MONSTERS!

by Kelly Swails (Editor), Aaron Allston, Timothy Zahn

20 short stories about Monsters!
There is something in all of us that is both terrified and exhilarated by the unknown. Through the ages, we’ve given various forms to our fears. Vampires. Werewolves. Zombies. MONSTERS!

But are we really afraid of the monsters, or of ourselves…?

Silence in the Library Publishing is excited to bring you our anthology, MONSTERS!, a collection of short fiction about things that creep, crawl, bite, go bump in the night, and make us wonder “Hey, who turned out the lights?”

While you’ll find plenty of traditional horror stories in this anthology, you’ll also find that many of our authors decided to approach the genre in a different manner.

A Greek hero faces the brute strength of a cyclops with only his wit - but is he really a hero, and is the cyclops really a brute?

A demon who can only curse people if doing so will make them happy. If his nature is to curse, how can he solve his dilemma?

You'll find stories like these and more in the pages of MONSTERS! We've used this anthology to ask some intriguing questions. What would the traditional horror story look like told from the monster’s point of view? What is the relationship between monster and victim? Is the monster really the monster, and is the victim really the victim?

Demonized by Aaron Allston
Monster by Timothy Zahn
Following Orders by Dylan Birtolo
Welcome To New York by Addie J. King
No More Empires by Gregory A. Wilson
Until Death Do Us Part by Janine K. Spendlove
A Gryphon’s Tale by Richard C. White
Holding On by Sheryl Nantus
The White Wolf by Bryan Young
Sharp Teeth by Samantha Rich
BunRabs by Donald J. Bingle
Holocaust by Maxwell Alexander Drake
Kelpie Storm by Jennifer Brozek
The Beasts Within by Aaron Rosenberg
Polyphemus by Ronald T. Garner
Santa Claus vs. the Krampus by John Helfers
Heart of Ice by Daniel Myers
Monster Inside Me by Tracy Chowdhury
Essential Paperwork by Kelly Swails
Covenant by Michael A. Stackpole

177 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 18, 2014

Reviews

[Dave Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what I expected when I FINALLY got around to reading this collection of short stories but what I did NOT expect was the consistently high quality of each story.

There were certainly some that I enjoyed more than others but even my least favorite would have been no fewer than a 3-star story.

Thanks Kelly and Origins for the great book.

[Erin Penn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first story "Demonized" by Aaron Allston is LOL funny. Loved it! A must-read.
"Until Death Do Us Part" by Janine K. Spendlove broke my heart.
"Sharp Teeth" by Samatha Rich continues the Silence in the Library tradition of not sticking to just Anglo-Saxon materials. ... And remember not to leave a request to gods open-ended.
"Polyphemus" by Ronald T. Garner is a great twist on a traditional Greek myth. Not all monsters are born man-eaters.
"Holocaust" by Maxwell Alexander Drake is a cautionary tale. Those that do not remember history are doom to repeat it - from both sides.

The final five stories disappointed, not up to the quality of the first fifteen. But since I read them all the same day, I may have just been "off" that day. "Santa Claus vs. the Krampus" is written in dialect, this may appeal to some but I usually don't like this type of device. "Covenant" ended up a strange mix of obscure and predictable.

Silence in the Library continues to produce anthologies worth reading, with a variety of authors, styles, topics, and cultures. The first story of this anthology is great and way more than half of the short stories are very, very good.