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Abyss: Stories of Depth, Time and Infinity
Are we more than the sum of our memories? Does time always pass the same or can it be influenced by thought? What happens to consciousness after death?
An exciting new anthology of horror, science fiction and experimental prose exploring these questions and many more. With contributions
William F. Aicher
Jasmine Arch
Mark Bolsover
R. A. Busby
Merl Fluin
Robert Guffey
Ayd Instone
Thomas Kendall
Tomas Marcantonio
David McAllister
Ross McCleary
L. P. Melling
Soumya Sundar Mukherjee
Kurt Newton
Stephen Oram
Nadia Steven Rysing
Vaughan Stanger
Antonia Rachel Ward
An exciting new anthology of horror, science fiction and experimental prose exploring these questions and many more. With contributions
William F. Aicher
Jasmine Arch
Mark Bolsover
R. A. Busby
Merl Fluin
Robert Guffey
Ayd Instone
Thomas Kendall
Tomas Marcantonio
David McAllister
Ross McCleary
L. P. Melling
Soumya Sundar Mukherjee
Kurt Newton
Stephen Oram
Nadia Steven Rysing
Vaughan Stanger
Antonia Rachel Ward
210 pages, Paperback
Published May 2, 2022
1 person is currently reading
13 people want to read
About the author
C.R. Dudley
4 books40 followersC.R Dudley is a visual artist, writer and self-proclaimed mind explorer. She is fascinated by the human condition in all of its guises, and has been heavily influenced by Jungian psychology, existentialism and eastern mysticism.
Often writing from unusual perspectives, she weaves together esoteric philosophies with modern scientific and technological developments to give a many-layered approach to storytelling.
Her first novel is planned for release in 2019, but she also continues to write short fiction daily to give voice to smaller creative echoes. She sees everything she creates as fragments of one continuous artwork.
C.R. Dudley lives in York, UK, and is a lover of forest walks, pizza, tequila and dark music.
Often writing from unusual perspectives, she weaves together esoteric philosophies with modern scientific and technological developments to give a many-layered approach to storytelling.
Her first novel is planned for release in 2019, but she also continues to write short fiction daily to give voice to smaller creative echoes. She sees everything she creates as fragments of one continuous artwork.
C.R. Dudley lives in York, UK, and is a lover of forest walks, pizza, tequila and dark music.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 25, 2022
Disclaimer/full disclosure: I have a short story in this collection. I've ignored it for this review, and I hope I've remained impartial about the others. Bottom line: it's a good collection, and I'm proud to be in it.
The book packs 18 stories into just 200 pages, so obviously a lot of them are super-short – several would qualify as flash. They're all in the spec fic ballpark. They range fairly widely across the genre, from techno-novum sci-fi to psychological horror, from fantasy to time-travel romance.
Almost all short story collections are a mixed bag. The good news is that the high points here are pretty darned high. I adored Kurt Newton's nightmarish "and you realize" and William F. Aicher's unsettling "Frosting". Other standouts are Ross McCleary's "The First Warm Day Of Spring", which manages to be simultaneously hilarious and terrifying, and R.A. Busby's "The Memory Hole". I wasn't sure Mark Bolsover's "desolation at the terminal" worked, but I liked it for its experimental balls.
Inevitably, there are low spots too. Two or three stories clunked. One tried my patience almost to breaking point. I won't name names, to spare the writers' blushes and/or recriminations. I'll just say that one reader's trope is another reader's cliché.
But even taking the weaker stories into account, the balance is still in the collection's favour. My only complaint is that I would have liked an editor's introduction, or at least a quick preface to sketch the theme(s) that tie the stories together. The call for contributions, as I recall, did that very well for the writers, but there's not even a back jacket blurb to do it for the readers.
Ok, maybe that's more of a wee quibble than a real complaint. Read the book and you'll figure it out for yourself.
The book packs 18 stories into just 200 pages, so obviously a lot of them are super-short – several would qualify as flash. They're all in the spec fic ballpark. They range fairly widely across the genre, from techno-novum sci-fi to psychological horror, from fantasy to time-travel romance.
Almost all short story collections are a mixed bag. The good news is that the high points here are pretty darned high. I adored Kurt Newton's nightmarish "and you realize" and William F. Aicher's unsettling "Frosting". Other standouts are Ross McCleary's "The First Warm Day Of Spring", which manages to be simultaneously hilarious and terrifying, and R.A. Busby's "The Memory Hole". I wasn't sure Mark Bolsover's "desolation at the terminal" worked, but I liked it for its experimental balls.
Inevitably, there are low spots too. Two or three stories clunked. One tried my patience almost to breaking point. I won't name names, to spare the writers' blushes and/or recriminations. I'll just say that one reader's trope is another reader's cliché.
But even taking the weaker stories into account, the balance is still in the collection's favour. My only complaint is that I would have liked an editor's introduction, or at least a quick preface to sketch the theme(s) that tie the stories together. The call for contributions, as I recall, did that very well for the writers, but there's not even a back jacket blurb to do it for the readers.
Ok, maybe that's more of a wee quibble than a real complaint. Read the book and you'll figure it out for yourself.
Displaying 1 of 1 review