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Clockwork Phoenix 5
The ground-breaking, boundary-pushing, award-nominated series of fantasy anthologies returns for a fifth incarnation, triumphantly risen from the ashes after another successful Kickstarter campaign. This is the largest installment yet, holding twenty new tales of beauty and strangeness. Each story leads you into unmapped territory, there to find shock and delight. With fiction from Jason Kimble, Rachael K. Jones, Patricia Russo, Marie Brennan, Benjanun Sriduangkaew, Rob Cameron, A. C. Wise, Gray Rinehart, Sam Fleming, Sunil Patel, C. S. E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez, Holly Heisey, Barbara Krasnoff, Sonya Taaffe, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Shveta Thakrar, Cassandra Khaw, Keffy R. M. Kehrli, Rich Larson, and Beth Cato.
273 pages, Paperback
Published April 5, 2016
12 people are currently reading
427 people want to read
About the author
Mike Allen
94 books155 followersMike Allen wears many creative hats, at least one of them tailor-made by his wife and partner-in-crime Anita.
An author, editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy and horror, Mike has written, edited, or co-edited thirty-nine books, among them his forthcoming dark fantasy novel TRAIL OF SHADOWS, his sidearms, sorcery, and zombies sequence THE BLACK FIRE CONCERTO and THE GHOULMAKER’S ARIA, and his newest horror collection, SLOW BURN.
UNSEAMING and AFTERMATH OF AN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT, his first two volumes of horror tales, were both finalists for the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Story Collection, and his dark fable “The Button Bin” was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Another collection, THE SPIDER TAPESTRIES, contains experiments in weird science fiction and fantasy.
As an editor and publisher, Mike has been nominated twice for the World Fantasy Award: first, for his anthology CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 5, the culmination of the Clockwork Phoenix series showcasing tales of beauty and strangeness that defy genre classification; and then, for MYTHIC DELIRIUM, the magazine of poetry and fiction he edited for twenty years.
He’s a three-time winner of the Rhysling Award for poetry. His six poetry collections include STRANGE WISDOMS OF THE DEAD, a Philadelphia Inquirer Editor’s Choice selection, and HUNGRY CONSTELLATIONS, a Suzette Haden Elgin Award nominee.
With Anita, he runs Mythic Delirium Books, based in Roanoke, Virginia. Their cat Pandora assists.
An author, editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy and horror, Mike has written, edited, or co-edited thirty-nine books, among them his forthcoming dark fantasy novel TRAIL OF SHADOWS, his sidearms, sorcery, and zombies sequence THE BLACK FIRE CONCERTO and THE GHOULMAKER’S ARIA, and his newest horror collection, SLOW BURN.
UNSEAMING and AFTERMATH OF AN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT, his first two volumes of horror tales, were both finalists for the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Story Collection, and his dark fable “The Button Bin” was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Another collection, THE SPIDER TAPESTRIES, contains experiments in weird science fiction and fantasy.
As an editor and publisher, Mike has been nominated twice for the World Fantasy Award: first, for his anthology CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 5, the culmination of the Clockwork Phoenix series showcasing tales of beauty and strangeness that defy genre classification; and then, for MYTHIC DELIRIUM, the magazine of poetry and fiction he edited for twenty years.
He’s a three-time winner of the Rhysling Award for poetry. His six poetry collections include STRANGE WISDOMS OF THE DEAD, a Philadelphia Inquirer Editor’s Choice selection, and HUNGRY CONSTELLATIONS, a Suzette Haden Elgin Award nominee.
With Anita, he runs Mythic Delirium Books, based in Roanoke, Virginia. Their cat Pandora assists.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 14, 2016
Update: Having finished this book, reviews of individual stories can be found posted in comments (not necessarily in the order in which they occur in the book), so I'd have room to write an overall review here.
