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The Machineries of Empire #- Calendrical Rot
An Alphabet of Embers
An Alphabet of Embers is an anthology of unclassifiables – lyrical, surreal, magical, experimental pieces that straddle the border between poetry and prose. It lives in a place between darkness and sound, between roads and breaths, its pages taut with starlight; between its covers, words talk to each other, and have an occasional cup of tea.
172 pages, ebook
First published May 22, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
April 19, 2017
this is a collection of very short stories that live somewhere between poetry and prose. i admit i didn't really understand a lot of them but i liked the language enough to read them regardless. plus it's got a fantastic author line-up, i bought it because it was a collection including zen cho, shweta narayan (who i am still pining for a full book from), and amal el-mohtar; like obviously there was no universe in which i wouldn't buy that
3.5 stars
3.5 stars
April 28, 2016
Lots of gorgeous pieces in this book. All tiny and compact, but often quite dense. The artwork is beautiful, too.
April 19, 2018
This is a wonderful, magical short story collection that combines poetry and prose in sci-fi and fantasy stories. The imagery & sensory detail enhance the stories by making them vivid in the mind's eye. As with any short fiction collection, you're bound to like some stories more than others, but this book is great for those who love poetry & short stories equally.
Want to read
January 12, 2017Goodreads says there is no paper edition of this; the kickstarter page suggests that one is intended. I hope that happens because I'd really prefer paper, especially since there are illustrations.
This collection sounds intriguing. My brain has decided that it will combine the qualities of Alphabet of Thorn and Text: Ur, but this is probably not the case.
I love the cover and am about to go look for more art by Galen Dara. (The interior illustrations are, I gather, by someone else.)
This collection sounds intriguing. My brain has decided that it will combine the qualities of Alphabet of Thorn and Text: Ur, but this is probably not the case.
I love the cover and am about to go look for more art by Galen Dara. (The interior illustrations are, I gather, by someone else.)
June 2, 2016
An Alphabet of Embers declares itself to be a collection of "unclassifiables," which is its greatest strength and biggest weakness, as it will appeal hugely to some readers and not reach other readers. Like me! I wasn't expecting to love the anthology, knowing my own tastes, but I was still curious to see what Rose Lemberg had put together.
Because all the stories in the book are between 500 and 1400 words, it's fine if a particular story isn't your bag; there's another one right around the corner. And whether or not you like the story, M. Sereno's art is always a winner. I usually look for narrative, but in a collection that blurs the line between fiction and prose poems, I did not often find it. Sometimes, as in Emily Stoddard's "Outfitting the Restless Heart, or How the Sky Was Made," I was swept up enough in the language and images that I didn't mind. But most of the time, I found the stories frankly impenetrable, either because I couldn't follow the story itself or because it was so cerebral/philosophical. This collection is full of quite challenging pieces, and I was not up to the challenge.
But I did find some gems! JY Yang's "Transfers to Connecting Flights" is probably my favorite in the collection, the story of a person who transfers people into other objects. The premise is awesome, and the final payoff is satisfying. Mari Ness's "Mistletoe and Copper, Water and Herbs" is an absolutely lovely fairy tale, and Zen Cho is reliably delightful with "Everything Under One Roof," though I didn't totally get everything that happened. Mina Li's "Dreaming Keys," about keys that transport a girl into dream worlds, is very sweet. Shweta Narayana's "The River's Children" takes genderfluidity to a literal level. I really liked most of Ian Muneshwar's "Telomerase" because of the unusual idea of "losing words," but I wasn't quite satisfied by the end. I didn't totally get everything in Emily Jiang's "The Binding of Ming-Tian," but I found it a harrowing tale of foot-binding and er-hu-playing. And Amal El-Mohtar's "Wing" is quite nice and pleasantly mysterious.
Even though An Alphabet of Embers wasn't my thing personally, I am glad to see such a diverse collection of voices speaking in non-traditional ways. The majority of stories feel like they belong here, and only here, and I commend Rose Lemberg for giving them a home.
Because all the stories in the book are between 500 and 1400 words, it's fine if a particular story isn't your bag; there's another one right around the corner. And whether or not you like the story, M. Sereno's art is always a winner. I usually look for narrative, but in a collection that blurs the line between fiction and prose poems, I did not often find it. Sometimes, as in Emily Stoddard's "Outfitting the Restless Heart, or How the Sky Was Made," I was swept up enough in the language and images that I didn't mind. But most of the time, I found the stories frankly impenetrable, either because I couldn't follow the story itself or because it was so cerebral/philosophical. This collection is full of quite challenging pieces, and I was not up to the challenge.
