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Vacui Magia
Dwarves and golems, Fates and minotaurs, metamorphoses, murder, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. L.S. Johnson delivers a provocative and original short story collection that ingeniously blends myth and nightmare. Whether it concerns an infertile witch constructing a golem-baby, a daughter struggling to understand her mother’s supernatural infidelities, or a cafeteria worker forming an uneasy alliance with a group of possibly imaginary but nonetheless dangerous little men, each story in this remarkable collection demonstrates the limitless capacity of intelligent speculative fiction to enthrall, inspire, and amaze.
"I can say without hesitation, reservation or exception that this is a collection full of brilliantly written and powerfully affecting stories, each of which profoundly impressed me in different ways . . . Johnson’s Vacui Magia is a book that never goes quietly, and it is wonderful for it." - The Future Fire Reviews
"I can say without hesitation, reservation or exception that this is a collection full of brilliantly written and powerfully affecting stories, each of which profoundly impressed me in different ways . . . Johnson’s Vacui Magia is a book that never goes quietly, and it is wonderful for it." - The Future Fire Reviews
226 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
January 17, 2021
I read this collection's opener, "Little Men With Knives", as part of a short-story binge last summer (see below), and loved it. Belatedly returning to finish the book now, I almost equally (but not quite) loved "The Pursuit Of The Whole Is Called Love", and I enjoyed most of the others too.
The stories that did least for me were those set in 18th-century France... but I may have a prejudice against historical fiction in general.
Although there are recurrent themes across the collection, one thing I especially appreciated was the variety and range of the stories, from sci-fi to horror to folkloric strangeness. Unlike some other short story writers, Johnson is most definitely not a one-trick pony. I will read more of her work for sure.
***
42 SHORT STORIES IN 42 DAYS*
DAY 15: Little Men With Knives
I absolutely loved this story – it's perfectly poised between surprise and ambiguity.
*The rules:
– Read one short story a day, every day for six weeks
– Read no more than one story by the same author within any 14-day period
– Deliberately include authors I wouldn't usually read
– Review each story in one sentence or less
Any fresh reading suggestions/recommendations will be gratefully received 📚
The stories that did least for me were those set in 18th-century France... but I may have a prejudice against historical fiction in general.
Although there are recurrent themes across the collection, one thing I especially appreciated was the variety and range of the stories, from sci-fi to horror to folkloric strangeness. Unlike some other short story writers, Johnson is most definitely not a one-trick pony. I will read more of her work for sure.
***
42 SHORT STORIES IN 42 DAYS*
DAY 15: Little Men With Knives
I absolutely loved this story – it's perfectly poised between surprise and ambiguity.
*The rules:
– Read one short story a day, every day for six weeks
– Read no more than one story by the same author within any 14-day period
– Deliberately include authors I wouldn't usually read
– Review each story in one sentence or less
Any fresh reading suggestions/recommendations will be gratefully received 📚
October 31, 2018
Vacui Magia is latin for Magic Void and is an anthology of short stories written by L.S. Johnson.
If you've read "Hawkworth Hall" or "Leviathan" you'll know Johnson writes horror by poetry and is able to spin a pretty darn dark tale. Vacui Magia is no exception.
The anthology holds eight short stories, all of differing lengths and completely different subject matter. They're all effectual in being creepy and impactful in a disturbing way. All are high quality writings.
I particularly liked three stories: "Little Men with Knives", "Vendémiaire", and "Julie".
I usually read lesfic and this doesn't fall into that category. The leads are female, though, and I'd say that many of the stories center around a woman's inner strength when the world is against her.
I don't typically read horror but I couldn't help thinking this would be something along the lines of Stephen King and couldn't help but be impressed.
If you're looking for something on the darker side that's well-written or are a fan of Johnson's other works, definitely give this a read.
"Vacui Magia" is currently available on Scribd.
4.25 stars
If you've read "Hawkworth Hall" or "Leviathan" you'll know Johnson writes horror by poetry and is able to spin a pretty darn dark tale. Vacui Magia is no exception.
The anthology holds eight short stories, all of differing lengths and completely different subject matter. They're all effectual in being creepy and impactful in a disturbing way. All are high quality writings.
I particularly liked three stories: "Little Men with Knives", "Vendémiaire", and "Julie".
I usually read lesfic and this doesn't fall into that category. The leads are female, though, and I'd say that many of the stories center around a woman's inner strength when the world is against her.
I don't typically read horror but I couldn't help thinking this would be something along the lines of Stephen King and couldn't help but be impressed.
If you're looking for something on the darker side that's well-written or are a fan of Johnson's other works, definitely give this a read.
"Vacui Magia" is currently available on Scribd.
4.25 stars
January 4, 2023
1/2023: revisiting the first three stories. As impressive as I remember.
"Little Men with Knives" is one of the funniest weird tales I've come across. The beleaguered narrator's voice is beautifully done, as she struggles with painful situations at home and at work, but figures out workable arrangements with the little men. It's now available online, you lucky people!
https://crossedgenres.com/magazine/03...
I really like the uncomfortable magic and quiet melancholy of the title story. I'm usually not a fan of stories that are so overtly sentimental, but this was beautifully done. And you lucky people can read it here:
http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/va...
And then "The Pursuit of the Whole is called Love"! I have a lot of trouble with fiction dealing with body horror. The context and characters have to be right; otherwise it's just hacking through descriptions of body transformations. This is one of the few I've come across that is relentlessly queasy (and sexy!) and really works, one of my very favorite body horror stories.
Original review:
Really enjoying this so far, with the range of voices and narrative approaches in just the first three stories.
"The Pursuit of the Whole is called Love" is gloriously Tiptree-like in its play with language, messy sex and general wet stickiness. Maybe a tad long for its material, but I'll remember this one for awhile.
Update: most of the other stories are unfortunately more conventional (and not as well-crafted). "Clotho" has an oblique charm though.
"Little Men with Knives" is one of the funniest weird tales I've come across. The beleaguered narrator's voice is beautifully done, as she struggles with painful situations at home and at work, but figures out workable arrangements with the little men. It's now available online, you lucky people!
https://crossedgenres.com/magazine/03...
I really like the uncomfortable magic and quiet melancholy of the title story. I'm usually not a fan of stories that are so overtly sentimental, but this was beautifully done. And you lucky people can read it here:
http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/va...
And then "The Pursuit of the Whole is called Love"! I have a lot of trouble with fiction dealing with body horror. The context and characters have to be right; otherwise it's just hacking through descriptions of body transformations. This is one of the few I've come across that is relentlessly queasy (and sexy!) and really works, one of my very favorite body horror stories.
Original review:
Really enjoying this so far, with the range of voices and narrative approaches in just the first three stories.
"The Pursuit of the Whole is called Love" is gloriously Tiptree-like in its play with language, messy sex and general wet stickiness. Maybe a tad long for its material, but I'll remember this one for awhile.
Update: most of the other stories are unfortunately more conventional (and not as well-crafted). "Clotho" has an oblique charm though.
March 9, 2017
3.5 on my blog. Some of the stories were stellar with solid endings, some were wonderful with endings that were incomplete by a paragraph, or two (which is a lot for a short story), and one or two of the offerings were only marginally good.
I read this for Halloween ambiance and it rose to the challenge successfully. Some people have it listed as Horror, but I felt that it was more Fantasy/Paranormal and not Horror at all.
I was approved for an eARC, via Netgalley, in return for and honest review. I will not be reviewing this title on my blog because it is less than four stars.
I read this for Halloween ambiance and it rose to the challenge successfully. Some people have it listed as Horror, but I felt that it was more Fantasy/Paranormal and not Horror at all.
I was approved for an eARC, via Netgalley, in return for and honest review. I will not be reviewing this title on my blog because it is less than four stars.
September 19, 2019
This gemlike collection of short stories made me think by turns of Angela Carter's fairy tales, Clive Barker's Books of Blood, and even Neil Gaiman's American Gods, particularly in the story "Clotho." While Vacui Magia is fascinated with the feminine mysteries of growing up, growing ripe, and conception, it also examines feminine rage in all its facets.
It's hard to choose a favorite. I heard the author read "This is How You Lose Yourself" at FogCon and it is just as breathtaking in text. The title story, about a witch making a golem child to appease her dying mother, is devastating and note-perfect. "The Pursuit of the Whole is Called Love" disturbed me so much that I almost missed my stop on BART.
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories and I am eager to read the author's new book, Rare Birds, when it comes out next month.
It's hard to choose a favorite. I heard the author read "This is How You Lose Yourself" at FogCon and it is just as breathtaking in text. The title story, about a witch making a golem child to appease her dying mother, is devastating and note-perfect. "The Pursuit of the Whole is Called Love" disturbed me so much that I almost missed my stop on BART.
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories and I am eager to read the author's new book, Rare Birds, when it comes out next month.
December 18, 2018
A rather strange collection of haunting imagery, lyrical prose, and questionable endings. Perhaps admirers of fantasies with a marked preference for smoke and mirrors would gulp all of them. Poor am I, brought up on Howard et.al. I couldn't appreciate the finer nuances that much. My bad.
March 5, 2016
The last collection of short-fiction I read was a Best of Lovecraft anthology. And before that. The Three Moments of an Explosion by China Mieville. So I thought I was quite prepared to take a stab at this little collection.
I wasn’t, really. This was a side of weird-fiction I hadn’t really encountered before.
It was like Christmas (or shall we say, Cthulhumas) came early, honestly.
There are a lot of elements of magic-realism here but it never gets too artsy for its own sake. It never pushes into that realm of wishy-washy Spec-fic too scared to move away from literary fiction.
This is a very grounded, decidedly speculative little collection.
Let’s have a look at it story by story.
Little Men with Knives is a very solid opener about a middle-aged, lonely high-school cafeteria lady plagued by the eponymous little men with knives. On paper, the story is as weird as weird gets. Come on, a hardcore retelling of The Elves and The Shoemaker is basically what this is. But then, it never takes itself there. While writing that previous line, I was just thinking about how cool that is. But I never felt that while reading the story. It takes itself, and it’s concept very seriously, making its protagonist and the reader question almost everything they encounter.
The title track, Vacui Magia sets the high bar even higher. It is perhaps the only time other than Dolores Clairborne that I have tolerated any form of second-person storytelling. The story is structured as a sort of grimoire about how to raise a golem. But as we read on, we realize that this grimoire and this golem are far more personal than we thought. This story is a sort of thematic center for the whole book and the ending will probably leave you a little choked up and disturbed. It has done it’s job right, then.
The Pursuit of the Whole Is Called Love is perhaps the weirdest of the lot. The story took a couple of rereads for me to wrap my head around and ended up being one of my favourites. I can’t really think of a way to summarize this story but I can tell you that it’s got aliens in it (maybe) and it explores themes as far-reaching as sex, marriage, abuse, violence and the individual. All while being really cool. Almost every page had me marveling at how cool this story was.
Germinant is about a girl with a lot of potential who does what she’s told not to do and has to suffer for it. In a surreal way. This story reminded me, bizarrely enough, of Mieville’s Iron Council (take a shot each time I mention his name on this blog and you’ll die of alcohol poisoning). There’s a very active exploration of punishment, the scars we bear for our past mistakes and how they become a very important, perhaps even vital part of us.
Vendemiare is perhaps Johnson’s answer to Machen. Or Lovecraft’s The Duncwich Horror. It takes a very tried and true concept of half-blood demon children and explores it from a very new, very tender point of view. This motherfucker is thematically dense and I don’t really want to spoil any more of it than I have. It’s one of the best.
The Is How You Lose Yourself is basically a prose poem. It’s a really good prose poem.
Clotho is the only one of Johnson’s stories I had read prior to picking up Vacui Magia. I thought the story was one of the best I had ever read when I first read it. However, after reading through the rest of collection, it seems to be the weakest. It is still an amazingly well written bit of fiction and the conclusion hits as hard as any of the other stories but it plods a little too much in the beginning.
Julia is the final piece of this collection and in my opinion, the piece de resistance. It is a wildly inventive little tale structured on known facts about the life and death of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It is a beautiful, heart-wrenching story. But then, aren’t they all?
There’s certainly a lot of things common to all these stories.
The prose is absolutely gorgeous. It is poetic, dense, very very aware of itself and not trying to minimize its presence in any shape or form. There was never a single moment in this entire collection where I felt the prose or dialogue were lacking. I made roughly 20 highlights per story on my Kindle. I would recommend this based on the attention to detail and word choices alone.
But there is so much more than that to complement. This collection is chock full of inventive, amazing ideas. The structures and plots are close to perfect. There is perfect balance between monologue and dialogue.
And then there’s the thematic material.
It isn’t too hard to see similarities that stretch between all these stories.
The protagonists are always women (save for that alien story). And the setting is almost never the urban sprawl weird-fiction-even my own-seems to love.
The usual weird aesthetic is a solitary individual (usually a man) seeking companionship in a crowded, packed menagerie of the bizarre. Almost every story here is a complete reversal of that. These stories involve individuals caught in flux. Trapped between generations. The continuum from daughter to mother to crone is a leitmotif that plays again and again and again and there is often a deep, thirsty need for escape from that sequence. And sometimes that need is granted. And most of those times, it leaves the protagonist and the reader feeling a little less whole.
Mieville’s short ficiton, Lovecraft’s short fiction and many other short stories like this are often stories of ideas but these focus a lot more on the characters than the ideas.
This isn’t the weird of the city.
It isn’t the weird of the monsters.
It isn’t the weird of the space-gods.
It’s the weird of the real people.
The weird of the weary, the middle aged, the exploited, the trapped, the marginalized, the ignored. The weird of the mundane.
The weird of the kind of people you see everyday. Or rather, the people you don’t see.
L.S. Johnson, I’m hooked.
I’ll have that novel now.
I wasn’t, really. This was a side of weird-fiction I hadn’t really encountered before.
It was like Christmas (or shall we say, Cthulhumas) came early, honestly.
There are a lot of elements of magic-realism here but it never gets too artsy for its own sake. It never pushes into that realm of wishy-washy Spec-fic too scared to move away from literary fiction.
This is a very grounded, decidedly speculative little collection.
Let’s have a look at it story by story.
Little Men with Knives is a very solid opener about a middle-aged, lonely high-school cafeteria lady plagued by the eponymous little men with knives. On paper, the story is as weird as weird gets. Come on, a hardcore retelling of The Elves and The Shoemaker is basically what this is. But then, it never takes itself there. While writing that previous line, I was just thinking about how cool that is. But I never felt that while reading the story. It takes itself, and it’s concept very seriously, making its protagonist and the reader question almost everything they encounter.
The title track, Vacui Magia sets the high bar even higher. It is perhaps the only time other than Dolores Clairborne that I have tolerated any form of second-person storytelling. The story is structured as a sort of grimoire about how to raise a golem. But as we read on, we realize that this grimoire and this golem are far more personal than we thought. This story is a sort of thematic center for the whole book and the ending will probably leave you a little choked up and disturbed. It has done it’s job right, then.
The Pursuit of the Whole Is Called Love is perhaps the weirdest of the lot. The story took a couple of rereads for me to wrap my head around and ended up being one of my favourites. I can’t really think of a way to summarize this story but I can tell you that it’s got aliens in it (maybe) and it explores themes as far-reaching as sex, marriage, abuse, violence and the individual. All while being really cool. Almost every page had me marveling at how cool this story was.
Germinant is about a girl with a lot of potential who does what she’s told not to do and has to suffer for it. In a surreal way. This story reminded me, bizarrely enough, of Mieville’s Iron Council (take a shot each time I mention his name on this blog and you’ll die of alcohol poisoning). There’s a very active exploration of punishment, the scars we bear for our past mistakes and how they become a very important, perhaps even vital part of us.
Vendemiare is perhaps Johnson’s answer to Machen. Or Lovecraft’s The Duncwich Horror. It takes a very tried and true concept of half-blood demon children and explores it from a very new, very tender point of view. This motherfucker is thematically dense and I don’t really want to spoil any more of it than I have. It’s one of the best.
The Is How You Lose Yourself is basically a prose poem. It’s a really good prose poem.
Clotho is the only one of Johnson’s stories I had read prior to picking up Vacui Magia. I thought the story was one of the best I had ever read when I first read it. However, after reading through the rest of collection, it seems to be the weakest. It is still an amazingly well written bit of fiction and the conclusion hits as hard as any of the other stories but it plods a little too much in the beginning.
Julia is the final piece of this collection and in my opinion, the piece de resistance. It is a wildly inventive little tale structured on known facts about the life and death of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It is a beautiful, heart-wrenching story. But then, aren’t they all?
There’s certainly a lot of things common to all these stories.
The prose is absolutely gorgeous. It is poetic, dense, very very aware of itself and not trying to minimize its presence in any shape or form. There was never a single moment in this entire collection where I felt the prose or dialogue were lacking. I made roughly 20 highlights per story on my Kindle. I would recommend this based on the attention to detail and word choices alone.
But there is so much more than that to complement. This collection is chock full of inventive, amazing ideas. The structures and plots are close to perfect. There is perfect balance between monologue and dialogue.
And then there’s the thematic material.
It isn’t too hard to see similarities that stretch between all these stories.
The protagonists are always women (save for that alien story). And the setting is almost never the urban sprawl weird-fiction-even my own-seems to love.
The usual weird aesthetic is a solitary individual (usually a man) seeking companionship in a crowded, packed menagerie of the bizarre. Almost every story here is a complete reversal of that. These stories involve individuals caught in flux. Trapped between generations. The continuum from daughter to mother to crone is a leitmotif that plays again and again and again and there is often a deep, thirsty need for escape from that sequence. And sometimes that need is granted. And most of those times, it leaves the protagonist and the reader feeling a little less whole.
Mieville’s short ficiton, Lovecraft’s short fiction and many other short stories like this are often stories of ideas but these focus a lot more on the characters than the ideas.
This isn’t the weird of the city.
It isn’t the weird of the monsters.
It isn’t the weird of the space-gods.
It’s the weird of the real people.
The weird of the weary, the middle aged, the exploited, the trapped, the marginalized, the ignored. The weird of the mundane.
The weird of the kind of people you see everyday. Or rather, the people you don’t see.
L.S. Johnson, I’m hooked.
I’ll have that novel now.
June 23, 2016
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Vacui Magia is a collection of short stories that all have a magical element weaved throughout them. From how to create a golem to taking revenge. Each story is dark. Some are violent. Some are sensual. And you never quite know what is real.
In some cases I feel that they were beautifully executed, and did really make me think about what I had just read. But others felt rather confusing, and I had a harder time connecting to the story. They are all however thought provoking. Chances are that some of them will stick in your head for a while after.
The writing in this collection is very strong. She changes style in some of the short stories which made it harder to see in some what was really happening because our narrator was somewhat unreliable. But one is also written more in the style of a manual. It was interesting to see how the author played with this. And I am quite curious to see how this author would approach a longer story plot wise.
There is also a certain depth in the characters that not everyone can achieve in a short story. And that is quite the talent.
Vacui Magia is a collection of short stories that all have a magical element weaved throughout them. From how to create a golem to taking revenge. Each story is dark. Some are violent. Some are sensual. And you never quite know what is real.
In some cases I feel that they were beautifully executed, and did really make me think about what I had just read. But others felt rather confusing, and I had a harder time connecting to the story. They are all however thought provoking. Chances are that some of them will stick in your head for a while after.
The writing in this collection is very strong. She changes style in some of the short stories which made it harder to see in some what was really happening because our narrator was somewhat unreliable. But one is also written more in the style of a manual. It was interesting to see how the author played with this. And I am quite curious to see how this author would approach a longer story plot wise.
There is also a certain depth in the characters that not everyone can achieve in a short story. And that is quite the talent.
July 31, 2016
Small but impressive collection of dark fantasy stories, most featuring a mythological or folk tale basis cleverly interwoven into a realistic contemporary or historical setting.
Rage, pain, and abiding grief are the drivers behind these tales (there's very little joy, although hope occasionally makes an appearance) but Johnson is rarely heavy-handed drawing these emotions: the stories are dark but they're not gory or even particularly violent, there's nothing gratuitous here. The narratives move one not to shock or horror but to thoughtfulness and an existential unease not unlike melancholia. Johnson's prose is rich in texture, pungent, earthy or silky-smooth as needed, and she moves between varied points of view and style effectively. I could see this fiction being just as much at home in a Kate Bernheimer edited anthology or a volume of Tin House or Conjunctions as in more genre-focused outlets.
Highly recommended for those who like their dark fantasy and horror with a decided literary twist.
Rage, pain, and abiding grief are the drivers behind these tales (there's very little joy, although hope occasionally makes an appearance) but Johnson is rarely heavy-handed drawing these emotions: the stories are dark but they're not gory or even particularly violent, there's nothing gratuitous here. The narratives move one not to shock or horror but to thoughtfulness and an existential unease not unlike melancholia. Johnson's prose is rich in texture, pungent, earthy or silky-smooth as needed, and she moves between varied points of view and style effectively. I could see this fiction being just as much at home in a Kate Bernheimer edited anthology or a volume of Tin House or Conjunctions as in more genre-focused outlets.
Highly recommended for those who like their dark fantasy and horror with a decided literary twist.
February 1, 2022
Vacui Magia is a short story collection that manages to make horror feel profound. Each story is a different fantastical journey - one with blood thirsty dwarves, another following the short life of a golem, and they manage to get weirder. Even with the somewhat silly subject matter, these stories tackled heavy topics in a way that moved me.
Johnson's prose is so hauntingly beautiful. The combination of whimsy and dread are strange but work together so well. I loved each and every one of these stories, though I think This is How You Lose Yourself was the one that will stick with me the longest.
If you enjoy horror fantasy I very much recommend Vacui Magia! I know I will be revisiting these stories in the future. If you decide to give it a go, definitely check out the trigger warnings. I was gifted a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Johnson's prose is so hauntingly beautiful. The combination of whimsy and dread are strange but work together so well. I loved each and every one of these stories, though I think This is How You Lose Yourself was the one that will stick with me the longest.
If you enjoy horror fantasy I very much recommend Vacui Magia! I know I will be revisiting these stories in the future. If you decide to give it a go, definitely check out the trigger warnings. I was gifted a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
March 15, 2023
The short stories in Johnson's book are rendered as though they are paintings, with brush strokes of saturated hue that bring imagery off the page. The characters are created with a nod toward a secret history, a revisiting of mythologies and folklore you think you know. Prepare to be horrified. Prepare to be delighted. Prepare to be enlightened
February 10, 2017
I loved these stories. They were melancholy and weird, rich and thought-provoking. The world-building was well-constructed. I hate giving praise in the negative, but I can't think of a better way to say this: none of them were built on clichés or tired tropes.
A couple stories in the the middle had endings that made me scratch my head, but I think that's on me, not the author. The rest left me breathless, and they all seemed to be saying SOMETHING (even if, like those two, I didn't know what that something was). My favorite was "The Pursuit of the Whole Is Called Love." I love seeing humanity in alien creatures, and she makes their existence believable... yet sad, of course.
I'm super picky about rereading authors. I turn my nose up at classics regularly. But if L.S. Johnson has written something, I want to read it.
A couple stories in the the middle had endings that made me scratch my head, but I think that's on me, not the author. The rest left me breathless, and they all seemed to be saying SOMETHING (even if, like those two, I didn't know what that something was). My favorite was "The Pursuit of the Whole Is Called Love." I love seeing humanity in alien creatures, and she makes their existence believable... yet sad, of course.
I'm super picky about rereading authors. I turn my nose up at classics regularly. But if L.S. Johnson has written something, I want to read it.
July 20, 2016
Absolutely fantastic. There is not a single story in this collection that is not worthy of praise. Myths and common fantasy elements are woven together to create something that is horrific and yet somehow beautiful, like a macabre painting that you cannot look away from. Even if short stories do not interest you, the ones in this book will.
Huge thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book.
Huge thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book.
December 12, 2018
These are brilliant! I had the same "wow" reaction to the first one as I do to the best stories in Fantasy & Science Fiction. With that magazine, I have that reaction for perhaps one or two stories for each issue, but here I had it over and over. At first I thought, sure, she's just started out with the best one. Then on the next one I thought, well, she's put the best two first. I eventually gave up that reasoning: they're all excellent, at the, "Crap, I wish I could write like this," level.
First off, the writing itself is compelling, smooth, and tight in that way where every word leads perfectly to the next but seems easy and obvious in retrospect.
Secondly, her take on magic and the supernatural feels creative and fresh and, well, magical.
Thirdly, and most importantly: her characters are so real it hurts. The stories focus on (mostly) women, mostly in realistic settings, who are dealing with real-life problems: bad jobs and broken hearts and alcoholic mothers and infertility and the impotence of being powerless in the face of indifferent patriarchs. Some of them already have a foot or two in an alien, witchy, or supernatural life, while others discover surprises thrust upon their mundane worlds. In all cases, they have hard choices to make, bitter pills to swallow, steep hills to climb: they have to be strong. These are not happy, frilly fairy tales. Despite the fairy tale ingredients, they are powerful, and meaningful, and heart-wrenching.
Other reviewers found some of the stories confusing. I didn't. Mysterious? Weird? Unexpected? Yes, yes, yes. But I followed all of them just fine, and they took me straight to the heart, every time.
Perhaps my favorite story shares the name of the book: Vacui Magia. Written as a set of directions for how to make a golem, and in the (risky) second person, it's brilliant. As with the other stories, it isn't really about making a golem. It's about giving what little you have to the people you love, before they're gone forever. It's about doing what you have to, even when it hurts. It's about letting go of a false answer to an old dream, no matter how real it feels in your hands.
But then, I could make an argument for many other favorite stories in this collection, so I'll stop there. You'll have your own favorite(s) anyway. There's only one way to find out. If you like your beautiful, deep, character-driven stories with a side of dark and weird, go read this book now.
First off, the writing itself is compelling, smooth, and tight in that way where every word leads perfectly to the next but seems easy and obvious in retrospect.
Secondly, her take on magic and the supernatural feels creative and fresh and, well, magical.
Thirdly, and most importantly: her characters are so real it hurts. The stories focus on (mostly) women, mostly in realistic settings, who are dealing with real-life problems: bad jobs and broken hearts and alcoholic mothers and infertility and the impotence of being powerless in the face of indifferent patriarchs. Some of them already have a foot or two in an alien, witchy, or supernatural life, while others discover surprises thrust upon their mundane worlds. In all cases, they have hard choices to make, bitter pills to swallow, steep hills to climb: they have to be strong. These are not happy, frilly fairy tales. Despite the fairy tale ingredients, they are powerful, and meaningful, and heart-wrenching.
Other reviewers found some of the stories confusing. I didn't. Mysterious? Weird? Unexpected? Yes, yes, yes. But I followed all of them just fine, and they took me straight to the heart, every time.
Perhaps my favorite story shares the name of the book: Vacui Magia. Written as a set of directions for how to make a golem, and in the (risky) second person, it's brilliant. As with the other stories, it isn't really about making a golem. It's about giving what little you have to the people you love, before they're gone forever. It's about doing what you have to, even when it hurts. It's about letting go of a false answer to an old dream, no matter how real it feels in your hands.
But then, I could make an argument for many other favorite stories in this collection, so I'll stop there. You'll have your own favorite(s) anyway. There's only one way to find out. If you like your beautiful, deep, character-driven stories with a side of dark and weird, go read this book now.
April 27, 2022
I have always loved anthologies because it always seems like a great way to gauge how effective a writer is. I picked this up from a convention and my only regret is that I did not buy more than this book from the author. The prose is lyrical for many of the stories and in all, the imagery is haunting and overall, this is a beautifully written collection of stories. They all vary widely, but the strong central characters all resonated with me as a reader. There is a real depth of character present in each story, making them a compelling read. This was hard to set down once I picked it up to start reading.
July 27, 2019
I can see why this book was a World Fantasy Award nominee: the stories are taut, terrifying, psychologically acute, stylistically elegant, and deeply feminist, especially in their depictions of female anger. “Little Men With Knives” and “Julie” are unforgettable: shocking in the trade-offs the protagonists make for just revenge, yet the endings of both stories are also deeply, oddly satisfying.
March 7, 2019
I learned about this collection just recently and can’t believe I missed it when it came out. Everything in here is my favorite sort of weird. I especially loved “Little Men with Knives” and “The Pursuit of the Whole Is Called Love.”
January 10, 2019
An amazing collection of stories. Witches, golems and more to keep you intrigued. These stories take you away to another world. Anything by this author is superb.
November 18, 2025
I don't know how else to describe this book but you can feel every character in your bones. It manages to scratch an abstract part of my mind no literature has done before.
March 18, 2017
I received this eBook from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Vacui Magia is a novel filled with dark fantasy, science fiction and horror short stories. They’re not meant to just terrify but to shock you, make you think and intrigue you.
These stories had awesome world building. The separate stories were either contemporary settings or historical settings. Each of story was entirely unique and neither one crossed over into each other. The characters were complex and interesting.
While none of these stories had gratuitous gore that many people relate to horror movies and stories, it still had that horror element. Horror can be more than just disgust, it is shock and fear as well. Some of these stories were definitely shocking.
Please visit me at Shh, I am Reading to view the rest of this story.
Vacui Magia is a novel filled with dark fantasy, science fiction and horror short stories. They’re not meant to just terrify but to shock you, make you think and intrigue you.
These stories had awesome world building. The separate stories were either contemporary settings or historical settings. Each of story was entirely unique and neither one crossed over into each other. The characters were complex and interesting.
While none of these stories had gratuitous gore that many people relate to horror movies and stories, it still had that horror element. Horror can be more than just disgust, it is shock and fear as well. Some of these stories were definitely shocking.
Please visit me at Shh, I am Reading to view the rest of this story.
June 24, 2016
Typically in an anthology like Vacui Magia: Stories, you expect to like some stories, not like others. Because of this I rarely give anthologies a particularly high score. In this case I’m going for a 4.5. With the exception of a couple places where I couldn’t quite get all of what the author was trying to communicate, I absolutely loved this anthology. It’s dark and winding, and meant for readers who don’t mind thinking a bit about what they’re reading. (That sounds obvious, but sometimes people just want something simple and straightforward.)
One of my favorite stories was the first one: “Little Men with Knives”. A school cafeteria worker leaves food out for the dwarfs so they’ll clean and arrange her house all neatly. If she ever forgets, they play tricks on her. In this one we see what happens when she starts to realize that maybe the little guys could do more than housework. And eventually we start to wonder whether the little men are really what they seem to be.
Vengeance, sorrow, curiosity, guilt–Vacui Magia is a heady mix of dark tales with moments of wonder.
NOTE: Free book provided by publisher in return for honest review
Original review on my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/2016/06/r...
One of my favorite stories was the first one: “Little Men with Knives”. A school cafeteria worker leaves food out for the dwarfs so they’ll clean and arrange her house all neatly. If she ever forgets, they play tricks on her. In this one we see what happens when she starts to realize that maybe the little guys could do more than housework. And eventually we start to wonder whether the little men are really what they seem to be.
Vengeance, sorrow, curiosity, guilt–Vacui Magia is a heady mix of dark tales with moments of wonder.
NOTE: Free book provided by publisher in return for honest review
Original review on my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/2016/06/r...
June 27, 2016
This book sounded interesting when I first heard about it, but I wondered what vacui magia meant. It sounded Italian or Greek.
A collection of short stories, Vacui Magia, explores myth and nightmare in a fantasy sense.
In “Little Men with Knives,” a bored cafeteria lady that is “too old to work and too poor to quit” finds solace and envy in little dwarves that appear at night. “Like stray cats. Stray cats that do housework. My craziness in a nutshell…As nasty as they are, I doubt any of them lie away at night, hating the present, terrified of the future. I doubt they’re afraid of anything at all.” (14) I related to this character the most!
Simple and witty, these stories are uniquely relatable, written in a mix between fiction and haiku. Stories were compelling, for the most part, but they were also riddled with confusion, perplexing the reader. They almost put you in the Twilight Zone. Weird, yet oddly compelling. Of course, once you get into this confused state and the details are strained with lengthiness, it becomes quite weary.
Nonetheless, these stories were interesting for the most part. Fantastically creepy cover though.
A collection of short stories, Vacui Magia, explores myth and nightmare in a fantasy sense.
In “Little Men with Knives,” a bored cafeteria lady that is “too old to work and too poor to quit” finds solace and envy in little dwarves that appear at night. “Like stray cats. Stray cats that do housework. My craziness in a nutshell…As nasty as they are, I doubt any of them lie away at night, hating the present, terrified of the future. I doubt they’re afraid of anything at all.” (14) I related to this character the most!
Simple and witty, these stories are uniquely relatable, written in a mix between fiction and haiku. Stories were compelling, for the most part, but they were also riddled with confusion, perplexing the reader. They almost put you in the Twilight Zone. Weird, yet oddly compelling. Of course, once you get into this confused state and the details are strained with lengthiness, it becomes quite weary.
Nonetheless, these stories were interesting for the most part. Fantastically creepy cover though.
July 25, 2016
*I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review *
Vacui Magia: Stories is a collection of magical and supernatural themed short stories.
Each tale is very different and all are extremely well-written. The atmosphere of the tales is dark, with plenty of suspense, twists and turns. The characters are written in a way that you are on occasion doubting that what they are exposed to is real and feeling their inner conflict as they experience similar uncertainties. Each story is well-paced and quickly draws the reader in. Some of the endings are a little ambiguous and leaves it up to the reader to draw their own conclusions, which adds to the magic of the tale.
Vacui Magia: Stories is a highly-recommended read for all fans of dark magic and supernatural.
Vacui Magia: Stories is a collection of magical and supernatural themed short stories.
Each tale is very different and all are extremely well-written. The atmosphere of the tales is dark, with plenty of suspense, twists and turns. The characters are written in a way that you are on occasion doubting that what they are exposed to is real and feeling their inner conflict as they experience similar uncertainties. Each story is well-paced and quickly draws the reader in. Some of the endings are a little ambiguous and leaves it up to the reader to draw their own conclusions, which adds to the magic of the tale.
Vacui Magia: Stories is a highly-recommended read for all fans of dark magic and supernatural.
April 10, 2016
An enthralling collection of dark speculative fiction short stories.
The first thing I noticed about this short story collection was that the writing was extremely good. The second was that although the material is definitely on the dark side, all the stories are engaging, satisfying, and thought-provoking. The protagonists are female, and the eight stories range through urban fantasy, historical fantasy, science fiction(?), and just weird. Chances are readers will like some more than others, but there are no duds. The mix of original ideas and mythological references will give you plenty to think about, and though it is dark, it isn’t depressing.
Expect violence, sexual references, and weird, nightmare-ish stuff.
The first thing I noticed about this short story collection was that the writing was extremely good. The second was that although the material is definitely on the dark side, all the stories are engaging, satisfying, and thought-provoking. The protagonists are female, and the eight stories range through urban fantasy, historical fantasy, science fiction(?), and just weird. Chances are readers will like some more than others, but there are no duds. The mix of original ideas and mythological references will give you plenty to think about, and though it is dark, it isn’t depressing.
Expect violence, sexual references, and weird, nightmare-ish stuff.
March 7, 2016
A collection of L.S. Johnson's work is an embarrassment of riches. She is currently my favourite writer of short fiction. She's the kind of writer whose work you just have to track down wherever it appears. Don't be put off by the fact that the author published this herself, as most of these stories have already appeared in some high profile places, such as Strange Tales, Strange Horizons, and Crossed Genres Magazine. Most of these stories are so good they left me with my mouth hanging open. How is this writer not more well known? Well, she will be soon. Only a couple of these were anything other than extraordinary. Highly recommended.
March 23, 2016
I loved this collection. L.S. Johnson uses evocative imagery to tell stories (largely about the struggles of women) that will linger on the fringes of your memory long after you've closed the book and walked away. If you aren't already familiar with L.S.'s work, this is the perfect introduction to its dark, lush, beauty.
Read it. You won't regret it.
Full disclosure: I published two of the stories in this collection (one as a reprint).
Read it. You won't regret it.
Full disclosure: I published two of the stories in this collection (one as a reprint).
May 30, 2016
L.S. Johnson's debut collection of speculative fiction stories is pure literary enjoyment. A deft hand creates worlds in which reality and its linings are cleverly inverted and reimagined. These are worlds where our heroes are burdened and looking for freedom, despite the costs, and their search are the trajectories Johnson so expertly lays out for us to devour and savor. Many of these stories will stick with you, after your done, and that lingering makes it all worth it.
June 22, 2016
Brilliantly written stories. Not usually into speculative fiction other than magical fantasy and I normally hate short stories but these were really good. It was interesting how Johnson drew from mythology and folklore in some of the stories, even played with what was real and what wasn't.
June 8, 2016
Quirky, Fun, Haunting, Awesome. A well written series of stories, all unique but consistent in overall theme.
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