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Metaphorosis 2019: The Complete Stories
Beautifully written speculative fiction from Metaphorosis magazine.
Fifty-two great science fiction and fantasy stories. All the stories we published in 2019.
Fifty-two great science fiction and fantasy stories. All the stories we published in 2019.
774 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 1, 2020
1 person is currently reading
3 people want to read
About the author
B. Morris Allen
163 books25 followersB. Morris Allen is a biochemist turned activist turned lawyer turned foreign aid consultant, and frequently wonders whether it's time for a new career. He's been traveling since birth, and has lived on five continents. When he can, he makes his home on the Oregon coast. In between journeys, he edits Metaphorosis magazine, and works on his own speculative stories of love and disaster. His dark fantasy novel Susurrus came out in 2017.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 15, 2020
NOTE: I won a free eBook copy of this book in EPUB format from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers (February 2020).
I began reading this collection not knowing what to expect, as I was unfamiliar with speculative fiction. I ended up enjoying it thoroughly and found it an inspiration for my own writing. As this is such a diverse collection in terms of subject matter, style, and tone, I recorded my reactions to each short story individually:
(1) "The Book of Regrets:" A cautionary tale about undoing one's mistakes. The obvious solution presented at the story's end comes unexpectedly.
(2) "Five Star Review:”
Sometimes, the unknown is worth the risk.
(3) "Two Villains, a Notebook, and a Lump of Coal:”
This one felt like it could have been spun into a novel. Where are the villains going to go and what are they going to do now that they’ve met their goals?
(4) "Snapped Dry, Scraped Clean:
A confrontation between the familiar and the supernatural. I felt that this actually took place in our own world, though the exact location was obscure due to the fantastical elements.
(5) "The Lightkeeper’s Wife:”
What’s bad for one Selkie is good for another.
(6) "The Soul Farmer’s Daughters:” Oh, the struggles of raising our children as the centuries pass . . .
(7) "The Bear Wife:” I started by reading this as a metaphor for postpartum depression, which created an interesting reading experience. . . .
(8) "Mean Streak:” Who are the real witches, really?
(9) "Pleasing the Giants:” I felt the final punchline coming halfway through the story. . . .
(10) "Absurd of a Feather:” Puberty gone wrong."
(11) "The Noise Inside:” Ok, I didn’t really get this one. Kind of vague and abstract when it didn’t need to be.
(12) "L’Appel du Vide:” Great for anyone facing an existential crisis.
(13) "The Color of My Home is Red Like an Apple:” Were the Americans and the Russians behind this?
(14) "A Yellow Landscape:” We know where we belong, even if others don’t.
(15) "Forever and a Life:” Call them heroes, call them villains; either way, the agenda is never what you’d expect.
(16) "With Eyes Half Open:” For me, very relevant and timely. A great cautionary tale about perspective.
(17) "A Sacrifice for the Queen:” Caught a faint whiff of “The Handmaid’s Tale” in the vat of alien/machine rule. But maybe my sense of smell is off.
(18) "Somewhere To Be Going:” For children and parents everywhere.
(19) "One For The Wounded:” A bit long, but the lesson this teaches is a great one.
(20) "In the Beating of a Wing:” Another great story about perspective.
(21) "The Memory Dresser:” The grass is always greener on the other side and through the looking glass.
(22) "Unmasked:” Loved the moral gray areas in this one.
(23) "Country Whispers:” The only thing worse than a vicious cycle is knowing you enabled it.
(24) "The Thousand Revolutions of Kronstadt:” Historical fiction-like, with elements that reminded me of “Run Lola Run.”
(25) "Las Vegas Museum of Space Exploration:” Loved the style of this one. So creative!
(26) "The Girls Who Come Back Are Made Of Metal And Glass:” I don’t have a succinct summary or reflection for this one, but it made me think about how different people approach the prospect of death.
(27) "One Day In Space Too Many:” “Groundhog Day” on steroids.
(28) "A Layer As Thin As Breath:” Delightfully quirky and sad.
(29) "Communication Breakdown:” I was kind of surprised by the relative brevity of this one. I felt like the story had room to expand.
(30) "The Offshore:” An interesting take on an aspect of how the top 1% choose to operate.
(31) "Never Fade Away:” Old ladies to the rescue?
(32) "A Bear, or a Spider, or an Elephant:” Didn’t really get this one.
(33) "The Last Duty:” When the loser doesn’t want to be remembered as the villain.
(34) "The Propagator:” If “The Handmaid’s Tale” was set in Houston, this might be how it could have turned out for the Econo-People. Loved it!
(35) "There Is A City, He Told Me:” Storytelling transcends generations.
(36) "Some Sun and Delilah:” A contemporary Adam & Eve tale, perhaps.
(37) "Favorites from Here and Abroad:” This one left me with more questions than answers.
(38) "A Final Resting Place:” There is a way out.
(39) "The Guardian of Werifest Park:” Decent concept; found the execution a little lacking.
(40) "Darling:” Not sure that I really got this one.
(41) "Misalignment:” A new perspective on mental illness and perfectionism.
(42) "The Season of Withering:” This felt like a chapter from a longer saga.
(43) "Super:” Strength comes from unexpected places.
(44) "Rooks on Sundays:” A vignette about the winter of life and of relationships.
(45) "Via Dolorosa:” Nice blend of female validation with mysticism.
(46) "A Time For Understanding:” A must-read for animal lovers.
(47) "Fur and Feathers:” We can fight change, or accept it.
(48) "The Lonely King:” When you’ve been made redundant, you get creative.
(49) "The Martian In the Greenhouse:” Really freaky, but engrossing.
(50) "What Lies In Light:” Walk into the light of love.
(51) "The Dybbuk:” A folksy tale of atonement.
(52) "Notes from the Laocoön Program:” This quote:
“I have made a ruin of my life and for nothing at all, for a feeling that I am unloved and must stay that way forever. Perhaps the measure of life is how kind we are.
And I have not been kind.”"
I began reading this collection not knowing what to expect, as I was unfamiliar with speculative fiction. I ended up enjoying it thoroughly and found it an inspiration for my own writing. As this is such a diverse collection in terms of subject matter, style, and tone, I recorded my reactions to each short story individually:
(1) "The Book of Regrets:" A cautionary tale about undoing one's mistakes. The obvious solution presented at the story's end comes unexpectedly.
(2) "Five Star Review:”
Sometimes, the unknown is worth the risk.
(3) "Two Villains, a Notebook, and a Lump of Coal:”
This one felt like it could have been spun into a novel. Where are the villains going to go and what are they going to do now that they’ve met their goals?
(4) "Snapped Dry, Scraped Clean:
A confrontation between the familiar and the supernatural. I felt that this actually took place in our own world, though the exact location was obscure due to the fantastical elements.
(5) "The Lightkeeper’s Wife:”
What’s bad for one Selkie is good for another.
(6) "The Soul Farmer’s Daughters:” Oh, the struggles of raising our children as the centuries pass . . .
(7) "The Bear Wife:” I started by reading this as a metaphor for postpartum depression, which created an interesting reading experience. . . .
(8) "Mean Streak:” Who are the real witches, really?
(9) "Pleasing the Giants:” I felt the final punchline coming halfway through the story. . . .
(10) "Absurd of a Feather:” Puberty gone wrong."
(11) "The Noise Inside:” Ok, I didn’t really get this one. Kind of vague and abstract when it didn’t need to be.
(12) "L’Appel du Vide:” Great for anyone facing an existential crisis.
(13) "The Color of My Home is Red Like an Apple:” Were the Americans and the Russians behind this?
(14) "A Yellow Landscape:” We know where we belong, even if others don’t.
(15) "Forever and a Life:” Call them heroes, call them villains; either way, the agenda is never what you’d expect.
(16) "With Eyes Half Open:” For me, very relevant and timely. A great cautionary tale about perspective.
(17) "A Sacrifice for the Queen:” Caught a faint whiff of “The Handmaid’s Tale” in the vat of alien/machine rule. But maybe my sense of smell is off.
(18) "Somewhere To Be Going:” For children and parents everywhere.
(19) "One For The Wounded:” A bit long, but the lesson this teaches is a great one.
(20) "In the Beating of a Wing:” Another great story about perspective.
(21) "The Memory Dresser:” The grass is always greener on the other side and through the looking glass.
(22) "Unmasked:” Loved the moral gray areas in this one.
(23) "Country Whispers:” The only thing worse than a vicious cycle is knowing you enabled it.
(24) "The Thousand Revolutions of Kronstadt:” Historical fiction-like, with elements that reminded me of “Run Lola Run.”
(25) "Las Vegas Museum of Space Exploration:” Loved the style of this one. So creative!
(26) "The Girls Who Come Back Are Made Of Metal And Glass:” I don’t have a succinct summary or reflection for this one, but it made me think about how different people approach the prospect of death.
(27) "One Day In Space Too Many:” “Groundhog Day” on steroids.
(28) "A Layer As Thin As Breath:” Delightfully quirky and sad.
(29) "Communication Breakdown:” I was kind of surprised by the relative brevity of this one. I felt like the story had room to expand.
(30) "The Offshore:” An interesting take on an aspect of how the top 1% choose to operate.
(31) "Never Fade Away:” Old ladies to the rescue?
(32) "A Bear, or a Spider, or an Elephant:” Didn’t really get this one.
(33) "The Last Duty:” When the loser doesn’t want to be remembered as the villain.
(34) "The Propagator:” If “The Handmaid’s Tale” was set in Houston, this might be how it could have turned out for the Econo-People. Loved it!
(35) "There Is A City, He Told Me:” Storytelling transcends generations.
(36) "Some Sun and Delilah:” A contemporary Adam & Eve tale, perhaps.
(37) "Favorites from Here and Abroad:” This one left me with more questions than answers.
(38) "A Final Resting Place:” There is a way out.
(39) "The Guardian of Werifest Park:” Decent concept; found the execution a little lacking.
(40) "Darling:” Not sure that I really got this one.
(41) "Misalignment:” A new perspective on mental illness and perfectionism.
(42) "The Season of Withering:” This felt like a chapter from a longer saga.
(43) "Super:” Strength comes from unexpected places.
(44) "Rooks on Sundays:” A vignette about the winter of life and of relationships.
(45) "Via Dolorosa:” Nice blend of female validation with mysticism.
(46) "A Time For Understanding:” A must-read for animal lovers.
(47) "Fur and Feathers:” We can fight change, or accept it.
(48) "The Lonely King:” When you’ve been made redundant, you get creative.
(49) "The Martian In the Greenhouse:” Really freaky, but engrossing.
(50) "What Lies In Light:” Walk into the light of love.
(51) "The Dybbuk:” A folksy tale of atonement.
(52) "Notes from the Laocoön Program:” This quote:
“I have made a ruin of my life and for nothing at all, for a feeling that I am unloved and must stay that way forever. Perhaps the measure of life is how kind we are.
And I have not been kind.”"
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Currently reading
July 18, 2020Metaphorosis Magazine is a literary website that publishes 4 to 5 stories a month in the realms of science fiction and speculative fiction. At the end of the year, the 52 stories are brought together into an annual anthology.
I must confess to begin with -- I haven't read all 52 stories! Doing that would mean this review would take months to come out. So I read one random story from each monthly section for a total of twelve, which is slightly less than a quarter of the total.
The stories range from your traditional set-in-space, quantum-physics-problem-solving tale, to speculative ones involving animal transformations and other, more fairy tale type narratives.
I found that the stories varied in how much they piqued my interest personally, but they were all well-written and engaging. Some of my favourites were One Day in Space Too Many, in which a lone space traveller is cloned every day, and Favourites from Here and Abroad, about a young girl navigating a dystopian future in which the ruling AI beings live in cities in the sky. Somewhere To Be Going was a beautiful piece about a young boy with a strong urge to leave the earth and return home. Las Vegas Space Museum was an intriguing look into a world where bricks discovered in space are used for building, but seem to be alive. I would love to see a longer story from this world.
I will definitely go on to read the rest of the stories in the anthology, and look out for more on the Metaphorosis website. Normally at the end of a book review, I ask myself "would I read more by this author?" In this case it's not really appropriate, so instead I'll ask myself:
Would I read more from Metaphorosis? Yes!
I must confess to begin with -- I haven't read all 52 stories! Doing that would mean this review would take months to come out. So I read one random story from each monthly section for a total of twelve, which is slightly less than a quarter of the total.
The stories range from your traditional set-in-space, quantum-physics-problem-solving tale, to speculative ones involving animal transformations and other, more fairy tale type narratives.
I found that the stories varied in how much they piqued my interest personally, but they were all well-written and engaging. Some of my favourites were One Day in Space Too Many, in which a lone space traveller is cloned every day, and Favourites from Here and Abroad, about a young girl navigating a dystopian future in which the ruling AI beings live in cities in the sky. Somewhere To Be Going was a beautiful piece about a young boy with a strong urge to leave the earth and return home. Las Vegas Space Museum was an intriguing look into a world where bricks discovered in space are used for building, but seem to be alive. I would love to see a longer story from this world.
I will definitely go on to read the rest of the stories in the anthology, and look out for more on the Metaphorosis website. Normally at the end of a book review, I ask myself "would I read more by this author?" In this case it's not really appropriate, so instead I'll ask myself:
Would I read more from Metaphorosis? Yes!
Please note: this book was provided for me to read and review by LibraryThing's Early Reviewer programme. You can rest assured however, that this is (as always) an honest review!
March 25, 2020
Received an arc from netgalley. Really enjoyed this selection of sf stories. Definitely recommend!
March 25, 2021
Tanta roba :-)
[Disclaimer: Ho ricevuto il libro grazie al programma Early Reviewer di LibraryThing]
Non è semplice recensire un'antologia come questa, anche perché più che un'antologia è la raccolta dei 52 racconti pubblicati nel 2019 dalla rivista Metaphorosis. Non c'è insomma un vero tema unificante, se non l'amplissimo "sf o fantasy" che (per fortuna) non dice praticamente nulla. Il risultato è che molti dei racconti non mi hanno detto molto, ma ce ne sono parecchi che mi sono piaciuti: The Book of Regrets (M.J. Gardner), Five Star Review (Alyssa Nabors), Pleasing the Giants (Carolyn Lenz), L’Appel du Vide (Rajiv Moté), The Color of My Home is Red Like an Apple (Evan Marcroft), One for the Wounded (Phoenix Alexander), In the Beating of a Wing (David Cleden), The Memory Dresser (Nicholas M. Stillman), Las Vegas Museum of Space Exploration (Marilee Dahlman), The Offshore (Josh Taylor), Some Sun and Delilah (B. Morris Allen), A Final Resting Place (Matt Hornsby), The Guardian of Werifest Park (Carly Racklin), Misalignment (Erik Goldsmith), Super (Yume Kitasei), Via Dolorosa (Christine Lucas), The Dybbuk (Lewis Gershom).
Alla fine di ciascun racconto l'autore spiega come esso è nato: altri commentatori non hanno apprezzato questa monotonia nelle domande, ma secondo me nel contesto la cosa ha senso. Alla fine vale la pena di acquistare il libro: anche saltandone metà resta ancora tantissima roba da leggere!
[Disclaimer: Ho ricevuto il libro grazie al programma Early Reviewer di LibraryThing]
Non è semplice recensire un'antologia come questa, anche perché più che un'antologia è la raccolta dei 52 racconti pubblicati nel 2019 dalla rivista Metaphorosis. Non c'è insomma un vero tema unificante, se non l'amplissimo "sf o fantasy" che (per fortuna) non dice praticamente nulla. Il risultato è che molti dei racconti non mi hanno detto molto, ma ce ne sono parecchi che mi sono piaciuti: The Book of Regrets (M.J. Gardner), Five Star Review (Alyssa Nabors), Pleasing the Giants (Carolyn Lenz), L’Appel du Vide (Rajiv Moté), The Color of My Home is Red Like an Apple (Evan Marcroft), One for the Wounded (Phoenix Alexander), In the Beating of a Wing (David Cleden), The Memory Dresser (Nicholas M. Stillman), Las Vegas Museum of Space Exploration (Marilee Dahlman), The Offshore (Josh Taylor), Some Sun and Delilah (B. Morris Allen), A Final Resting Place (Matt Hornsby), The Guardian of Werifest Park (Carly Racklin), Misalignment (Erik Goldsmith), Super (Yume Kitasei), Via Dolorosa (Christine Lucas), The Dybbuk (Lewis Gershom).
Alla fine di ciascun racconto l'autore spiega come esso è nato: altri commentatori non hanno apprezzato questa monotonia nelle domande, ma secondo me nel contesto la cosa ha senso. Alla fine vale la pena di acquistare il libro: anche saltandone metà resta ancora tantissima roba da leggere!
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