But I did find some gems! JY Yang's "Transfers to Connecting Flights" is probably my favorite in the collection, the story of a person who transfers people into other objects. The premise is awesome, and the final payoff is satisfying. Mari Ness's "Mistletoe and Copper, Water and Herbs" is an absolutely lovely fairy tale, and Zen Cho is reliably delightful with "Everything Under One Roof," though I didn't totally get everything that happened. Mina Li's "Dreaming Keys," about keys that transport a girl into dream worlds, is very sweet. Shweta Narayana's "The River's Children" takes genderfluidity to a literal level. I really liked most of Ian Muneshwar's "Telomerase" because of the unusual idea of "losing words," but I wasn't quite satisfied by the end. I didn't totally get everything in Emily Jiang's "The Binding of Ming-Tian," but I found it a harrowing tale of foot-binding and er-hu-playing. And Amal El-Mohtar's "Wing" is quite nice and pleasantly mysterious.
Even though An Alphabet of Embers wasn't my thing personally, I am glad to see such a diverse collection of voices speaking in non-traditional ways. The majority of stories feel like they belong here, and only here, and I commend Rose Lemberg for giving them a home.
August 25, 2017
This was absolutely beautiful. It filled my heart with joy.
Read my full review HERE!
Read my full review HERE!
March 12, 2016
An Alphabet of Embers edited by Rose Lemberg is an anthology of flash fiction that was funded by a Kickstarter (that I missed) last year. The stories are 500–1400 words long, which ranges up to a little longer than what I would normally call flash, and one of the aims of the anthology was to include diverse voices. On that point, the editor has certainly succeeded. There are also some lovely illustrations by M Sereno throughout the anthology, to enhance the reading experience.
This is an anthology filled with gorgeous writing, multicultural stories, and variety. While there is a certain "feel" to the stories in the anthology, the stories themselves covered a lot of ground in terms of setting and theme. Some of the stories are multilingual, containing phrases in other languages and the modern wonders of ebooks and Google Translate meant that I could look these up as they appeared. Said technology also showed me that I really didn't need to pause in my reading to check these phrases; the stories were not lesser without full understanding.
Having said that, there were a few stories which, for various other reasons, went over my head a little. There weren't any stories that I actively disliked, but there were a few that I don't think I personally grasped. That's more a reflection on me than the stories themselves, however. And there were several stories I liked a lot, which I will talk about in more detail shortly.
What I found interesting about this anthology, and didn't actually notice until I was close to the end, was the way in which the stories were grouped. Similar stories were grouped together in what felt like rolling waves throughout the book. When I first started reading, I thought all the stories would be somewhat surreal fantasy, but before I knew it the tone gradually shifted to more realistic stories, or more science fictional stories, or stories that were both beautiful and horrifying (not necessarily in that order). This sort of grouping could have backfired, but in this case it worked well; the stories didn't echo each other, rather they built upon each other while also pushing the anthology forward.
(Usually, for an anthology, I would write a bit about each non-flash story. However, since this is an entirely flash fiction anthology, I won't be doing that.)
My favourite stories, those that jumped out at me when I read them, or stuck with me after I moved on, were these (list for ease of reading):
“Mistletoe and Copper, Water and Herbs” by Mari Ness — About a woman asking a witch to help her have children, a request delivered not quite how she hoped.
“An Awfully Big Adventure” by Nisi Shawl — The youngest of three sisters talking about how she is the brave one, always the one to jump in first. Contains cancer.
“Everything Under One Roof” by Zen Cho — A story about a magical food hall and two friends who find their way there.
“The Swing, or How to Ricochet According to Sylvia Plath” by Nolan Liebert — Detailing the key days of a life. I found it very emotional.
“Dreaming Keys” by Mina Li — A woman who discovers that keys can unlock dream worlds. A story I enjoyed because it was fun.
“Telomerase” by Ian Muneshwar — As cancer takes the narrator, their partner loses words. Sad but powerful.
“The Binding of Ming-tian” by Emily Jiang — A lovely, horrible story. The description of foot binding made me cringe.
“Rhizomatic Diplomacy” by Vajra Chandrasekera — A story of war, aliens and featuring a clone-in-alien-body narrator. One of the most science fictional stories
“Wing” by Amal El-Mohtar — A story about a girl with a book around her neck.
An Alphabet of Embers was a gorgeous read that I highly recommend to people who enjoy lyricism in their stories, or surrealism, or just plain like flash fiction and/or very short stories. The shortness of the stories made it easy to pick up and read a bit of this anthology in between other things. It also lead me to finish the anthology more quickly than I expected, when I wanted a break from other things. It also features a very diverse lineup of authors and hence is ideal for sampling new authors and hopefully enjoying them enough to seek out more of their work. I know there were some authors in here that I have been meaning to get around to reading for some time and now I have even more motivation to do so.
4 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
This is an anthology filled with gorgeous writing, multicultural stories, and variety. While there is a certain "feel" to the stories in the anthology, the stories themselves covered a lot of ground in terms of setting and theme. Some of the stories are multilingual, containing phrases in other languages and the modern wonders of ebooks and Google Translate meant that I could look these up as they appeared. Said technology also showed me that I really didn't need to pause in my reading to check these phrases; the stories were not lesser without full understanding.
Having said that, there were a few stories which, for various other reasons, went over my head a little. There weren't any stories that I actively disliked, but there were a few that I don't think I personally grasped. That's more a reflection on me than the stories themselves, however. And there were several stories I liked a lot, which I will talk about in more detail shortly.
What I found interesting about this anthology, and didn't actually notice until I was close to the end, was the way in which the stories were grouped. Similar stories were grouped together in what felt like rolling waves throughout the book. When I first started reading, I thought all the stories would be somewhat surreal fantasy, but before I knew it the tone gradually shifted to more realistic stories, or more science fictional stories, or stories that were both beautiful and horrifying (not necessarily in that order). This sort of grouping could have backfired, but in this case it worked well; the stories didn't echo each other, rather they built upon each other while also pushing the anthology forward.
(Usually, for an anthology, I would write a bit about each non-flash story. However, since this is an entirely flash fiction anthology, I won't be doing that.)
My favourite stories, those that jumped out at me when I read them, or stuck with me after I moved on, were these (list for ease of reading):
“Mistletoe and Copper, Water and Herbs” by Mari Ness — About a woman asking a witch to help her have children, a request delivered not quite how she hoped.
“An Awfully Big Adventure” by Nisi Shawl — The youngest of three sisters talking about how she is the brave one, always the one to jump in first. Contains cancer.
“Everything Under One Roof” by Zen Cho — A story about a magical food hall and two friends who find their way there.
“The Swing, or How to Ricochet According to Sylvia Plath” by Nolan Liebert — Detailing the key days of a life. I found it very emotional.
“Dreaming Keys” by Mina Li — A woman who discovers that keys can unlock dream worlds. A story I enjoyed because it was fun.
“Telomerase” by Ian Muneshwar — As cancer takes the narrator, their partner loses words. Sad but powerful.
“The Binding of Ming-tian” by Emily Jiang — A lovely, horrible story. The description of foot binding made me cringe.
“Rhizomatic Diplomacy” by Vajra Chandrasekera — A story of war, aliens and featuring a clone-in-alien-body narrator. One of the most science fictional stories
“Wing” by Amal El-Mohtar — A story about a girl with a book around her neck.
An Alphabet of Embers was a gorgeous read that I highly recommend to people who enjoy lyricism in their stories, or surrealism, or just plain like flash fiction and/or very short stories. The shortness of the stories made it easy to pick up and read a bit of this anthology in between other things. It also lead me to finish the anthology more quickly than I expected, when I wanted a break from other things. It also features a very diverse lineup of authors and hence is ideal for sampling new authors and hopefully enjoying them enough to seek out more of their work. I know there were some authors in here that I have been meaning to get around to reading for some time and now I have even more motivation to do so.
4 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
August 14, 2016
Expertly curated by editor Rose Lemberg, the "unclassifiables" in this anthology are ardent gems that may spark cathartic wildfires in the reader, or gently stoke lonesome hearths.
November 10, 2017
this is a truly wonderful anthology full of stories that push the very limits of our expectations of fantasy. it should be on your list of you love short fiction, fantasy, and evocative language.
disclaimer: I was sent this book in exchange for an honest review.
disclaimer: I was sent this book in exchange for an honest review.
March 25, 2018
An Alphabet of Embers instantly became my favorite SFF anthology; I loved its richness, its weirdness, the way it encouraged pushing at boundaries of what speculative fiction can be.
July 2, 2017
This collection of stories were as the description calls it - magical. It was unique and left you feeling like you've never heard stories like it before. The stories come from a diverse cast of writers from around the world, giving you a diverse collection of stories and characters. One of my favourite stories had to do with an idea of genderfluidness, which I happen to be. This was the first story I ever read with a genderfluid set of characters and I honestly can't get enough of it. I'll probably end up holding that story close to me for that reason, and the fact it was so well written that it made me so happy for this progress.
As I've mentioned before, it's hard to really critique short stories, more so ones that are relatively short, only a page or two, which a few were. For the most part, these stories were done in a way that was prose or lyrical. Which is something I always love. However, there were a few that felt like simply words thrown together to creative something, but I couldn't seem to see the story in it. It's possible that when I read it, my brain was too tired to comprehend what they were about or it just went over my head, but I struggled to find stories in them, which was really disappointing in comparison to the overall beautifully done stories that were stories that were actually stories. There were also a few stories that weren't long enough in my opinion to actually make it a full story. I felt like the plot was just shortly brushed over and it didn't have the same impact as some of the others.
However, I HIGHLY recommend this book for people who want sci-fi/fantasy stories created by a diverse cast of writers that touch on their own cultures.
As I've mentioned before, it's hard to really critique short stories, more so ones that are relatively short, only a page or two, which a few were. For the most part, these stories were done in a way that was prose or lyrical. Which is something I always love. However, there were a few that felt like simply words thrown together to creative something, but I couldn't seem to see the story in it. It's possible that when I read it, my brain was too tired to comprehend what they were about or it just went over my head, but I struggled to find stories in them, which was really disappointing in comparison to the overall beautifully done stories that were stories that were actually stories. There were also a few stories that weren't long enough in my opinion to actually make it a full story. I felt like the plot was just shortly brushed over and it didn't have the same impact as some of the others.
However, I HIGHLY recommend this book for people who want sci-fi/fantasy stories created by a diverse cast of writers that touch on their own cultures.
May 16, 2016
3.5-4, rounding up!
A collection of short-shorts that sets out to give a home to unclassifiable prose and does a decent job of this.
I fall in the camp of those who would've liked the entire collection to tend more towards bonafide unclassifiables--more of the bizarro embodied in M David Blake's "Absinthe Fish" (a story reminiscent of the weirdness of Stepan Chapman and KJ Bishop), more of the prose poetry of M Sereno's "Only revolutions".
Pleasantly, the collection on the whole seemed to gain appreciable momentum. The middle offers us a solid selection of (good) pieces on mortality and death, and the second half of the collection features a number of strong pieces.
A huge strength of this collection is its unabashed celebration of world Englishes, world dialects, and non-English languages.
In terms of particular stories, apart from the Blake and the Sereno, I enjoyed pieces by JY Yang (sentient lighthouses! yaaaaaa), Nin Harris (a sultry piece about a city and a self), Zen Cho (BECAUSE Zen. Nuff said), Tlotlo Tsamaase (what the shit was this? I absolutely loved it), Emily Jiang, Ching-In Chen, and Nolan Liebert.
Many of the other stories were impressive in their ability to traverse a plot at flash(ish) length, but to me did not fit the brief well enough to belong here, and were not strong enough on their own merits to win me over: in my opinion these were not unclassifiables; they were very short stories. To me the collection would've been stronger with a more whittled TOC focussing on the challenging prose poetry and experimental fiction we see included at points.
A collection of short-shorts that sets out to give a home to unclassifiable prose and does a decent job of this.
I fall in the camp of those who would've liked the entire collection to tend more towards bonafide unclassifiables--more of the bizarro embodied in M David Blake's "Absinthe Fish" (a story reminiscent of the weirdness of Stepan Chapman and KJ Bishop), more of the prose poetry of M Sereno's "Only revolutions".
Pleasantly, the collection on the whole seemed to gain appreciable momentum. The middle offers us a solid selection of (good) pieces on mortality and death, and the second half of the collection features a number of strong pieces.
A huge strength of this collection is its unabashed celebration of world Englishes, world dialects, and non-English languages.
In terms of particular stories, apart from the Blake and the Sereno, I enjoyed pieces by JY Yang (sentient lighthouses! yaaaaaa), Nin Harris (a sultry piece about a city and a self), Zen Cho (BECAUSE Zen. Nuff said), Tlotlo Tsamaase (what the shit was this? I absolutely loved it), Emily Jiang, Ching-In Chen, and Nolan Liebert.
Many of the other stories were impressive in their ability to traverse a plot at flash(ish) length, but to me did not fit the brief well enough to belong here, and were not strong enough on their own merits to win me over: in my opinion these were not unclassifiables; they were very short stories. To me the collection would've been stronger with a more whittled TOC focussing on the challenging prose poetry and experimental fiction we see included at points.
December 30, 2021
Me gustó muchísimo. Algunos cuentos fueron complicados de leer, pero en general es una colección de cuentos cortos poéticos e imaginativos que me encantaron. Algunos de mis favoritos son: Outfitting the Restless Hearth, or How the Sky was Made, The City Beneath the Sea, Everything Under One Roof, Dreaming Keys y The River´s Children.
August 20, 2019
I find this collection more difficult to rate than most. There weren't any stories that I didn't like. There were several that I had no clue what they were about. There were also a few that I enjoyed quite a bit. I want to reward the theme* by rating it higher than average, but there weren't enough stories in the 2nd and 3rd categories to warrant that. Overall, I'd say it's ok, so it gets a 3 star.
*The Goodreads description of this collection at the time I wrote this sums up the theme fairly well: "An Alphabet of Embers is an anthology of unclassifiables – lyrical, surreal, magical, experimental pieces that straddle the border between poetry and prose. It lives in a place between darkness and sound, between roads and breaths, its pages taut with starlight; between its covers, words talk to each other, and have an occasional cup of tea."
*The Goodreads description of this collection at the time I wrote this sums up the theme fairly well: "An Alphabet of Embers is an anthology of unclassifiables – lyrical, surreal, magical, experimental pieces that straddle the border between poetry and prose. It lives in a place between darkness and sound, between roads and breaths, its pages taut with starlight; between its covers, words talk to each other, and have an occasional cup of tea."
July 29, 2016
This was a strange read - some of the stories I loved, some I just didn't get. Some toed the line between prose and poetry, and in all the language was a treat. It was also challenging: this is one of the very few times I've ever felt I'm losing something in not being a native English-speaker (and I say this as someone who is quite close to native level in vocabulary).
I highly recommend reading this collection as a whole from start to finish instead of picking and choosing between stories. The editor has done a superb job doing that already. :)
I highly recommend reading this collection as a whole from start to finish instead of picking and choosing between stories. The editor has done a superb job doing that already. :)
August 28, 2016
This anthology was like a necklace set with beautiful jewels that I just didn't take to the cut or setting of. That it wasn't for me doesn't take away from the fact that they're beautiful jewels! The necklace analogy work for me because there is also a distinct editorial hand to this, the thing that ties all of the jewels together into jewellery. Because they all went together so smoothly and well, that also meant that I didn't find something quite different enough from the rest to really capture my sensibilities. Still, a great idea and a lovely anthology!
January 5, 2017
This is a well-curated collection of unusual short works that will appeal to those looking for new twists in speculative fiction, and for imaginative use of language. As goes with anthologies, a few of the pieces soar while others don't quite. I'd been looking here for more true gems. Still, each work is unique and deserves its place in this book. If you like your fiction both strange and poetic then don't miss this one.
April 23, 2016
I'm obviously biased because I have a story in this - but really, An Alphabet of Embers is a phenomenal anthology. Rose Lemberg has strung the stories together with precision and art. The stories sing to each other and build up on each other to become something greater than the sum of each individual. This is definitely an anthology that I recommend reading from start to finish, in order.
April 30, 2018
Amazing stories. Rich, vivid, tantalizing, evocative. And such amazing illustrations by M Sereno.
Favorite authors: E Stoddard, JY Yang, S Norja, N Harris, Z Cho, CR Baker, I Muneshwar, A Martine, V Chandrasekera, M Sereno.
Favorite authors: E Stoddard, JY Yang, S Norja, N Harris, Z Cho, CR Baker, I Muneshwar, A Martine, V Chandrasekera, M Sereno.
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July 13, 2019A fascinating collection of poetic flash fiction that borders short stories and prose poetry.
July 20, 2022
this...THIS is why i struggle so much to read anthologies. the concept drags me in. there are stories are are straight up MAGICAL and i want more of. and then there are others that I'm skipping past for one reason or another.
September 10, 2020
A mixed bag of short stories on love and grief. I’ll have to double-check the table of contents to jog my memory on my favourite stories.
April 2, 2024
There were two stories that come back to me— the one with the city in the sea and Absinthe Fish. Both very whimsical and thought inducing, whereas I didn’t get as much from the latter.
March 16, 2024
Internally consistent and overall enjoyable, but pretty varied in quality.
Absolute Fav: Ekphrasis
Runner up: Mistletoe and Copper
Honorable mentions: the binding of Ming-tian, wing, only revolutions
Absolute Fav: Ekphrasis
Runner up: Mistletoe and Copper
Honorable mentions: the binding of Ming-tian, wing, only revolutions
September 26, 2016
This is a lovely book, one that embraces its unclassifiable nature. I love it for that, for the musical, lyrical quality of so much of the prose, but it also makes some stories less accessible than others. That said, there are gems here, and I suspect everyone will find a different one that speaks to them. I highly recommend this collection!
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews