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Points of Possibility
A collection of science fiction, fantasy, horror and strange stories
A collection of nine short stories from the imagination of best selling British author, Norman Turrell, ranging from science fiction, fantasy, horror and purely strange tales.
Science Fiction: Change of Mind - A villainous corporate tycoon undergoes a new nanobot surgery to enhance himself.
Steampunk: Steam Pressure - A steampunk tale of political activists in old London town.
Science Fiction: It Came From Pluto - An unmanned mission to Pluto has strange effects on the research team leader.
Fantasy: Court - Intrigue in a dysfunctional fantasy castle.
Science Fiction: Restart - An online fantasy world brings two gamers together.
Strange: From the Grave to the Grave - The strange tale of a man who spends his life in graveyards.
Strange: Paranoia - Rich has difficulty coping with his world.
Horror: Little Angel - A father believes he is looking after his new born child.
Horror: The Muse - An American writer visits Scotland for inspiration but finds something else.
A collection of nine short stories from the imagination of best selling British author, Norman Turrell, ranging from science fiction, fantasy, horror and purely strange tales.
Science Fiction: Change of Mind - A villainous corporate tycoon undergoes a new nanobot surgery to enhance himself.
Steampunk: Steam Pressure - A steampunk tale of political activists in old London town.
Science Fiction: It Came From Pluto - An unmanned mission to Pluto has strange effects on the research team leader.
Fantasy: Court - Intrigue in a dysfunctional fantasy castle.
Science Fiction: Restart - An online fantasy world brings two gamers together.
Strange: From the Grave to the Grave - The strange tale of a man who spends his life in graveyards.
Strange: Paranoia - Rich has difficulty coping with his world.
Horror: Little Angel - A father believes he is looking after his new born child.
Horror: The Muse - An American writer visits Scotland for inspiration but finds something else.
184 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 27, 2016
37 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
Norman Turrell
12 books12 followersNorman Turrell is a commercial writer/editor and best-selling Amazon author of science-fiction, fantasy, horror and just strange stories. He blogs on Huffington Post, produces printed local publications, run live writers critique groups and is a member of many online communities - in particular Now! Writer, which he leads.
He studied Mathematics at college, obtaining a 2.1 Hons and later a MSc (Merit) in Artificial Intelligence.
In his spare time he runs a ukulele group and reads as much as he can. He also has a full time job as a Software Department Manager, which includes programming systems in C++.
Full information on all his activities, including some dabbling in photography and art, can be found at www.normanturrell.com - with a free gift as thanks to all who register.
He studied Mathematics at college, obtaining a 2.1 Hons and later a MSc (Merit) in Artificial Intelligence.
In his spare time he runs a ukulele group and reads as much as he can. He also has a full time job as a Software Department Manager, which includes programming systems in C++.
Full information on all his activities, including some dabbling in photography and art, can be found at www.normanturrell.com - with a free gift as thanks to all who register.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 15, 2016
I love a well-crafted short story.
I grew up on tales by the likes of Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and Stephen King, or the kinds of tales that filled all kinds of sci fi and fantasy magazines, stories that sparked the imagination in just a handful of pages.
Norman Turrell isn't a name I'd come across until recently. I wish I'd found him earlier.
From the story of the arrogant noble upgrading himself physically and hunting human prey until he goes too far, to the exploration of a fully immersive online world and the controls placed on it from outside, Turrell writes with a thoughtfulness and manages a pace that lets the stories breathe despite the short length.
He can make the skin crawl too, such as in the disturbing Little Angel, or the building horror of The Muse (even if the Irishman in me smiles at an error or two in the setting, but no harm there!).
There's an odd story that doesn't work for me - From The Grave To The Grave is an interesting experiment but didn't quite pan out, and Court, a fantasy story, just didn't catch me. That's to be expected, though, in a short story collection.
I like Turrell's style - he makes you think, and sometimes makes you fear, and that's a talent to be commended.
I grew up on tales by the likes of Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and Stephen King, or the kinds of tales that filled all kinds of sci fi and fantasy magazines, stories that sparked the imagination in just a handful of pages.
Norman Turrell isn't a name I'd come across until recently. I wish I'd found him earlier.
From the story of the arrogant noble upgrading himself physically and hunting human prey until he goes too far, to the exploration of a fully immersive online world and the controls placed on it from outside, Turrell writes with a thoughtfulness and manages a pace that lets the stories breathe despite the short length.
He can make the skin crawl too, such as in the disturbing Little Angel, or the building horror of The Muse (even if the Irishman in me smiles at an error or two in the setting, but no harm there!).
There's an odd story that doesn't work for me - From The Grave To The Grave is an interesting experiment but didn't quite pan out, and Court, a fantasy story, just didn't catch me. That's to be expected, though, in a short story collection.
I like Turrell's style - he makes you think, and sometimes makes you fear, and that's a talent to be commended.
July 24, 2022
You should read this book if: you enjoy science fiction, paranormal stories, philosophical reading, or if you are a fan of Black Mirror. Turrell’s writing is masterful, and his stories explore the dark areas of the human psyche with an explorative, fine-tipped pen.
Norman Turrell’s Points of Possibility was my first audio book review and my first anthology review. I wasn’t sure what to expect. After putting on my headphones and pushing play, I closed my eyes and listened to the first scene. By minute two, I was hooked. Points of Possibility is the best work of science fiction I have read this year.
Turrell’s short stories are set in the future, the past, and in alternate dimensions. While the landscapes and technology are often foreign, the characters are not. Turrell excels at describing people. His narration of his character’s thoughts and actions is so candid, I often felt like an ethereal trespasser in each of their lives. You will meet a doubting princess, a confident hunter, a daring space crew, a distraught father, and other complicated, compelling characters. Dialogue is fast and natural and often used in favor of cumbrous prose. Many times I opened my eyes from the audio, surprised to see the mundane lavender of my bedroom—wasn’t I just walking with David, the scientist, to see his girlfriend? Something was about to happen… Something bad.
Turrell’s characters are flawed, unsettled, and forced to decide when there are no good options. The way they handle their emotions—particularly of rage and grief—is fascinating. This raw, unfiltered look at the human psyche left me feeling like I knew these characters better than some of my own friends.
Turrell’s windows into bizarre worlds where so much has changed – and so much hasn’t – are expertly crafted. Turrell rarely lingers on description, dropping you into each story with only enough to give you your bearings. The tone of each tale falls somewhere between The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror. In fact, a few of the stories give Black Mirror a run for its money. Turrell has perfected the art of the short story, and every work in his anthology creates an emotional swell of fear, love, sadness, anger, and trauma. I felt every piece was the perfect length and yet never enough. I want to know more about Turrell’s world and stories without disrupting his perfect portrait of possibility.
It’s hard to explain the plot of Turrell’s pieces without giving away eccentricities of the complex, sometimes shocking, plot. However, every entry has a curious twist. By the end of the book, I was expecting these twists, yet every conclusion still felt fresh. Turrell’s stories play with the ideas of morality, exploration, relationships, time, and—as mentioned before—the human psyche without ever proselytizing. Instead, Turrell’s stories ask questions, offer the observations of its characters, and leave the reader to discover the answers within themselves.
The only caveat I have about Turrell’s masterpiece is the audio. The narration of his work felt choppy. The narrator’s inflections felt off, and it was difficult to discern when the narrator switched character voices. As Turrell’s use of dialogue tags is conservative, this created confusion. About halfway through the audio, I purchased the Kindle copy of Points of Possibility to read along with the narration. This improved my experience.
Points of Possibility lingers; you will taste it days after you’re done. I hope to see more of Turrell’s writing in the future—perhaps for Black Mirror Season 4?
Norman Turrell’s Points of Possibility was my first audio book review and my first anthology review. I wasn’t sure what to expect. After putting on my headphones and pushing play, I closed my eyes and listened to the first scene. By minute two, I was hooked. Points of Possibility is the best work of science fiction I have read this year.
Turrell’s short stories are set in the future, the past, and in alternate dimensions. While the landscapes and technology are often foreign, the characters are not. Turrell excels at describing people. His narration of his character’s thoughts and actions is so candid, I often felt like an ethereal trespasser in each of their lives. You will meet a doubting princess, a confident hunter, a daring space crew, a distraught father, and other complicated, compelling characters. Dialogue is fast and natural and often used in favor of cumbrous prose. Many times I opened my eyes from the audio, surprised to see the mundane lavender of my bedroom—wasn’t I just walking with David, the scientist, to see his girlfriend? Something was about to happen… Something bad.
Turrell’s characters are flawed, unsettled, and forced to decide when there are no good options. The way they handle their emotions—particularly of rage and grief—is fascinating. This raw, unfiltered look at the human psyche left me feeling like I knew these characters better than some of my own friends.
Turrell’s windows into bizarre worlds where so much has changed – and so much hasn’t – are expertly crafted. Turrell rarely lingers on description, dropping you into each story with only enough to give you your bearings. The tone of each tale falls somewhere between The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror. In fact, a few of the stories give Black Mirror a run for its money. Turrell has perfected the art of the short story, and every work in his anthology creates an emotional swell of fear, love, sadness, anger, and trauma. I felt every piece was the perfect length and yet never enough. I want to know more about Turrell’s world and stories without disrupting his perfect portrait of possibility.
It’s hard to explain the plot of Turrell’s pieces without giving away eccentricities of the complex, sometimes shocking, plot. However, every entry has a curious twist. By the end of the book, I was expecting these twists, yet every conclusion still felt fresh. Turrell’s stories play with the ideas of morality, exploration, relationships, time, and—as mentioned before—the human psyche without ever proselytizing. Instead, Turrell’s stories ask questions, offer the observations of its characters, and leave the reader to discover the answers within themselves.
The only caveat I have about Turrell’s masterpiece is the audio. The narration of his work felt choppy. The narrator’s inflections felt off, and it was difficult to discern when the narrator switched character voices. As Turrell’s use of dialogue tags is conservative, this created confusion. About halfway through the audio, I purchased the Kindle copy of Points of Possibility to read along with the narration. This improved my experience.
Points of Possibility lingers; you will taste it days after you’re done. I hope to see more of Turrell’s writing in the future—perhaps for Black Mirror Season 4?
October 30, 2016
Norman Turrell's rich imagination encompasses pure science fiction, fantasy, steampunk and horror, and in his short story collection Points of Possibility he considers the world from all these viewpoints. Competently crafted, the stories range from brief vignettes (From the Grave to the Grave, Little Angel) to more traditionally structured stories (Paranoia, The Muse).
Several of the stories have complex societies, not our own, for their setting, and the events of the story are not always sufficient to answer the reader's questions about that society. In itself that's not a bad thing; a brief glimpse into a different world structure can be both tantalizing and thought-provoking, but in the story Court I found it insufficient to make the story satisfying, whereas in It Came from Pluto there was no such lack.
One other fairly minor niggle was a tendency in some stories (the final paragraph of Change of Mind, especially) to tell us, rather than show us, what is happening in the mind of the protagonist (compare its last paragraph with the last paragraph of Little Angel, where the words of the protagonist there serve to give full realization to the horror, rather than just describe it). But overall, this is a fine collection of short stories ranging through most aspects of the fantasy/sci-fi genres, perfect for Hallowe'en (or any other time). Four stars.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Several of the stories have complex societies, not our own, for their setting, and the events of the story are not always sufficient to answer the reader's questions about that society. In itself that's not a bad thing; a brief glimpse into a different world structure can be both tantalizing and thought-provoking, but in the story Court I found it insufficient to make the story satisfying, whereas in It Came from Pluto there was no such lack.
One other fairly minor niggle was a tendency in some stories (the final paragraph of Change of Mind, especially) to tell us, rather than show us, what is happening in the mind of the protagonist (compare its last paragraph with the last paragraph of Little Angel, where the words of the protagonist there serve to give full realization to the horror, rather than just describe it). But overall, this is a fine collection of short stories ranging through most aspects of the fantasy/sci-fi genres, perfect for Hallowe'en (or any other time). Four stars.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
September 19, 2016
A clever and imaginative collection of short tales. In each case, the stories do an excellent job in drawing you into their world and I particularly enjoyed From the Grave to the Grave and Restart. A must for sci-fi fans!
January 19, 2017
Wonderful.
I loved these stories both strange and beautiful and enjoyed meeting all the different characters in them. Thank you also for the ones at the end, also very good.
I loved these stories both strange and beautiful and enjoyed meeting all the different characters in them. Thank you also for the ones at the end, also very good.
November 14, 2019
You will find here a splendid mix of quality short stories. The author knows how to draw in a reader, but importantly, he also knows how to spin a yarn. Fantasy, horror, sci-fi and other strange goings-on make appearances.
The pace throughout is good, and every story is engaging and entertaining, so what’s not to like?
Dialogue, imagery, superb plots and brilliant endings from this collection will remain in the memory long after reading. For me, a sure sign of good creative writing. Highly recommended.
The pace throughout is good, and every story is engaging and entertaining, so what’s not to like?
Dialogue, imagery, superb plots and brilliant endings from this collection will remain in the memory long after reading. For me, a sure sign of good creative writing. Highly recommended.
March 28, 2020
L
Having read the herbalist and Alice in virtuality, I had to read this. I wasn't disappointing! Though the stories were short, they were engaging, drawing the reader in with ease ,and each one taking the mind in a new and different direction. Definitely for the fantasy and sci.to fans, but perhaps not so horrible for horror readers. All in all, a worth while read to get the mind thinking and pass some of the spare time covid19 has provided us with.
Having read the herbalist and Alice in virtuality, I had to read this. I wasn't disappointing! Though the stories were short, they were engaging, drawing the reader in with ease ,and each one taking the mind in a new and different direction. Definitely for the fantasy and sci.to fans, but perhaps not so horrible for horror readers. All in all, a worth while read to get the mind thinking and pass some of the spare time covid19 has provided us with.
June 23, 2019
Collection of short stories across the genres of horror, sci-fi, sci-fantasy, steam punk and more. Some appealed more than others. Some parts seemed a tad out of place, like the piece about critiquing (helpful, or a big fat hint- I couldn't decide). There were also a few contributions from other authors. I passed and enjoyable rainy afternoon/evening amongst these stories.
September 15, 2018
I love the way Norman Turrell writes. He could probably sell me a shopping list if he added enough detail. He drew me into the future very well, but I was expecting a bit more horror. Maybe I'm just bloody-thirsty. I'd recommend it to fans of Sci-Fi and Fantasy.
December 18, 2018
POINTS OF POSSIBILITY
Sometimes when I get a book with short stories, I know a few will stick in my head. In fairness, I know ahead of time that some of the stories I'm not going to appreciate as much. This book is the exception. All these shorts are good!
Sometimes when I get a book with short stories, I know a few will stick in my head. In fairness, I know ahead of time that some of the stories I'm not going to appreciate as much. This book is the exception. All these shorts are good!
February 27, 2019
Shorts, with possibilities for expansion
Dense snippets of story, infinite possibilities for future tales of other worlds, dimensions, and states of being. I found some tales ultimately disheartening!
Dense snippets of story, infinite possibilities for future tales of other worlds, dimensions, and states of being. I found some tales ultimately disheartening!
March 23, 2019
Fantastic
This book is great because it'd is interesting, creative, very well written, and has a terrific variety of topics in the stories. I love the way Tyrrell writes so much that after this book, I purchased two more by him!!!
This book is great because it'd is interesting, creative, very well written, and has a terrific variety of topics in the stories. I love the way Tyrrell writes so much that after this book, I purchased two more by him!!!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews