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Monsters: Four Stories
A quartet of dark fantasies featuring vampires, ghosts, murderers, and Morlock Ambrosius.
77 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 15, 2016
3 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
About the author
James Enge
48 books158 followersJames Enge lives in northwest Ohio with his wife and a philosophic dog-detective. He teaches Latin and mythology at a medium-sized public university. His stories (frequently featuring Morlock Ambrosius) have appeared in
Black Gate
, in the Stabby-Award-winning
Blackguards
, in
Tales from the Magicians's Skull
, in
F&SF
, and elsewhere. His first novel,
Blood of Ambrose
was nominated for the World Fantasy Award in 2010 and its French translation was shortlisted for the Prix Imaginales in 2011.
Look for more Morlock stories this year in Tales from the Magician's Skull and Old Moon Quarterly .
You can reach James Enge on Twitter (as jamesenge) or, if all else fails, via (jamesenge.com).
Look for more Morlock stories this year in Tales from the Magician's Skull and Old Moon Quarterly .
You can reach James Enge on Twitter (as jamesenge) or, if all else fails, via (jamesenge.com).
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 19, 2018
Enge is a thoughtful writer. I don't enjoy every story, but all are well-written. My favorite is the Vergil Magus story.
December 3, 2019
A clever set of fantastic short stories from James Enge!
I encountered James Enge through Goodman Games' "Tales From The Magician's Skull," and loved his " Morlock Ambrosius" stories, so I needed to dig a little deeper. So I started reading anthologies of his short stories - I always feel that if one wants to appreciate the true depth of an author, go for the short stories, which require so much more skill to conjure. I was not disappointed! These 4 are great! The first, "Brother Solson and Sister Luna" (points for the St. Francis reference in the title) is a piece of postapocalyptic flash fiction with vampires . . . and a monster. "War Beneath the World" is fantasy set in an alternate ancient Rome, and drawing on medieval traditions that Vergil was a sorcerer of some sort - and Enge is a fellow Latinist, so you can trust him to do this right! (His notes about the inspirations for this one sent me down an Amazon rabbithole and expanded my Wishlist). "Killionaire" is more speculative, sci-fi . . . and its horror seems all too plausible. The last story, "Traveller's Rest," is a Morlock Ambrosius story, with a really horrific " lifemaker" antagonist. I highly recommend this and Enge's other fiction!
I encountered James Enge through Goodman Games' "Tales From The Magician's Skull," and loved his " Morlock Ambrosius" stories, so I needed to dig a little deeper. So I started reading anthologies of his short stories - I always feel that if one wants to appreciate the true depth of an author, go for the short stories, which require so much more skill to conjure. I was not disappointed! These 4 are great! The first, "Brother Solson and Sister Luna" (points for the St. Francis reference in the title) is a piece of postapocalyptic flash fiction with vampires . . . and a monster. "War Beneath the World" is fantasy set in an alternate ancient Rome, and drawing on medieval traditions that Vergil was a sorcerer of some sort - and Enge is a fellow Latinist, so you can trust him to do this right! (His notes about the inspirations for this one sent me down an Amazon rabbithole and expanded my Wishlist). "Killionaire" is more speculative, sci-fi . . . and its horror seems all too plausible. The last story, "Traveller's Rest," is a Morlock Ambrosius story, with a really horrific " lifemaker" antagonist. I highly recommend this and Enge's other fiction!
July 20, 2019
3 of the 4 stories in this collection provided a certain strength that was appreciable. Overall, I thought this was a decent way to pass the time...I just had to accept that it seemed to be style over substance.
The flash fiction was basically I am Legend whittled down to a handful of pages and extremely predictable. It did a pretty good job of accomplishing what it set out to do though and the character was developed quickly. I thought this was the high point of the collection from a character standpoint.
The next story unfortunately starts off with a misuse of the word pungent as a modifier for the color blue. I was so bothered by this that I even tried to look online for any alternative definitions that would explain it, but alas, I found none. The story then proceeded to unfold with known historical figures such as Julius Caesar and Vergil as well as mythological figures such as Charon and the furies. I'm personally not a fan of using history as a crutch like this, but can accept it when a decent level of characterization is present such as The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. The characterization was neglected here, so it was basically a Greek episode of Scooby Doo for me. It had its flavor, but I didn't enjoy it much and it was also very predictable.
The third story, Killionaire, was the one I liked least. I thought it was a very shallow sociological attempt to call capitalists bad guys while also just changing the names of things like internet to alternet and pretending it's the future. Once again, very predictable, but unfortunately I thought this one lacked the attention to the world from the second story and the characterization from the first.
The fourth story was a side story following a couple characters from the author's main series (which I have not read). It's basically Sherlock Holmes and Watson except with as a wizard and a dwarf. If that sounds good to you, then you might enjoy it. I thought it was somewhat interesting and had some nice dialogue in particular. I thought it was also exceedingly predictable like the other stories, but at least here there was enough decoration on the story to keep me through the end.
I can't really say I'd recommend this to anyone off the top of my head. I only read it on a whim since I was in the mood for a short story collection. Maybe in the future I'll pick up the first book of Wizard Sherlock and see where it goes.
The flash fiction was basically I am Legend whittled down to a handful of pages and extremely predictable. It did a pretty good job of accomplishing what it set out to do though and the character was developed quickly. I thought this was the high point of the collection from a character standpoint.
The next story unfortunately starts off with a misuse of the word pungent as a modifier for the color blue. I was so bothered by this that I even tried to look online for any alternative definitions that would explain it, but alas, I found none. The story then proceeded to unfold with known historical figures such as Julius Caesar and Vergil as well as mythological figures such as Charon and the furies. I'm personally not a fan of using history as a crutch like this, but can accept it when a decent level of characterization is present such as The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. The characterization was neglected here, so it was basically a Greek episode of Scooby Doo for me. It had its flavor, but I didn't enjoy it much and it was also very predictable.
The third story, Killionaire, was the one I liked least. I thought it was a very shallow sociological attempt to call capitalists bad guys while also just changing the names of things like internet to alternet and pretending it's the future. Once again, very predictable, but unfortunately I thought this one lacked the attention to the world from the second story and the characterization from the first.
The fourth story was a side story following a couple characters from the author's main series (which I have not read). It's basically Sherlock Holmes and Watson except with as a wizard and a dwarf. If that sounds good to you, then you might enjoy it. I thought it was somewhat interesting and had some nice dialogue in particular. I thought it was also exceedingly predictable like the other stories, but at least here there was enough decoration on the story to keep me through the end.
I can't really say I'd recommend this to anyone off the top of my head. I only read it on a whim since I was in the mood for a short story collection. Maybe in the future I'll pick up the first book of Wizard Sherlock and see where it goes.
December 4, 2025
I have been waffling as to whether or not to give this one the forth star...
I bought it solely for the Morlock Ambrosius novelette, “Traveller’s Rest”, which was well worth it in itself. The three other stories are:
“Brother Solson and Sister Luna” is a very short story with an amusing surprise ending.
“War Beneath the World” is a very creative tale about Vergil, or Vergilius, along the lines of Middle Ages legends of his being a sorcerer as well as a poet. Very humorous and worth the price in itself.
“Killionaire” This story is straight-up sociological science fiction—maybe something that would have been more at home in the fiction markets of the 1950s or 1960s than it is nowadays.
On the downside, there's no navigation, which isn't terrible in such a short book, but annoying anyway
I bought it solely for the Morlock Ambrosius novelette, “Traveller’s Rest”, which was well worth it in itself. The three other stories are:
“Brother Solson and Sister Luna” is a very short story with an amusing surprise ending.
“War Beneath the World” is a very creative tale about Vergil, or Vergilius, along the lines of Middle Ages legends of his being a sorcerer as well as a poet. Very humorous and worth the price in itself.
“Killionaire” This story is straight-up sociological science fiction—maybe something that would have been more at home in the fiction markets of the 1950s or 1960s than it is nowadays.
On the downside, there's no navigation, which isn't terrible in such a short book, but annoying anyway
July 23, 2019
This is a fine little collection; liked every story very much. In fact, the more I read of Enge the more I'm impressed. i'm really looking forward to hitting the novels.
December 19, 2016
James Enge delivers
These four tales are excellent. "War Beneath the Worlds" is fantastic - would love to read more in this same genre (?) and hope Enge writes more here. "Killionaire" is a Black Mirror story if I ever read one (pay attention, Netflix!" And of course, "Travellers Rest" is a Morlock tale and therefore fantastic by default. Loved the flash fiction Vampire piece as well. More please?
These four tales are excellent. "War Beneath the Worlds" is fantastic - would love to read more in this same genre (?) and hope Enge writes more here. "Killionaire" is a Black Mirror story if I ever read one (pay attention, Netflix!" And of course, "Travellers Rest" is a Morlock tale and therefore fantastic by default. Loved the flash fiction Vampire piece as well. More please?
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews