Immersion

by J.F. Garrard (Editor), Allan Cho (Editor), William Tham (Editor)

Immerse Yourself in Unexpected Worlds
Your janitors are secretly part of an underground society. Craigslist shamans are available for shape shifters. Hopping corpses terrorize a small town while an aging samurai embarks on his final quest. These are just a glimpse of the fantastic scenes within the pages of this book. Journey to places where your understanding of reality is inverted in this new speculative fiction anthology featuring fifteen stories by Asian writers from the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop and Dark Helix Press.

Genres: Short Stories

230 pages, Paperback

First published September 27, 2019

About the author

JF Garrard is an award winning speculative fiction writer, editor and publisher. She is the President of Dark Helix Press, serves as the President for the Canadian Authors Association’s Toronto Branch, Festival Coordinator for LiterASIAN Toronto, and Deputy Editor for Ricepaper Magazine. Her portfolio of books and short fiction is listed on jfgarrard.com and you can find her on Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok @jfgarrard.

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of work. My favorite was On the Road to Biringan by Joseph Nacino. It was an interesting foray into some of the mythical creatures of Asia.
Started out a bit Hayao Miyazaki then went a little Walter Moers. It's a very short story so it doesn't go into character development much. It's more of an intro to alternative horror archetypes. Enjoyable read overall, all the writers in the anthology show much promise.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly enjoyed every story in this collection, and recommend it!

I have a broad interest in Asian cultures, so I liked that there was a good mix of representation among the stories.

My three favorite stories would have to be 'The Winter Sister', 'This Other Water', and 'We Are All Ghosts'. 'The Winter Sister' is a Japanese yokai story, and a co-authored piece (Sylvia Santiago & Jenny Wong); it has a lovely literary style, which I love in dark fantasy. 'This Other Water' by Anais Jay has both scifi and folklore elements. It's quite layered, and stays with you. I enjoyed the concept of a separated self in 'We Are All Ghosts' by Lily Chang. It was the perfect story to end the anthology with.

I also love the cover art by Lea Duck.

This is a wonderfully produced book. I'll definitely be looking for more books from Dark Helix Press/Ricepaper Magazine books in the future.