I backed this anthology on Kickstarter, so I received an advance copy of the ebook. The Clockwork Phoenix series is an interesting one (I've only read one of the previous four volumes), which gathers an eclectic assortment of stories across the SF/fantasy spectrum, according to the idiosyncratic tastes of the series editor, Mike Allen. You might say they tend towards "slipstream" and definitely modernistic - there is a lot more exploration of internal mental states and intersectionalism and systems of power, not so much the classic heroic quest or planetary adventures or Chosen Ones battling against the forces of darkness.
Now, I should say up-front that I tend to be more a fan of classic heroic quests and planetary adventures. I am not a Sad Puppy (if you don't know what that means, don't ask, your life will be better for it), but I do have some sympathy for their grievances - I like my SF&F new and fresh, but I still like some old-school epic adventure and awesomeness, and while gay and "non-binary" and POC characters don't bother me a bit, stories that seem constructed just to say "Look how intersectionally inclusively non-binary we are!" annoy me. I will not say many stories in the Clockwork Phoenix series fall into this category, but there is a whiff of that in some of the various authors' pretensions, and you'll certainly recognize the roster of contributors as skewing heavily towards a certain demographic in the contemporary speculative genre culture wars.
I am just putting that out there so you will know my biases - my reviews and ratings of these stories are entirely subjective and reflect my own personal tastes. I would say if you are a Sad Puppy, you will probably hate most of these stories on principle, while if you proudly identify as a "Social Justice Warrior," you'll love most of these stories on principle.
Me, I don't love or hate stories on principle, but whether they hit my sweet spots. For me, individually, there were more misses in this collection than hits, but the sum is greater than its parts.
Dividing the sum of all my individual ratings by the number of stories gives this collection an average rating of 3.1111. But I'm going to bump it up to 4 stars because I enjoyed the overall experience of this anthology, even if there were few stand-outs and a number of duds. First, I think interesting, novel anthologies like this should be published, even if they don't always cater heavily towards my personal tastes. Second, the exposure to genres and story types outside my preferences is useful, valuable, and enjoyable. (I won't go into a whole essay on my literary tastes and feelings about reading books that aren't favorites, but I also read lots of classic literature which, after finishing, I decide I didn't really enjoy but am still glad I read.)
There is definitely a lot of diversity here, both in authors and characters. There's an Indian girl who finds out she has to save the world from a demon-king. There's a gay cowboy who fights twister-wranglers right out of Western tall tales. There is a kingdom of bird-people subjugated by an empire of dog-people, and there is a cephalopodal Copernicus. There are ghosts and angels and bees. There are a few space opera and swords and sorcery tales here, infused with an added ingredient of strangeness, and there are a lot of innovative writing styles - some work, some don't.
Overall, a good collection, maybe not a great collection, but a series I'd like to see prosper. I am not sorry I backed this anthology, and I hope it sells well enough to keep it going (and I have some back-volumes to go through as well).
Below, in the comments, find reviews of each story, with my rating for each:
1 star: Hated it, dragged the book down.
2 stars: Okay but did not appeal to me, was glad when the story was over.
3 stars: I liked it, didn't love it, but would be willing to read more by this author.
4 stars: I wouldn't have minded if this story was longer. Will look for more by this author.
5 stars: I would like to see this story turned into a novel. Will immediately look up this author's other works.
(You will notice that no story actually hit either 1 star or 5 stars - I give both of those out very rarely - but a couple came close.)
Reviews continued in comments - out of space!
I backed this anthology on Kickstarter, so I received an advance copy of the ebook. The Clockwork Phoenix series is an interesting one (I've only read one of the previous four volumes), which gathers an eclectic assortment of stories across the SF/fantasy spectrum, according to the idiosyncratic tastes of the series editor, Mike Allen. You might say they tend towards "slipstream" and definitely modernistic - there is a lot more exploration of internal mental states and intersectionalism and systems of power, not so much the classic heroic quest or planetary adventures or Chosen Ones battling against the forces of darkness.
Now, I should say up-front that I tend to be more a fan of classic heroic quests and planetary adventures. I am not a Sad Puppy (if you don't know what that means, don't ask, your life will be better for it), but I do have some sympathy for their grievances - I like my SF&F new and fresh, but I still like some old-school epic adventure and awesomeness, and while gay and "non-binary" and POC characters don't bother me a bit, stories that seem constructed just to say "Look how intersectionally inclusively non-binary we are!" annoy me. I will not say many stories in the Clockwork Phoenix series fall into this category, but there is a whiff of that in some of the various authors' pretensions, and you'll certainly recognize the roster of contributors as skewing heavily towards a certain demographic in the contemporary speculative genre culture wars.
I am just putting that out there so you will know my biases - my reviews and ratings of these stories are entirely subjective and reflect my own personal tastes. I would say if you are a Sad Puppy, you will probably hate most of these stories on principle, while if you proudly identify as a "Social Justice Warrior," you'll love most of these stories on principle.
Me, I don't love or hate stories on principle, but whether they hit my sweet spots. For me, individually, there were more misses in this collection than hits, but the sum is greater than its parts.
Dividing the sum of all my individual ratings by the number of stories gives this collection an average rating of 3.1111. But I'm going to bump it up to 4 stars because I enjoyed the overall experience of this anthology, even if there were few stand-outs and a number of duds. First, I think interesting, novel anthologies like this should be published, even if they don't always cater heavily towards my personal tastes. Second, the exposure to genres and story types outside my preferences is useful, valuable, and enjoyable. (I won't go into a whole essay on my literary tastes and feelings about reading books that aren't favorites, but I also read lots of classic literature which, after finishing, I decide I didn't really enjoy but am still glad I read.)
There is definitely a lot of diversity here, both in authors and characters. There's an Indian girl who finds out she has to save the world from a demon-king. There's a gay cowboy who fights twister-wranglers right out of Western tall tales. There is a kingdom of bird-people subjugated by an empire of dog-people, and there is a cephalopodal Copernicus. There are ghosts and angels and bees. There are a few space opera and swords and sorcery tales here, infused with an added ingredient of strangeness, and there are a lot of innovative writing styles - some work, some don't.
Overall, a good collection, maybe not a great collection, but a series I'd like to see prosper. I am not sorry I backed this anthology, and I hope it sells well enough to keep it going (and I have some back-volumes to go through as well).
Below, in the comments, find reviews of each story, with my rating for each:
1 star: Hated it, dragged the book down.
2 stars: Okay but did not appeal to me, was glad when the story was over.
3 stars: I liked it, didn't love it, but would be willing to read more by this author.
4 stars: I wouldn't have minded if this story was longer. Will look for more by this author.
5 stars: I would like to see this story turned into a novel. Will immediately look up this author's other works.
(You will notice that no story actually hit either 1 star or 5 stars - I give both of those out very rarely - but a couple came close.)
Reviews continued in comments - out of space!
Read
January 30, 2016Not a review. Includes my story "The Souls of Horses."
March 9, 2017
This anthology was a delight to read: weird, wonderful, and genre-bending, and full of tiny moments and thoughts which stray into my mind at the oddest moments. I know I'll come back to these stories again.
February 29, 2016
Twenty unique or unusual science fiction, fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror stories from authors of diverse backgrounds.
Of the twenty, the following stories shine as the best in the anthology, in this order:
1) “The Perfect Happy Family” by Patricia Russo
2) “Squeeze” by Rob Cameron
3) “Innumerable Glimmering Lights” by Rich Larson
4) “The Trinitite Golem” by Sonya Taaffe
5) “The Sorcerer of Etah” by Gray Rinehart
Full review at Tangent Online.
Of the twenty, the following stories shine as the best in the anthology, in this order:
1) “The Perfect Happy Family” by Patricia Russo
2) “Squeeze” by Rob Cameron
3) “Innumerable Glimmering Lights” by Rich Larson
4) “The Trinitite Golem” by Sonya Taaffe
5) “The Sorcerer of Etah” by Gray Rinehart
Full review at Tangent Online.
August 3, 2016
I lose track of stories so quickly; my memory is like a sieve; I only remembered a few after a few weeks and had to avail myself of other reviews to be reminded.
I wandered into a reading of selections from this at Readercon and "The Book of May" knocked me dead. I bought the book. Readers, I was not intending to buy the book.
The rest of it knocked me equally dead. The ones that stand out still are also from that reading: Sonya Taaffe's 'The Trinitite Golem' (to be fair, that's why I wandered into the reading) and Barbara Krasnoff's 'Sabbath Wine' (I don't know if the twist was supposed to be that telegraphed but I didn't mind.)
There's also a brilliant one about octopi facing, oh, funding cuts and bureaucrats, like any great scientist has to, plus some other things; and a stylistically astounding one about a double planet and the "technology" required to reach it. See, this is what I mean by my brain being a sieve for story titles; I'd better post this review before I forget that I read any of it in the first place.
I will say that the stories were sort of refreshingly diverse by any meaning of that word – style, genre, tone, characters – but also that this made it hard to read the anthology from beginning to end, which I did. (The argument there might be that one is not supposed to read an anthology straight through. Maybe so. Still, I'd recommend giving a little bit of breathing space between each story.)
I wandered into a reading of selections from this at Readercon and "The Book of May" knocked me dead. I bought the book. Readers, I was not intending to buy the book.
The rest of it knocked me equally dead. The ones that stand out still are also from that reading: Sonya Taaffe's 'The Trinitite Golem' (to be fair, that's why I wandered into the reading) and Barbara Krasnoff's 'Sabbath Wine' (I don't know if the twist was supposed to be that telegraphed but I didn't mind.)
There's also a brilliant one about octopi facing, oh, funding cuts and bureaucrats, like any great scientist has to, plus some other things; and a stylistically astounding one about a double planet and the "technology" required to reach it. See, this is what I mean by my brain being a sieve for story titles; I'd better post this review before I forget that I read any of it in the first place.
I will say that the stories were sort of refreshingly diverse by any meaning of that word – style, genre, tone, characters – but also that this made it hard to read the anthology from beginning to end, which I did. (The argument there might be that one is not supposed to read an anthology straight through. Maybe so. Still, I'd recommend giving a little bit of breathing space between each story.)
September 25, 2017
I've read Clockwork Phoenix 3 and 4 previously and loved both of them; those collections delivered on the promise of "tales of beauty and strangeness" and were full of lyrical, haunting stories told in new and interesting ways. This time out, however, I felt like the majority of stories were beautiful but far too esoteric to take any meaning from and I was left scratching my head most of the time (and often this head scratching came at the end of an engrossing story where the ending just didn't seem to make any sense to me or the story just sort of ends without resolution). However, there were several stand out stories and, as always with a Clockwork Phoenix collection, the stories that do shine, shine so much more brightly than most anything I've ever encountered elsewhere. For me, the stand out stories were:
The Fall Shall Further the Flight in Me by Rachel K. Jones
The Perfect Happy Family by Patricia Russo (I loved this story!)
Innumerable Glimmering Lights by Rich Larson
I did think this collection did a stand out job of including a vast amount of diversity in terms of gender, sexual orientation, and especially non-European folklore and mythology. I very much enjoyed this diversity and the new and different points of view and perspectives on content and story-telling approach.
The Fall Shall Further the Flight in Me by Rachel K. Jones
The Perfect Happy Family by Patricia Russo (I loved this story!)
Innumerable Glimmering Lights by Rich Larson
I did think this collection did a stand out job of including a vast amount of diversity in terms of gender, sexual orientation, and especially non-European folklore and mythology. I very much enjoyed this diversity and the new and different points of view and perspectives on content and story-telling approach.
