. Silver - Well of Tranquility - 1/5
Here's the first one that I really didn't like, and the main reason why was because of the way it ends. No, ending is too good a word; it stops, leaving me to wonder, 'but what about this? And this? And this?'. It left me with too many questions unanswered and the loci might as well not have been in the story. To me, this was the only story that completely missed the point of the anthology. And then there's the description that is just overdone. Sorry, but I just can't get myself to like this one in any way.
Steven Long - Forest for the Trees- 3/5
Steven Long's story's not going anywhere. That's what I thought, right up to the final paragraph, and I was expecting to just give it a 1 as well. So the last paragraph surprised me pleasantly and revealed to me that yes, there had actually been a plot in there. But it ended too soon anyway, it still felt like a concept, though a better concept than I was expecting.
Anatoly Belilovsky - Iron Feliks - 4/5
This had such a promising start! An amazing worldbuilding and the way the Soviet Union is tied into the story makes it so much more interesting to read. It's so well described that it was pleasant all the way through. But unlike its predecessor, this one really didn't go anywhere, so it costs a star, but because the rest was so amazing, it's still very redeemable.
James Lowder - The Crooked Smile Killers - 3/5
Lowder, you really really wanted to write about Batman, didn't you? Yeah, he's a pretty cool guy. It's such a shame that copyright exists, and that it's pretty dang difficult to shoehorn a whole superhero origin story into a short story that's supposed to be about setting.
To be fair, Lowder works in the setting really well and the ending is very well set up. But it's just not a short story, and it feels bloated as a result. Which reminds me of a certain fairly recent Batman movie as well. Though not in a good way.
Sarah Goslee - Transplant Specialist - 4/5
This was a really nice story with a really cool concept, but it moves beyond the whole concept thing to deliver something genuinely cool. Except for the ending, which comes out of nowhere and just resolves everything a wee bit too easily. But this one, as well, is redeemable in all other areas.
Sunil Patel - The Gramadevi's Lament - 5/5
Okay, I'm biased. I'm friends with Sunil. But still, this one was really really good! The way it was rooted in ancient Indian mythology made for an amazing read all through the end. The way it ended was haunting and will stay with me for a while. Highly recommended.
Richard Dansky - Beer and Pennies - 5/5
Who would've thought that a story starring the devil was so much fun to read? But Dansky's put a pretty cool story down with great characterization in fairly few words. The Devil is just about everything you expect from him. The mythology, again, is rooted in there superbly as well. Another great one!
Rebecca Campbell - The Other Shore - 3/5
Yes, the relationship between Lin and Charlie is well written. Yes, the characters are good and yes, the Other Shore plays a vital role in the story.
But I still don't have any idea what it is. It's described through the eyes of Lin who already knows what it is and therefore, she sort of falls flat on the explanation. Which pulled the story down. Shame, because the rest was great.
Chaz Brentley - Afterparty, Or, Not Out Of The Woods - 3/5
A refreshing story among stories that feel like fantasy or sci-fi, this story stays within the contemporary realm and does so very well, without losing track of the mythology. But the way it kept reminding me it was a story by having some tongue-in-cheek references to its fictional status, that was a little too much for me. Still cool though.
Keris McDonald - The Sleck - 5/5
OUCH this one hurt. The feeling of losing a kid is one of the worst things that can happen to someone, I think. I never had it happen to me, but reading this story, it almost felt like I had, because it was so well-written. I totally understood Rob's decision at the end, which made it all the more heartbreaking.
Aletha Kontis - Blue And Gray & Black And Green - 3/5
I didn't read this at a campfire, which probably explains why I didn't like it all that much. Sure, the narrative voice was cool, but the way it ended was a little on the quick side. But that narrative voice, of Daniel, a seven-year old ghost? It was, admittedly, amazing. Maybe I'm just not a fan of campfire stories.
Cat Rambo - The Threadbare Magician - 5/5
This one might have been the biggest in the whole collection. And I seem to be liking the big ones the best, and this was no exception. The way the main relationship is written is very original and I loved the way it was homosexual. And the magic system? Gosh it's good for a short story and ties in neatly to the collection as a whole. The ending's really nice as well!
Sonya Taaffe - Imperator Noster - 3/5
After such a big one, it's funny how the collection switches to one of the shortest ones. This one, too, was more a concept than a story, but the Roman touch to it gave it another cool unique perspective. Nonetheless, it feels more like... not even really a concept, but more of a history note? Everything's told to me, nothing's really shown. Which is why it gets only three stars...
Seanan McGuire - Long Way Down - 5/5
Seanan McGuire's name was the only other name I recognized from the anthology. I knew her as an experienced writer though I'd never read anything from her before. But this was as good as I expected it to be. The way the river played into Janie's story was well set-up, and the ending is the stuff of nightmares. In a good way.
Ken Liu - The Snow Train - 4/5
This story was bizarre; but the good kind of bizarre. It felt a bit like a good children's story that way, certainly enjoyable. The way the snow train played into it all was fascinating. But the ending? Nothing changes, IMHO, not really, which costs it a star. Otherwise good stuff though!
Laura Anne Gilman - Heartbeat - 2/5
Really short. Not really sweet. It doesn't really do the whole story thing, like other entries in this anthology, and it doesn't even really do the concept thing as well. It's just a quick note on the setting, it feels, a little encyclopedia-like. Didn't like this one at all, which was a shame as it was the final entry...
Now, here comes the averaging, of 32 stories. The average of all the ratings is 3.9, which is really easily rounded up to a four stars.
All in all, this anthology was really, really good. And perhaps I'm biased because I backed it on Kickstarter, but I still think this was one of the best anthologies I've read so far. And here's what I don't understand; how come an indie anthology with a very specific subject manages to hit the mark almost every dang time, without ever growing boring or repetitive, and while it's edited by an editor who isn't as well-known as some others in the business, while Dangerous Women, with a really broad subject and two incredibly big names attached to the project, as well as some entries from the best in the business, ends up sometimes being repetitive and more often just completely missing the broad mark? I have absolutely no idea.
But what I do know is that Jaym Gates, the main editor of the anthology, obviously knows how anthologies work. I'm definitely keeping an eye on future anthologies. This one was a lot of fun and I do recommend reading the stories for yourself!
Anyway. Let's get to it!
Vivienne Pustell - The City - 5/5
The opening story very quickly turned into one of my favorites. My main qualm with this one was that I didn't get enough, which is always a good qualm to have; Vivienne Pustell understood the idea of this anthology very, very well, and chose to have it take place in a sort-of secondary world. It's the only story in the anthology that did it like that, but it was amazing and haunting and so well-described. So of course it gets the full stars.
Thoraiya Dyer - The Grudge - 4/5
This story also had a lot going for it. The whole premise of the grudge is an interesting take on the story it's based on, which I was introduced to before reading the short story. (The introductory explanation lines worked very well, by the way) The only problem I had was that there was a bit much in the whole story, and because of the way the rift worked it got really hard to tell what was going on near the end. It felt a little unresolved to me, which is why that cost it a star. Still great though.
Heather Clitheroe - Coaltown - 5/5
Oh my gosh this story was so haunting. It had shades of a short story I had tried to write a while back but my version fell flat on its face. Clitheroe does it beautifully, so much better than I ever will. The whole concept of the children was amazing and the ending works on so many different levels. Well done.
Haralambi Markov - The Town The Forest Ate - 5/5
Another 5/5? Yes, and another deserved one. This one, too, is very haunting. It's about parents slowly losing their minds, and now everything's left to the children. After the samodiva explanation, I was not expecting to read a story like this, but I was pleasantly surprised. It ties very well into the mythology. Another great one.
B. Morris Allen - Blackthorn - 3/5
And here's the first one I didn't like. The story starts with the usual mythological explanation, but the story itself puts a spin on it. A rather minor one, actually, and it starts by re-explaining what I already read at the start. In addition to that, the ending felt a little undeserved to me. I think the author could've gone so many ways with this legend, so to stick with it for the most part was a little disappointing.
Caroline Ratajski - The Forgetting Head - 4/5
I really liked the idea of telling a story through the perspective of flowers. It sounds incredibly silly when I write it here, but Ratajski pulls it off very well, in a very short amount of pages. But because of that short amount, the story didn't feel as much as a story as it felt like a concept, an idea. There wasn't really a plot, just a whole lot of explaining. Otherwise, this was good stuff.
K.C. Norton - Reef - 5/5
This was the first one not based in mythology! But also done really well. The loci is amazing and the green aesop that plays a role in there is done very well. This was a thoroughly enjoyable and refreshing read, and the ending was very well set-up and deserved. Made me smile.
J. Daniel Batt - Ouroboros in Orbit - 3/5
Gosh this was such a cool concept. Concept, not a story. It starts off by explaining what the main mythology in this story does, and that's all it sticks to; it's an explanation, nothing more. Batt could've gone anywhere with this, so I was a wee bit disappointed with where it didn't go. Remember when I said that 'I want more' is a good problem to have? Well, unless it's like this. I needed more to understand and to empathize. Both were lacking. Such a shame.
Damien Angelica Walters - In The Water, Underneath - 2/5
Another one I didn't like. This, too, was a concept, except that it wasn't quite that as well. I don't quite understand who 'him' is in the story, I don't quite get the whole idea or the plot it tries to make. I reread it for this review because so little of it has stuck in my mind, and I still have no idea what was going on through the story, and the pre-story explanation only helped a little bit. Also a shame.
Wendy N. Wagner - Scab Land - 4/5
Perhaps Wagner works in the setting best of all. Her descriptions might be the best throughout the collection, it was impossible not to put imagine myself there. It was a whole lot of fun to read throughout.
The only problem I had is that the character arc felt a bit out of place, that it was a little bit shoehorned in. Nonetheless, good stuff.
Gemma Files - Twilight State - 5/5
This one was pretty darn big. And pretty darn fun as well, certainly one of the best. It's as big as it needs to be for the characters and the setting to work; and oh boy, it does. It combines mythology and therapy, two things that usually don't go together, extremely well. And then there are the relationships among the characters that were a lot of fun to read about. Certainly one of the best.
Mercedes M. Yardley - Cactus Flowers and Bone Flutes - 5/5
Gosh this one was hard to rate. It was so short and I felt a little bereft, wanting more. But I couldn't pinpoint my problem, so I think there wasn't one to begin with, other than that I didn't get enough. It did everything it was supposed to do. Loved the way the desert played a role in the story!
Ken Scholes & Katie Cord - Drowning Again in the Ocean of Her - 4/5
This had a really cool concept and a really cool title. And in general, this was a lot of fun to read too. But the ending? Gosh that was pointless, and made the whole short story feel pointless as well to keep up the air of mystery, undoing even the little bit of character development that it got. So it loses a star, though it was fun.
Andy Duncan - Santa Cruz: A True Story - 3/5
I did not expect to like this story as much as I ended up doing. The whole autobiographical style felt like I was listening to this guy telling me the story in a bar, which is fine in a bar, but only okay in a collection. The way it was laden with description also sometimes lost my attention. But still, I liked it a lot more than I thought at first glance. The tiny scope just made it feel a little pointless, but maybe that's just my taste talking.
Scott Edelman - And The Trees Were Happy - 5/5
I have never read The Giving Tree, but I know the idea of the story and this is more or less like that. Except with a twist near the end that should look ridiculous on paper; but it works amazingly well, much better than I was expecting. This one was fun throughout and the ending is very well-deserved!
Zm Quýnh - The South China Sea - 4/5
I could tell while reading this that there were lots of autobiographical elements hidden in there, and most of them worked very well. It's a beautiful piece firmly rooted in Vietnamese mythology, that I don't hear that much about, which made it all the more interesting. But Quýnh tried to attach a happy ending, and to me, it just came out of nowhere. Which was a bit of a disappointment.
Steven H. Silver - Well of Tranquility - 1/5
Here's the first one that I really didn't like, and the main reason why was because of the way it ends. No, ending is too good a word; it stops, leaving me to wonder, 'but what about this? And this? And this?'. It left me with too many questions unanswered and the loci might as well not have been in the story. To me, this was the only story that completely missed the point of the anthology. And then there's the description that is just overdone. Sorry, but I just can't get myself to like this one in any way.
Steven Long - Forest for the Trees- 3/5
Steven Long's story's not going anywhere. That's what I thought, right up to the final paragraph, and I was expecting to just give it a 1 as well. So the last paragraph surprised me pleasantly and revealed to me that yes, there had actually been a plot in there. But it ended too soon anyway, it still felt like a concept, though a better concept than I was expecting.
Anatoly Belilovsky - Iron Feliks - 4/5
This had such a promising start! An amazing worldbuilding and the way the Soviet Union is tied into the story makes it so much more interesting to read. It's so well described that it was pleasant all the way through. But unlike its predecessor, this one really didn't go anywhere, so it costs a star, but because the rest was so amazing, it's still very redeemable.
James Lowder - The Crooked Smile Killers - 3/5
Lowder, you really really wanted to write about Batman, didn't you? Yeah, he's a pretty cool guy. It's such a shame that copyright exists, and that it's pretty dang difficult to shoehorn a whole superhero origin story into a short story that's supposed to be about setting.
To be fair, Lowder works in the setting really well and the ending is very well set up. But it's just not a short story, and it feels bloated as a result. Which reminds me of a certain fairly recent Batman movie as well. Though not in a good way.
Sarah Goslee - Transplant Specialist - 4/5
This was a really nice story with a really cool concept, but it moves beyond the whole concept thing to deliver something genuinely cool. Except for the ending, which comes out of nowhere and just resolves everything a wee bit too easily. But this one, as well, is redeemable in all other areas.
Sunil Patel - The Gramadevi's Lament - 5/5
Okay, I'm biased. I'm friends with Sunil. But still, this one was really really good! The way it was rooted in ancient Indian mythology made for an amazing read all through the end. The way it ended was haunting and will stay with me for a while. Highly recommended.
Richard Dansky - Beer and Pennies - 5/5
Who would've thought that a story starring the devil was so much fun to read? But Dansky's put a pretty cool story down with great characterization in fairly few words. The Devil is just about everything you expect from him. The mythology, again, is rooted in there superbly as well. Another great one!
Rebecca Campbell - The Other Shore - 3/5
Yes, the relationship between Lin and Charlie is well written. Yes, the characters are good and yes, the Other Shore plays a vital role in the story.
But I still don't have any idea what it is. It's described through the eyes of Lin who already knows what it is and therefore, she sort of falls flat on the explanation. Which pulled the story down. Shame, because the rest was great.
Chaz Brentley - Afterparty, Or, Not Out Of The Woods - 3/5
A refreshing story among stories that feel like fantasy or sci-fi, this story stays within the contemporary realm and does so very well, without losing track of the mythology. But the way it kept reminding me it was a story by having some tongue-in-cheek references to its fictional status, that was a little too much for me. Still cool though.
Keris McDonald - The Sleck - 5/5
OUCH this one hurt. The feeling of losing a kid is one of the worst things that can happen to someone, I think. I never had it happen to me, but reading this story, it almost felt like I had, because it was so well-written. I totally understood Rob's decision at the end, which made it all the more heartbreaking.
Aletha Kontis - Blue And Gray & Black And Green - 3/5
I didn't read this at a campfire, which probably explains why I didn't like it all that much. Sure, the narrative voice was cool, but the way it ended was a little on the quick side. But that narrative voice, of Daniel, a seven-year old ghost? It was, admittedly, amazing. Maybe I'm just not a fan of campfire stories.
Cat Rambo - The Threadbare Magician - 5/5
This one might have been the biggest in the whole collection. And I seem to be liking the big ones the best, and this was no exception. The way the main relationship is written is very original and I loved the way it was homosexual. And the magic system? Gosh it's good for a short story and ties in neatly to the collection as a whole. The ending's really nice as well!
Sonya Taaffe - Imperator Noster - 3/5
After such a big one, it's funny how the collection switches to one of the shortest ones. This one, too, was more a concept than a story, but the Roman touch to it gave it another cool unique perspective. Nonetheless, it feels more like... not even really a concept, but more of a history note? Everything's told to me, nothing's really shown. Which is why it gets only three stars...
Seanan McGuire - Long Way Down - 5/5
Seanan McGuire's name was the only other name I recognized from the anthology. I knew her as an experienced writer though I'd never read anything from her before. But this was as good as I expected it to be. The way the river played into Janie's story was well set-up, and the ending is the stuff of nightmares. In a good way.
Ken Liu - The Snow Train - 4/5
This story was bizarre; but the good kind of bizarre. It felt a bit like a good children's story that way, certainly enjoyable. The way the snow train played into it all was fascinating. But the ending? Nothing changes, IMHO, not really, which costs it a star. Otherwise good stuff though!
Laura Anne Gilman - Heartbeat - 2/5
Really short. Not really sweet. It doesn't really do the whole story thing, like other entries in this anthology, and it doesn't even really do the concept thing as well. It's just a quick note on the setting, it feels, a little encyclopedia-like. Didn't like this one at all, which was a shame as it was the final entry...
Now, here comes the averaging, of 32 stories. The average of all the ratings is 3.9, which is really easily rounded up to a four stars.
All in all, this anthology was really, really good. And perhaps I'm biased because I backed it on Kickstarter, but I still think this was one of the best anthologies I've read so far. And here's what I don't understand; how come an indie anthology with a very specific subject manages to hit the mark almost every dang time, without ever growing boring or repetitive, and while it's edited by an editor who isn't as well-known as some others in the business, while Dangerous Women, with a really broad subject and two incredibly big names attached to the project, as well as some entries from the best in the business, ends up sometimes being repetitive and more often just completely missing the broad mark? I have absolutely no idea.
But what I do know is that Jaym Gates, the main editor of the anthology, obviously knows how anthologies work. I'm definitely keeping an eye on future anthologies. This one was a lot of fun and I do recommend reading the stories for yourself!
May 2, 2021
Thanks Outland Entertainment, Jaym Gates and Netgalley for the ARC.
Summary: Some of the stories in this book (Well of Tranquility, The Trees Were Empty, and Forest For The Trees) are good. None are great. Most are just ok. Some are annoying.
I don't expect people to write something completely original - who knows if that's even possible at this point in history. But there is middle ground between original and derivative that these stories just wouldn't venture in to.
Summary: Some of the stories in this book (Well of Tranquility, The Trees Were Empty, and Forest For The Trees) are good. None are great. Most are just ok. Some are annoying.
I don't expect people to write something completely original - who knows if that's even possible at this point in history. But there is middle ground between original and derivative that these stories just wouldn't venture in to.
Read
June 26, 2016“The City” by Vivienne Pustell
“The Grudge” by Thoraiya Dyer
“Coaltown” by Heather Clitheroe
“The Town the Forest Ate” by Haralambi Markov
“Blackthorn” by B. Morris Allen
“The Forgetting Field” by Caroline Ratajski
“Reef” by K.C. Norton
“Ouroboros in Orbit” by J. Daniel Batt
“In the Water, Underneath” by Damien Angelica Walters
“Scab Land” by Wendy N. Wagner
“Twilight State” by Gemma Files
“Cactus Flowers and Bone Flutes” by Mercedes M. Yardley
“Drowning Again in an Ocean of Her” by Ken Scholes and Katie Cord
“Santa Cruz: A True Story” by Andy Duncan
“And the Trees Were Happy” by Scott Edelman
“The South China Sea” by Z.M. Quynh
“Well of Tranquility” by Steven H Silver
“Forest for the Trees” by Steven S. Long
“Iron Feliks” by Anatoly Belilovsky
“The Crooked Smile Killers” by James Lowder
“Transplant Specialist” by Sarah Goslee
“The Gramadevi’s Lament” by Sunil Patel
“Beer and Pennies” by Rich Dansky
“The Other Shore” by Rebecca Campbell
“Afterparty, or, Not Out of the Woods” by Chaz Brenchley
“The Sleck” by Keris McDonald
“Blue & Grey and Black & Green” by Alethea Kontis
“Threadbare Magician” by Cat Rambo
“Imperator Noster” by Sonya Taaffe
“Long Way Down” by Seanan McGuire
“The Snow Train” by Ken Liu
“Heartbeat” by Laura Anne Gilman
“The Grudge” by Thoraiya Dyer
“Coaltown” by Heather Clitheroe
“The Town the Forest Ate” by Haralambi Markov
“Blackthorn” by B. Morris Allen
“The Forgetting Field” by Caroline Ratajski
“Reef” by K.C. Norton
“Ouroboros in Orbit” by J. Daniel Batt
“In the Water, Underneath” by Damien Angelica Walters
“Scab Land” by Wendy N. Wagner
“Twilight State” by Gemma Files
“Cactus Flowers and Bone Flutes” by Mercedes M. Yardley
“Drowning Again in an Ocean of Her” by Ken Scholes and Katie Cord
“Santa Cruz: A True Story” by Andy Duncan
“And the Trees Were Happy” by Scott Edelman
“The South China Sea” by Z.M. Quynh
“Well of Tranquility” by Steven H Silver
“Forest for the Trees” by Steven S. Long
“Iron Feliks” by Anatoly Belilovsky
“The Crooked Smile Killers” by James Lowder
“Transplant Specialist” by Sarah Goslee
“The Gramadevi’s Lament” by Sunil Patel
“Beer and Pennies” by Rich Dansky
“The Other Shore” by Rebecca Campbell
“Afterparty, or, Not Out of the Woods” by Chaz Brenchley
“The Sleck” by Keris McDonald
“Blue & Grey and Black & Green” by Alethea Kontis
“Threadbare Magician” by Cat Rambo
“Imperator Noster” by Sonya Taaffe
“Long Way Down” by Seanan McGuire
“The Snow Train” by Ken Liu
“Heartbeat” by Laura Anne Gilman
July 15, 2016
As anthologies go, this one was dense. Most of the stories in here were spicy dark chocolate truffles for my imagination; I could only consume a few at a time or the intensity of flavor made it hard to actually enjoy them.
The forwards for each story provided an education about a place, type of spirit, or time. The stories did not lean on the forwards as much as I expected, but stood on their own without contexts. The introductions just made the stories richer.
I admit that I'm an American girl, and that I'm looking for happy - or at least balanced - endings. This book had more unhappy or haunting endings than it did balanced or happy ones. Most of the endings were slashingly conclusive, but not in a way that I would relish reading again later. So why did I rate the book so highly? These stories are works of art. A lot of time and thought was put into crafting the small, surprisingly sharp images. I am impressed, and I hope other readers will be, too.
I picked it up through reward level. I found out about the Kickstarter through Seanan McGuire's blog. Hey, a McGuire story has a 50/50 chance of being positive. (It so very much was not, this time.) So I'm recommending this anthology to the Mira Grant fans instead.
The forwards for each story provided an education about a place, type of spirit, or time. The stories did not lean on the forwards as much as I expected, but stood on their own without contexts. The introductions just made the stories richer.
I admit that I'm an American girl, and that I'm looking for happy - or at least balanced - endings. This book had more unhappy or haunting endings than it did balanced or happy ones. Most of the endings were slashingly conclusive, but not in a way that I would relish reading again later. So why did I rate the book so highly? These stories are works of art. A lot of time and thought was put into crafting the small, surprisingly sharp images. I am impressed, and I hope other readers will be, too.
I picked it up through reward level. I found out about the Kickstarter through Seanan McGuire's blog. Hey, a McGuire story has a 50/50 chance of being positive. (It so very much was not, this time.) So I'm recommending this anthology to the Mira Grant fans instead.
October 28, 2016
Thought-provoking range of stories about the spirit of place and how it manifests. This was a project on Kickstarter that I backed, and the result is a really lovely collection.
Some of my favorites: The Forgetting Field by Caroline Ratajski, The Snow Train by Ken Liu, Scab Lands by Wendy N. Wagner, and The South China Sea by zm quy`nh (apologies for the typography).
Some of my favorites: The Forgetting Field by Caroline Ratajski, The Snow Train by Ken Liu, Scab Lands by Wendy N. Wagner, and The South China Sea by zm quy`nh (apologies for the typography).
April 18, 2021
From the introduction to this anthology, it seemed the editors were going for a kind of rural gothic vibe, a la the Denny’s Tumblr universe (I’m sure there are better, more literary allusions to be made but this is my review so this what you’re gonna get). For me, this introduction and the individual introductions to each story were the weakest links in the whole. When you're aiming for a sense of mystery and the unknown, trying to over explain the concept of, for example, what an "intelligent city" is, is going to throw readers out of the experience.
That said, the majority of the stories in this book are well above average. There's some variance in terms of quality and style, but on balance each author presents an interesting take on the theme. Readers get to experience great examples of high-concept sci-fi, noir, folktales and more. The very best of these stories manage to introduce fantastically realised worlds and intriguing characters, leaving us wanting to explore even further.
For me, one of the best parts of this anthology was being able to discover how authors interpreted the idea of a Genius Loci - do places have spirits, or do people imbue them with their own characteristics?
A few of the stand-outs were works by Thoraia Dyer, Anatoly Belilovsky, James Lowder, Sunil Patel, and Chaz Brenchley.
Thanks NetGalley for the copy on which I based this review.
That said, the majority of the stories in this book are well above average. There's some variance in terms of quality and style, but on balance each author presents an interesting take on the theme. Readers get to experience great examples of high-concept sci-fi, noir, folktales and more. The very best of these stories manage to introduce fantastically realised worlds and intriguing characters, leaving us wanting to explore even further.
For me, one of the best parts of this anthology was being able to discover how authors interpreted the idea of a Genius Loci - do places have spirits, or do people imbue them with their own characteristics?
A few of the stand-outs were works by Thoraia Dyer, Anatoly Belilovsky, James Lowder, Sunil Patel, and Chaz Brenchley.
Thanks NetGalley for the copy on which I based this review.
June 4, 2021
Thank you to NetGalley for providing this book for review.
I really enjoyed reading this anthology. Some stories I enjoyed more than others, but I don't think there was a story that I didn't like.
I was disappointed because I mostly wanted to read this book for Seanan McGuire, but her story was not in the version that I read.
In saying that, some of my favourites were Forest for the Trees, Beer and Pennies, and Pocosin.
I think the concept for The City was really great, but the story just made me sad.
Anthologies are great because each author has their own unique writing style and story to tell, and this shone through in Genius Loci.
All in all I would recommend this book to someone interested in a spooky book that isn't committed to just one story line.
I really enjoyed reading this anthology. Some stories I enjoyed more than others, but I don't think there was a story that I didn't like.
I was disappointed because I mostly wanted to read this book for Seanan McGuire, but her story was not in the version that I read.
In saying that, some of my favourites were Forest for the Trees, Beer and Pennies, and Pocosin.
I think the concept for The City was really great, but the story just made me sad.
Anthologies are great because each author has their own unique writing style and story to tell, and this shone through in Genius Loci.
All in all I would recommend this book to someone interested in a spooky book that isn't committed to just one story line.
September 29, 2023
Well this exceeded my expectations. I'm not a big fan of fantasy but in this diverse collection, fantasy is tethered to reality in so far as each tale is about a real place. In that context, fantasy-style writing- dreamlike and without much dialogue- works for me. I didn't read all 31 tales but have read many and so got a good sense of the collection. My favourites were a harrowing tale about Vietnamese boat people in a titanic struggle on an overloaded vessel in the South China Sea, a fabulously inventive piece in which a coral reef is the central character, and a wondrous story set in a monastery in Armenia. The latter has a real plot twist too. All in all Genius Loci's project of fantasy stories set in real places was a worthy endeavour.
December 11, 2018
In brief: A gorgeous collection of amazing stories, all to do with the spirit of a place. Got it from a Kickstarter so I’m not sure how available this actually is. (Sorry!)
Thoughts: Oof. Earlier this year I reviewed an anthology that fell rather flat for me, and I think I mentioned that anthologies are never totally solid. There’s always a story or two that feels different, that doesn’t quite fit the theme or uses a writing style that doesn’t grab me or annoys me for plot or character reasons. This is not that sort of anthology. Very much not. Sure, some of the stories are weaker or weirder than others, but we’re talking 8s or 9s rather than 10s out of 10, and not a single one of them threw me. And the stories fit together beautifully, and they’re all full of place and magic and wonder and everything that sucks me in. (And it’s just a stunning volume, with deckled edges and ilustrations and that faux-suede sort of cover. Mmm.)
If you can get your hands on this book, do!
10/10
Thoughts: Oof. Earlier this year I reviewed an anthology that fell rather flat for me, and I think I mentioned that anthologies are never totally solid. There’s always a story or two that feels different, that doesn’t quite fit the theme or uses a writing style that doesn’t grab me or annoys me for plot or character reasons. This is not that sort of anthology. Very much not. Sure, some of the stories are weaker or weirder than others, but we’re talking 8s or 9s rather than 10s out of 10, and not a single one of them threw me. And the stories fit together beautifully, and they’re all full of place and magic and wonder and everything that sucks me in. (And it’s just a stunning volume, with deckled edges and ilustrations and that faux-suede sort of cover. Mmm.)
If you can get your hands on this book, do!
10/10
June 25, 2020
Most of the stories were not to my taste. Anyone who likes horror, inconclusive endings, and/or literary pretentions style might like them more than I did. There were a few stand-outs that I enjoyed.
January 19, 2025
Randomly chosen short stories that do not explore what is supposed to be the main theme, the spirit of the place. The short stories are badly written and unreadable (I had both the ebook and the audiobook). Likewise, the "introduction" is only a jumble of banalities. I returned the audiobook. DNF.
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November 23, 2025I'm going to say I read this but really I only read Seanan McGuire's story because I just read Lumbus Inc Book III and did not enjoy most of it other than hers and decided nope not doing that again right now.
September 1, 2017
some of it's frighteningly grim. the rest is awesome too.
May 20, 2021
A very good collection of short stories, this book and its sibling. While united in theme, the stories vary wildly, but the names involved are enough to make this book worthwhile.
Read
June 1, 2024“Long Way Down” by Seanan McGuire
September 21, 2016
It would be gauche to formally review an anthology in which I appear, but I can informally, casually do it, right? This is the anthology with my first sale in it, and I think it's a pretty great story, and it fits in quite well alongside these other tales of the spirit of place. Genius Loci is one of the more tonally cohesive anthologies I've read: the stories are generally rich in atmosphere and setting (which makes sense), and they tend to be dark tales with dark endings. Some lightness does sneak in occasionally, though. The settings are mostly American, with a handful in other (mostly European) countries, but I enjoyed learning about the various worldwide folklore through the introductions written by Carrie Sessarego and Jaym Gates. The Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark-esque black-and-white illustrations by Lisa A. Grabenstetter and Evan M. Jenkins definitely enhance the ominous tone of many stories. Overall, it's a unique, interesting collection about the titular concept.
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