Clockwork Phoenix: Tales of Beauty and Strangeness

by Mike Allen (Editor), Catherynne M. Valente, Tanith Lee

You hold in your hands a cornucopia of modern cutting-edge fantasy. The first volume of this extraordinary new annual anthology series of fantastic literature explodes on the scene with works that sidestep expectations in beautiful and unsettling ways, that surprise with their settings and startle with the manner in which they cross genre boundaries, that aren't afraid to experiment with storytelling techniques, and yet seamlessly blend form with meaningful function. The delectable offerings found within these pages come from some of today's most distinguished contemporary fantasists and brilliant rising newcomers.

Whether it's a touch of literary erudition, playful whimsy, extravagant style, or mind-blowing philosophical speculation and insight, the reader will be led into unfamiliar territory, there to find shock and delight.

Introducing CLOCKWORK PHOENIX.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Anthologies, Steampunk, Science Fiction Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror

286 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2008

About the author

Mike Allen wears many creative hats, at least one of them tailor-made by his wife and partner-in-crime Anita.

An author, editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy and horror, Mike has written, edited, or co-edited thirty-nine books, among them his forthcoming dark fantasy novel TRAIL OF SHADOWS, his sidearms, sorcery, and zombies sequence THE BLACK FIRE CONCERTO and THE GHOULMAKER’S ARIA, and his newest horror collection, SLOW BURN.

UNSEAMING and AFTERMATH OF AN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT, his first two volumes of horror tales, were both finalists for the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Story Collection, and his dark fable “The Button Bin” was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Another collection, THE SPIDER TAPESTRIES, contains experiments in weird science fiction and fantasy.

As an editor and publisher, Mike has been nominated twice for the World Fantasy Award: first, for his anthology CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 5, the culmination of the Clockwork Phoenix series showcasing tales of beauty and strangeness that defy genre classification; and then, for MYTHIC DELIRIUM, the magazine of poetry and fiction he edited for twenty years.

He’s a three-time winner of the Rhysling Award for poetry. His six poetry collections include STRANGE WISDOMS OF THE DEAD, a Philadelphia Inquirer Editor’s Choice selection, and HUNGRY CONSTELLATIONS, a Suzette Haden Elgin Award nominee.

With Anita, he runs Mythic Delirium Books, based in Roanoke, Virginia. Their cat Pandora assists.

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Tales of Beauty and Strangeness" is a perfect subtitle for this book, because it sums it up admirably. All of the stories are strange and beautiful in varying degrees: the first couple made me wonder if I was going to regret buying the three Clockwork Phoenix collections -- the first story is Catherynne M. Valente's, and it's very characteristic of her: too much so, in fact, like a distillation of all the richness of her writing into a morass.

But, happily, as I got further into the collection, I settled into it a lot more, and I was pretty happy with most of the stories. I think my favourite was Marie Brennan's "A Mask of Flesh", but as a collection, they're all good.

[Andreas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection leaves an uneven impression with ups and downs. There are some stories I liked but there are more I couldn't get into, even after giving some of them a second chance. However, I must applaud the editor Mike Allen for the interesting concept. Getting the reader out of the safety zone is an unusual and remarkable goal.

The stories in detail with the rating in brackets. My favorites are in bold.

Catherynne M. Valente, "The City of Blind Delight" (4/5)

I enjoyed the prose of Catherynne very much. However, the story itself was a little bit short to make a lasting impression.

David Sandner, "Old Foss is the Name of His Cat" (5/5)

Call me sentimental but this was a great story! In a fascinating way it reveals a deep relationship between a cat and an old man. I am not a big fan of cat stories so it was a pleasant surprise how the topic is dealt with.

John Grant, "All the Little Gods We Are" (1/5)

Not my cup of tea. Already the beginning left me grumbling: the protagonist makes a phone call and, surprise, he talks to himself. The life of his alter ego has been different, he still lives together with his one and true love... Harlan Ellison's creepy story "Shatterday" has a similar topic but goes into a different direction. John Grant rather tells (or tries to tell) a tale of romance and teenage love that couldn't touch me on an emotional level and that I found disappointing. I highly recommend Haruki Murakami instead, who is able to capture the magic of such love relationships much better.

Cat Rambo, "The Dew Drop Coffee Lounge" (5/5)

A man who works in a "Coffee Lounge" wonders about the behavior of a regular guest. His colleague has weird ideas and is eager to talk about them but the final truth is even more mysterious... A nice story providing insight into the human mind and bringing the characters to life. Very well done!

Leah Bobet, "Bell, Book, and Candle" (1/5)

I couldn't get into this story. I read it twice but it's simply too weird for me.

Michael J. DeLuca, "The Tarrying Messenger" (3/5)

This could have been a great story, there is much potential and two interesting characters, but unfortunately the author can't realize it. The main protagonist is a girl who travels with her bike. She is forced to question her religious belief, however, the plot is too constructed to be plausible and the end came too fast.

Laird Barron, "The Occultation" (2/5)

This is basically a horror story told in a style that didn't appeal to me. Already the first paragraph turned me off (I am pretty sure that the author has structured his story with the intention to reach a certain readership) but I read until the end. A man and a woman are laying next to each other in a lonely motel room and tell creepy tales. Something weird is going on in their room though... Other readers might enjoy the story, but not me.

Ekaterina Sedia, "There is a Monster Under Helen's Bed" (4/5)

Interesting story about a Siberian child who got adopted by an American family. Well told with good characters but the lack of communication, which would have revealed and resolved the conflicts quickly, puzzled me.

Cat Sparks, "Palisade" (2/5)

This is a science fiction story about clones or robots on a remote planet. There is one big problem that I have: the topic has been covered by other authors with much greater skill (Gene Wolfe comes to my mind, or Greg Egan when it comes to AI in general).

Tanith Lee, "The Woman" (2/5)

And another story that failed to impress. "The Woman" is the last woman in a world full of men, she is admired like a goddess and men (at least the hetero oriented) compete with each other to be allowed to pleasure her. The story is well told but feels empty. The world never comes alive and the conflicts of the protagonists didn't grab me.

Marie Brennan, "A Mask of Flesh" (5/5)

This is one of my favorite stories in this collection. The shape shifting protagonist tries to take revenge for the things done to her people. Everything fits together, from the original hero to the exotic (Aztetic) setting and the interesting plot. Recommended!

Jennifer Crow, "Seven Scenes from Harrai's Sacred Mountain" (1/5)

In small pieces, the impact of the "Sacred Mountain" on the life of the people is described. This story didn't do much for me.

Vandana Singh, "Oblivion: A Journey" (3/5)

"Oblivion" is a rather flat revenge story, jumping through space and time. I was reminded of the "Demon Prince" series by Jack Vance, where a similar topic is covered. The basic idea and the solution to the riddle is well done, but too many parts felt rushed and suffered under the fact that a short story simply cannot provide enough room.

John C. Wright, "Choosers of the Slain" (4/5)

A hero is offered a life in the far future, offering him endless pleasures and a well deserved retirement. If he stays, he will be very likely killed by the events that are going to follow. What does he choose? John C. Wright brings up an interesting point and I enjoyed the execution of the story. Well done.

C.S. MacCath, "Akhila, Divided" (5/5)

My favourite story - a breathtaking combination of modern warfare, revenge and all too human decisions. The protagonist is a being with immense power who has finally decided to die. The people who find her, priests, are struggled by her sight. She is THE enemy and it's hard to overcome prejudices... A powerful story that explores the hidden darkness that can lurk inside the human soul. Highly recommended!

Joanna Galbraith, "The Moon-Keeper's Friend" (1/5)

A weird story about the moon. I couldn't jump over my shadow of disbelief (the moon is doing WHAT during the day???) and found the story boring.

Deborah Biancotti, "The Tailor of Time" (2/5)

The tailor of time (has to be taken literally) is asked to stop the time for a short period... Another weird story, which ultimately failed to impress me. Too experimental but it deserves its place in this collection.

Erin Hoffman, "Root and Vein" (5/5)

This is another favourite of mine. A strange and wonderful tale about a dryad and her three hearts. She gives her hearts to various persons but only one is able to tell her about their true nature and what it means to be a dryad. Recommended.

[Metaphorosis · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars - Metaphorosis Reviews

An anthology of speculative fiction edited by Mike Allen.

I've been seeing these anthologies for a while now, and been intrigued. [Full disclosure: I submitted several stories to later editions, and was soundly rejected.] So, when I saw them all for sale, I took a chance and bought them all. Win some, lose some.

I expected to like these stories. There are lots of big names here - some I've read, some I haven't. I wanted to like them. The feeling I got from what I'd heard was promising. Only ... I didn't like them. There's a striking sameness to them - the stories feel stilted and formal, they don't finish clearly, and they all lean toward the grotesque. There are a surprising number of characters cutting themselves open here. There are several stories in the "if there's fucking, it must be literary" group and the related "gritty equals meaningful" group.

In his editorial note, Mike Allen says he's tired both of the 'good story well told' and of stories that don't feel complete, and sought a middle ground. I'm sorry to say he missed, and leaned much further toward the latter than the former. As I read further and further, I grew more and more disheartened, and more eager to find at least one story I really liked, and not just in relative terms. I'm sorry to say I failed, and it's with some dread that I think about the remaining four anthologies - paid for, and thus to be read at some point.

In the meantime, here are the stories I found most interesting:

Bell, Book, and Candle by Leah Bobet - seemingly archetypal characters resist playing their traditional roles
Root and Vein by Erin Hoffman - a moody story about a dryad who gives away her heart.
The City of Blind Delight by Catherynne M. Valente - a train brings a man to an unusual city
The Tailor of Time by Deborah Biancotti - the Tailor of Time tries to extend a day.


The anthology has a distinctive, consistent voice, but it's not one I cared much for. It's not just that the stories are grotesque; that can be interesting. It's that very few of them felt as if they told a clear story. Some I really had to struggle to get through. I sometimes like an ornate style, but many of these were overwritten. If you know that you like several of these authors, by all means give it a try. But if you're new to them, and just looking for a satisfying read, I can't recommend this collection.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a really bad anthology reader so I only read Catherynne Valente and Leah Bobet in this. Basically I'm just hunting down Leah Bobet's short fiction because she only has one novel so far and I need more Leah Bobet in my life.

[Tyrannosaurus regina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this anthology did exactly what it set out to do, and among the contributors are some of my very favourite authors, yet somehow this just wasn't the book for me. Many of the stories were just too insubstantial, or I didn't connect with their particular style. However, I loved (loved, loved) "The Woman", and "Oblivion: A Journey" was another standout.

[Bridgett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very unusual collection of mostly sci-fi tales. A bit depressing. My favorite story was "All the Little Gods We Are."

[Terri]

It pains me to say this b/c I love the Clockwork Phoenix series, but this was a DNF for me. The stories were mostly all very dark, most were too ambiguous/weren't really clear to me what was happening, and a high number had sexual violence against women and girls (with no trigger warnings for any of those stories). I got to Akhila Divided, by C.S. MacCath which contains a VERY graphic and violent rape and was done (there are only three stories left after that).

As always, the writing in all the stories is lovely and the stories are all strange and mostly beautiful; but this collection felt dark and full of pain, unlike Clockwork Phoenix 5 which still remains my favorite of the collection. (So, nothing against the collection/book; this is a matter of personal taste entirely and, at the moment, my taste is not for dark fiction).

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mike Allen's collection of oddities by authors both known and unknown came highly recommended to me, since it's right up my alley. I tend to be leery of shorts/ anthologies though. It's a lot harder to get twenty stories right than it is to just get one, in my opinion.
Allen does a nice job of picking stories that deliver- at least in mood if not always other areas. All of the stories of this anthology have something to recommend them to readers of my admittedly eclectic tastes. I also found it interesting that the one person who seemed to agree with my choices regarding the best stories in this anthology is the person who recommended it to me in the first place; other reviewers seem to have disagreed. So, a few words on the ones I liked most and why:
- All the Little Gods We Are- This is the kind of bittersweet I like in my fiction, and the premise, while having been done before, is beautifully pulled off by the author.
- Oblivion by Vandana Singh- What I liked most about this story was the sheer amount of information I received about the universe, a sort of science fantasy type deal heavily influenced by Indian culture, while enjoying a well-told and complex plot.
- The Woman by Tanith Lee- This went well with the previous books I've read this last month, with a slight dystopian flare and a tinge of sadness at the edges.
I would recommend this to anyone with a similar library to mine, especially if you like lyrical or strange prose and characters.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Woeful.

"Clockwork Phoenix" bills itself as being a collection of "Tales of Beauty and Strangeness." With a single exception (and a few also-ran's) the authors of this anthology wouldn't know beauty and strangeness if it clubbed them over the head with a sledgehammer. The book suffers from what was, in retrospect, a foreseeable problem: the desire to be "strange" and "beautiful" at the expense of having either a good plot, well developed characters, or a combination of the two. This shirking of the most basic of responsibilities for an author are compounded by two additional problems: 1) the majority of writers seem not to have the slightest concept of (let alone interest in) what actually constitutes "beauty," and 2) many, though not all, have relegated "strangeness" to mean a puerile interest in sex or other bodily functions.

John C. Wright's "Choosers of the Slain" is the single highlight of this book. Wright is a masterful author and one of the best working in genre fiction today. Strictly speaking this is not among his best offerings but it still stands head and shoulders over every other contributed work in this book, including those by Tanith Lee and Laird Barron.

The other stories range from being something you'd find in an undergraduate creative writing course (Hoffman's "Root and Vein," for example) to being mediocre (Brennan's "A Mask of Flesh" and Singh's "Oblivion: A Journey"). The rest of the stories don't merit mention.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

There have been several annuals/journals that boasted this claim - cutting edge fantasy, genre-pushing, etc. Interfictions, Unstuck to name a couple. The thing is, none of these, in my opinion, has actually come out and made good on their claims. The stories inside come across bland, uninspiring, as if authors submitted their trunk stories to these journals and saved the truly exciting stuff for publications like Clarkesworld, Apex. I have yet to read the (retired) annual Polyphony, so hopefully that proves more interesting.

You want cutting-edge? The Best American Fantasy series (also retired) was good, because it combined the best of "genre" and "literary" fantasy and science fiction (published in all sorts of venues) in one place. It seems a similar idea is forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, edited by John Joseph Adams, forthcoming in October 2015, so look out for that. Also read Tin House's Fantastic Women issue for more of the same - authors who don't need some themed publication to push them to write cutting-edge, unique, voice-driven, genre-pushing fantasy and science fiction; authors who write what they want and get it published wherever, whereupon we readers can spread the news about what's best).

That's all.

(The lone "tales of beauty" in this issue were by Catherynne Valente and Jennifer Crow.)

[Eliška · Rating 4 out of 5]

Partway through this anthology, I wasn't really sure I enjoyed it. Most of the stories are really well-written and emotionally hard-hitting; they tend towards vignettes on topics that are not generally explored in traditional sci-fi or fantasy. If I had to classify most of the stories into one genre, they would be in "gritty fantasy" or "mythic sci-fi".

These are not stories that you read because they make you feel good. They are stories you read because they make you feel, full-stop, and because they make you think. In his comments at the end, the editor makes a reference to stories "leaving [an] emotional crater...to remember them by." That's exactly what these stories leave, and I'm fairly sure that I enjoyed it. Not sure I'd read this again, but it was a worthwhile read.

Stories I most particularly enjoyed:

The Dew Drop Coffee Lounge, Cat Rambo
Palisade, Cat Sparks
The Woman, Tanith Lee
A Mask of Flesh, Marie Brennan
Choosers of the Slain, John C. Wright
Akhila, Divided, C.S. MacCath
The Tailor of Time, Deborah Biancotti
Root and Vein, Erin Hoffman

[Cat Sheely · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this for some time and finally got around to reading the anthology. I found most of the stories interesting and certainly diverse. I loved Ian McHugh's Angel Dust and Leah bobet's 'Six'. I was also very much drawn into the story 'Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela' by Saladin Ahmed. There were a couple of stories that I found a little inaccessible like 'The Secret History of Mirrors' and 'Never Nor Ever' but that is more something about my taste in short stories rather than their quality.

If you are after something different in the sphere of speculative fiction than I highly recommend this anthology.

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aptly named, tales of beauty and strangeness indeed. Mix of fantasy and science fiction, all of them quite accomplished and lovely. Two that stand out the most in my mind are "The Woman" by Tanith Lee, a melancholy tale of how it would feel to be the last woman left on earth, and "All the Little Gods We Are" by John Grant - completely unexpected, a memorable, moving story about a boy meeting his soul-twin.

[Meredith is a hot mess]

Plan on reading:

• The Woman by Tanith Lee

• A Mask of Flesh by Marie Brennan

• Root and Vein by Erin Hoffman

Maybe read:

Bell, Book, and Candle by Leah Bobet

Oblivion: A Journey by Vandana Singh

Choosers of the Slain by John C. Wright

Akhila, Divided by C.S. MacCath

[Izlinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a little too tired right now to write a more comprehensive review, but I definitely loved this book! I'm glad I put it on my Amazon.com Wish List and more glad my sister and brother-in-law got it for me for Christmas!! YAY!

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not every story here was my particular cup of tea, this is still an amazing and gorgeous collection over all. I loved many of these odd little stories and am eager to read the rest of the series!

[Autumn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing collection with a little bit of everything but all done with great quality of writing. There was not one dull story. Like eating a box of expensive chocolates but having no idea what kind I'd be biting into. I will be purchasing the next two books and awaiting the release of the 4th!

[Efseine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a big consumer of short stories, but many of these were well-written and full of interesting ideas.

[Mills College Library]

Fiction C643 2008

[Tehani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found many stories a little hard to get into - mostly all well crafted but not my thing, generally.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

An uneven collection. Some gems hidden away in the middle.

[Lostaccount · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not that interesting. Boring prosy stories.