April 30, 2016
I received this book through the Goodreads first reads program.
It's always difficult to give star reviews to multi-author collections, and I tend to fall back on 3s. Some stories in any collection will be excellent, some will be less so, and the appeal will vary by reader. So I tend to think of 3 stars as the default and fairest rating for collections like this.
The stories in this anthology are weird and beautiful. A few I felt went way above my head; I couldn't understand them at all. A few just didn't appeal to me for whatever reason. But even in those cases I can appreciate the work behind the tales. These are quite simply some of the best speculative writers working today.
There are a few common elements that tie the stories together. Queer relationships and pushing against the gender binary. Ghosts, and gods, and birds. But I wouldn't say there was a real "theme" that I saw overarching the collection, making it different from many anthologies I have read.
In any case, I enjoyed it quite a bit and appreciated the chance to check out what Clockwork Phoenix is all about through first reads.
It's always difficult to give star reviews to multi-author collections, and I tend to fall back on 3s. Some stories in any collection will be excellent, some will be less so, and the appeal will vary by reader. So I tend to think of 3 stars as the default and fairest rating for collections like this.
The stories in this anthology are weird and beautiful. A few I felt went way above my head; I couldn't understand them at all. A few just didn't appeal to me for whatever reason. But even in those cases I can appreciate the work behind the tales. These are quite simply some of the best speculative writers working today.
There are a few common elements that tie the stories together. Queer relationships and pushing against the gender binary. Ghosts, and gods, and birds. But I wouldn't say there was a real "theme" that I saw overarching the collection, making it different from many anthologies I have read.
In any case, I enjoyed it quite a bit and appreciated the chance to check out what Clockwork Phoenix is all about through first reads.
June 15, 2016
This is the first Clockwork Phoenix book I have ever laid my hands on or read. Upon opening the book, I realized after a few short stories, it wasn't my style. The stories were all over the place, and seemed to come out of nowhere. Some of them were a little far fetched for me to even fathom, while others seemed redundant. I assume that IF I would've understood the stories more, perhaps I would be more into it, but I just couldn't get it. If I had to put it into words, those words would be, "what the heck?" The back of the books reads tales of beauty and strangeness, I would definitely hold them to those words.
June 24, 2016
Some very nice work here.
As ever, anthologies can be a mixed bag. I liked most of the stories, and would single out "The Mirror City," by Marie Brennan; "The Finch's Wedding and the Hive That Sings," by Benjanun Sriduangkaew; "The Games We Play," by Cassandra Khaw; and "The Souls of Horses," by Beth Cato, as really good. Also, "The Book of May," by C. S. E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez just shattered me. Overall, I would recommend this fine collection.
I also received a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway, which altered my opinion not in the least.
As ever, anthologies can be a mixed bag. I liked most of the stories, and would single out "The Mirror City," by Marie Brennan; "The Finch's Wedding and the Hive That Sings," by Benjanun Sriduangkaew; "The Games We Play," by Cassandra Khaw; and "The Souls of Horses," by Beth Cato, as really good. Also, "The Book of May," by C. S. E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez just shattered me. Overall, I would recommend this fine collection.
I also received a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway, which altered my opinion not in the least.
November 7, 2017
This was an amazing anthology, full of really great stories that covered the full spectrum of SFF. There was everything from urban fantasy to raygun gothic to all sorts of little treasures. I loved the variety, and the skill on display was excellent. Several stories left me breathless. Particular favorites are "The Book of May," "The Games We Play" (oh man those last two lines...), "Innumerable Glimmering Lights."
October 9, 2016
Clockwork Phoenix continues to fulfil its brief of telling 'tales of beauty and strangeness'. Although not every story worked for me, my overall impression is of a glorious mosaic. I'm glad I savoured it slowly over a few months.
Want to read
March 7, 2016FCC note: Backed on Kickstarter
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews