What do you think?
Rate this book
Scaring the Stars into Submission
A great, unnamed event.
A world both drowning and engulfed in flames.
Autopsies reveal gardens of lilies sprouting up inside the rib cages of the dead.
Clouds fall to the earth and affect the behavior of those that come in contact with them.
Revolution and violent uprisings spread through nations across the globe.
Twelve blind men in a basement transcribe the history of the world as it burns down around them.
Nightmares become reality; reality becomes nightmare.
Families turn to reluctant cannibalism in the hopes of waiting out the horrors beyond.
Corporations push to create a new population to replace the old one.
Philosophical musings from a balcony overlooking a dark, empty city.
A brief moment of something good between lovers as the world begins to slowly recover.
These are the stories before the event.
These are the stories during the event.
These are the stories after the event.
These are the stories of people coping and surviving, fighting to live, or fighting just to be doing something, anything.
The stories in this collection are brief moments, tiny pockets of surreal happenstance, but pure emotion. Each piece ties into the next by the tiniest filament, each story connected to the one before and the one after, each trying to hold on to some bit of normalcy, but failing in spectacular and terrifying ways.
This collection of stories is a blend of surrealist nightmare and dystopian science fiction.
Foreword by SK Kalsi, author of "The Stove-Junker."
A world both drowning and engulfed in flames.
Autopsies reveal gardens of lilies sprouting up inside the rib cages of the dead.
Clouds fall to the earth and affect the behavior of those that come in contact with them.
Revolution and violent uprisings spread through nations across the globe.
Twelve blind men in a basement transcribe the history of the world as it burns down around them.
Nightmares become reality; reality becomes nightmare.
Families turn to reluctant cannibalism in the hopes of waiting out the horrors beyond.
Corporations push to create a new population to replace the old one.
Philosophical musings from a balcony overlooking a dark, empty city.
A brief moment of something good between lovers as the world begins to slowly recover.
These are the stories before the event.
These are the stories during the event.
These are the stories after the event.
These are the stories of people coping and surviving, fighting to live, or fighting just to be doing something, anything.
The stories in this collection are brief moments, tiny pockets of surreal happenstance, but pure emotion. Each piece ties into the next by the tiniest filament, each story connected to the one before and the one after, each trying to hold on to some bit of normalcy, but failing in spectacular and terrifying ways.
This collection of stories is a blend of surrealist nightmare and dystopian science fiction.
Foreword by SK Kalsi, author of "The Stove-Junker."
- GenresFiction
354 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 2016
4 people are currently reading
918 people want to read
About the author
Adam Rodenberger
5 books61 followersAdam “Bucho” Rodenberger is an abstract artist and fiction writer from Kansas City, specializing in surrealism, dark fiction, horror, and dystopian stories. In 2009, he earned dual bachelor's degrees in English and Philosophy while minoring in Political Science at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He earned his MFA in Writing at the University of San Francisco in 2011.
He has been published in Agua Magazine, Alors, Et Tois?, Aphelion, Bluestem Magazine, BrainBox Magazine, Castabout Art & Literature, Cause & Effect Magazine, Cahoodaloodaling, Crack the Spine, Eunoia Review, Five Quarterly Magazine, Ginosko Literary Journal, Glint Literary Journal, The Gloom Cupboard, Hamilton Stone Review, The Heartland Review, Inlandia, L’allures des Mots, Lunch Box, Meat For Tea: The Valley Review, New Plains Review, Offbeatpulp, Penduline Press, Phoebe, Poydras Review, Punt Volat, The Santa Clara Review, Serving House Journal, The Seventh Wave, Sheepshead Review, Slice Magazine, The Raw Art Review, Up The Staircase, WAXING & WANING, Fox Spirit's "Girl at the End of the World: Book 1" anthology, and was shortlisted for the Almond Press “Broken Worlds” fiction contest
He has two novels in progress ("Impasto" & “Rise") and three short story collections from which numerous stories have been published: "Scaring the Stars into Submission," "The Machinery of the Heart: Love Stories," and his latest “Under a Black Rainbow.”
He is currently cobbling together a hybrid collection of fiction and non-fiction pieces on grief and its effect on the creative life called "An Atlas of Bone & Sorrow,” which he hopes to publish by 2025. He is also working on a new story collection of grimdark, surrealist horror fables called ".corpsegod."
His socials can be found at: https://linktr.ee/buchorodenberger
He has been published in Agua Magazine, Alors, Et Tois?, Aphelion, Bluestem Magazine, BrainBox Magazine, Castabout Art & Literature, Cause & Effect Magazine, Cahoodaloodaling, Crack the Spine, Eunoia Review, Five Quarterly Magazine, Ginosko Literary Journal, Glint Literary Journal, The Gloom Cupboard, Hamilton Stone Review, The Heartland Review, Inlandia, L’allures des Mots, Lunch Box, Meat For Tea: The Valley Review, New Plains Review, Offbeatpulp, Penduline Press, Phoebe, Poydras Review, Punt Volat, The Santa Clara Review, Serving House Journal, The Seventh Wave, Sheepshead Review, Slice Magazine, The Raw Art Review, Up The Staircase, WAXING & WANING, Fox Spirit's "Girl at the End of the World: Book 1" anthology, and was shortlisted for the Almond Press “Broken Worlds” fiction contest
He has two novels in progress ("Impasto" & “Rise") and three short story collections from which numerous stories have been published: "Scaring the Stars into Submission," "The Machinery of the Heart: Love Stories," and his latest “Under a Black Rainbow.”
He is currently cobbling together a hybrid collection of fiction and non-fiction pieces on grief and its effect on the creative life called "An Atlas of Bone & Sorrow,” which he hopes to publish by 2025. He is also working on a new story collection of grimdark, surrealist horror fables called ".corpsegod."
His socials can be found at: https://linktr.ee/buchorodenberger
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 20, 2017
Oh wow, the feels. My emotions ranged from intrigue and wanting more from the short stories, to wishing I hadn't realized what the flipping of the coin meant (vomit!!), to the heart wrenching sadness of death. The crazy part is all these things could happen. You know a book is good when you seriously plan on becoming a survivalist. How much water & canned food can I find room for?? How much wood can we fit on the patio?? I need to stop relying so heavily on electronics...
December 31, 2023
Emotional. Beautiful. Unsettling. I couldn't stop reading, though I did have to sit for a bit in between some of the stories just to catch my breath.
March 25, 2019
I would like to say that there is something in this book for everyone, but that is probably not a true statement. Read this book if you like dystopian fiction, surrealist landscapes and feeling generally unsettled. Personally, I am here for all of those things. Scaring the Stars into Submission was everything I wanted it to be. I cannot recommend it enough.
The over-arcing theme is that our world is no longer as it should be. We don’t know what the event was, only that it was cataclysmic for most. These stories are not only very different from one another, they are different from anything I have read. I can’t really describe the plot of the stories without ruining some of the magic. So I won’t.
Just know that some of these stories will stay with you.
The over-arcing theme is that our world is no longer as it should be. We don’t know what the event was, only that it was cataclysmic for most. These stories are not only very different from one another, they are different from anything I have read. I can’t really describe the plot of the stories without ruining some of the magic. So I won’t.
Just know that some of these stories will stay with you.
February 5, 2024
This book is a fantastic combination of short stories that all build a collective narrative without just saying what happened. There is no omniscient narrator to just give away the ending, the beginning or the middle. Instead, you find yourself roped in to a collective of dark stories that perpetuate a growing darkness.
I enjoyed this book to the point that I legitimately couldn't put it down. I found myself relying on street lights as if I were a kid playing his GameBoy to have just enough light to make out the words, I woke up early just so I could read in bed before my wife woke up.
This author has a voice of creating horror out of the familiar. A cloud, for example. It's just a cloud. But it's also something more. Something terrifying. And the real horror is not knowing exactly what it is. And yet, you don't want to know. These stories take you to a place that your mind is left to fill in the gaps, and it's more terrifying than reading ink on a page.
I enjoyed this book to the point that I legitimately couldn't put it down. I found myself relying on street lights as if I were a kid playing his GameBoy to have just enough light to make out the words, I woke up early just so I could read in bed before my wife woke up.
This author has a voice of creating horror out of the familiar. A cloud, for example. It's just a cloud. But it's also something more. Something terrifying. And the real horror is not knowing exactly what it is. And yet, you don't want to know. These stories take you to a place that your mind is left to fill in the gaps, and it's more terrifying than reading ink on a page.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews