Cultural Artifacts

by MaryAnn Johanson

Meet an angry kitten, the gods of theater, and the bored young aristocrats of Mars. Take two trips to “the most beautiful planet known to humanity,” and visit Wok Like An Egyptian, “LA’s latest fast friendly food sensation.” Feel frissons of discovery and watch as history is misinterpreted and misunderstood in objects mysterious and quotidian.

Insidious toys, eternal treasures, and instruments of beauty and destruction: Cultural Artifacts is a collection of science fiction, horror, and fantasy flash fiction that offers tasty bites of hope and darkness in tales of infernal devices animated by kind magic and cruel sorcery, in curios that create image and identity, in keepsakes that magnify repression and foment revolution.

Genres: Anthologies

121 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 8, 2021

About the author

MaryAnn Johanson launched her popular and respected FlickFilosopher.com in 1997, making it is one of the longest-running film-criticism sites online. She is an executive member of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (the Webbys organization), and regularly appears as a cultural commentator on the BBC World Service’s “The Arts Hour.” A native New Yorker, she is now based in London. Support her work at Patreon and at Substack: for film criticism | for fiction.

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a goodreads drawing.

The author visited the British Museum, and would visit a room, focus on whatever object found her attention, then write a flash fiction story about it. These are all fantasy or science fiction. Some are better than others, but they're all diverting.

[Nicholas Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decided to read a short fiction collection. How did it go?

As the cover says this collection of thirty flash fiction stories ranges from sci-fi, horror and fantasy. However, the majority is the first on that list, but no matter what the genre may be, the human condition is prevalent throughout.

With any collection this size there will be hits and misses, albeit, this one has mostly the former rather than the latter. Each story, even if a little shaky, provides something to enjoy within it.

Flash fiction doesn’t always have to end with a solid ending, but can leave things a bit ambiguous. However, there are a couple of pieces in this book that left me scratching my head (“Wings Are Not Only for Birds” comes to mind). Luckily, for the reader this doesn’t happen much.

I think that the only time I was a tad annoyed was during the story, “You Want Osiris Fries With That?,” which was a good piece overall, but the author takes some liberty with the geography of Southern California. What I mean is that the fast food joint in the story is “LA’s latest fast friendly food sensation,” but the store is located in Anaheim. Now, that’s okay to have a store in another county (Orange), but at one point the manager says that he’ll call the LAPD. One cannot call the LAPD for something in Orange County.

Besides the aforementioned geographical error, I found myself engaged with the writing and the storytelling.

A few of the stories I liked:
* Fashion Police
* Strays
* A Parable of Beauty, Vanity, Greed, and Witchery (good fairy tale)
* Exit Through the Gift Shop
* Warrior

[Peg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm always drawn to short story collections. For me it's a wonderful way to get a glimpse into the many directions an author can take. This book provided some great gems, many more vignette's I'd like to see worked further, and a few duds. Like spending an afternoon with family! I enjoyed some of the creative avenues taken, and there were some that asked too much of me as a reader to buy into the story. I would read more of her future works, believing the paths she's taken will lead to more visual journeys.

[Angela Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

I enjoyed listening to all these stories. I think that people enjoy listening to these 2. Let's a different futuristic stories.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable set of short stories. I hope to learn more about the oliphants someday!