Time Travelers, Ghosts, and Other Visitors

by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

The Skeleton Key • (1993) • novella
Objects of Desire • (1998) • shortstory
Unleashed • (1991) • shortstory
Mint Condition • (2001) • novelette
Night Life • (2000) • shortstory
Entertaining Possibilities • (2003) • shortstory
Toobychubbies • (1999) • shortstory
Haunted Humans • (1994) • novella
Egg Shells • (2000) • shortstory

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fiction, Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, Collections

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Nina Kiriki Hoffman’s first solo novel, The Thread That Binds the Bones (1993), won the Bram Stoker Award for first novel; her second novel, The Silent Strength of Stones (1995) was a finalist for the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards. A Red Heart of Memories (1999, part of her “Matt Black” series), nominated for a World Fantasy Award, was followed by sequel Past the Size of Dreaming in 2001. Much of her work to date is short fiction, including “Matt Black” novella “Unmasking” (1992), nominated for a World Fantasy Award; and “Matt Black” novelette “Home for Christmas” (1995), nominated for the Nebula, World Fantasy, and Sturgeon awards. In addition to writing, Hoffman has taught, worked part-time at a B. Dalton bookstore, and done production work on The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. An accomplished fiddle player, she has played regularly at various granges near her home in Eugene, Oregon.

Reviews

[Ha Vu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give this book 4 ⭐ for Haunted Humans alone - brilliant novella. Fast pacing, creative and engaging.
The other short stories and novellas are sometimes quite weird to me as I don't read fantasy a lot, but they are so weirdly good. I wish some of them were longer (such as Unleashed) because I cared about and wanted to know more about the characters. It's not easy at all to build a character that readers root for them despite the limited time readers have over the span of short stories, so compliments to the chef ✨

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Received by BRAND NEW copy in October of 2003... yay
re read 8/31/2011 - 9/9/2011

♦"The Skeleton Key" 11/8/2001 RE-read 8/16/2015
♦Objects of Desire read 10/20/2003 re-READ 8/18/2015
♦Unleashed read 10/21/2003 RE-read 11/13/2015
♦Mint Condition RE-read 11/7/2015
♦Night Life read 10/22/2003 RE-read 11/8/2015
♦Entertaining Possibilities NEW to this new collection !!! read 10/23/2003 RE-read 11/9/2015
♦Toobychubbies read 10/24/2003 RE-read 11/10/2015
♦"Haunted Humans" RE-read 8/1/2015
♦Egg Shells A NEW STORY to me read 10/17/2003 RE-read 11/11/2015

[Penelope · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the way through this short story collection I felt I was in the hands of a word magician ~ just when I thought I knew where things were heading, there was a twist or something unseen revealed that changed my point of view. Not so much fantasy as magic realism. These stories could be happening here and now in the real world, but the way the characters see the world starts to affect the way you see the world, too.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Haunted Humans” is a very unusual and original ghost/ mystery/ thriller novella. DJ is the receptionist for psychologists where she meets Morgan who appears to have multiple personalities. Instead, he’s got multiple ghosts—Clift a professor, Saul a New Jersey lech and suicide, Gary the detective who arrested the killer that’s after DJ again.

“The Skeleton Key” is about a girl who prays to and does rituals for Hermes, who comes to her aid when Satanists try to sacrifice her.

“Toobychubbies” is a hilarious satire about television substituting for good parenting – and a certain young children’s show being the vanguard of an alien invasion.

[Haley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had this book on hold and it came in and I started reading it... only to find that I had read it before. So I moved on to the next story, and I had read it as well! I'm so confused. I've read all of these short stories, but don't remember ever getting a book by this title. So, since this is a collection of NKH stories, the only thing I can think of is that I read them all somewhere else, individually. Oh well! Anything by NKH is worth reading again, anyways.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of short stories mostly strays away from the themes of Hoffman's novels, instead exploring time travel and alien technology, among other subjects. I was a little bit disappointed, as I didn't feel like most of these stories had the same spark as her novels. The longest story in the collection, though, "Haunted Humans," was very good.

[Corinne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a compendium of short stories by Nina K. Hoffman. By far the best is "the skeleton key" which combines greek history (the god Hermes), sartanic sacrifice and a ghost together. The other stories are also nicely written and I think the author is full of fantastical ideas and I can't wait to read more of her!

[Cindywho · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a huge short stories fan, but I'll read them if I've liked other things by the author. This collection is true to its name, but I also noticed that almost all of them had the theme of violation with protagonists suffering torture, murder, stalking and alien mind invasion. Creepy!

[kvon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mint Condition is the one that stuck most with me, of a betrayed time agent. No stories with the kids from her series.