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No One Will Come Back For Us and Other Stories
Winner of the World Fantasy Award, and the Alberta Literary Award
Finalist for the Locus, Aurora, British Fantasy, Ignyte, and British Science Fiction Awards
Here there be gods and monsters - forged from flesh and stone and vengeance - emerging from the icy abyss of deep space, ascending from dark oceans, and prowling strange cities to enter worlds of chaos and wonder, where scientific rigor and human endeavour is tested to the limits. These are cosmic realms and watery domains where old offerings no longer appease the ancient Gods or the new and hungry idols. Deities and beasts. Life and death. Love and hate. Science and magic. And smiling monsters in human skin.
Premee Mohamed's debut collection of contemporary cosmic horror and dark fantasy heralds the arrival of a new and vibrant voice on the cutting edge of modern speculative fiction.
Finalist for the Locus, Aurora, British Fantasy, Ignyte, and British Science Fiction Awards
Here there be gods and monsters - forged from flesh and stone and vengeance - emerging from the icy abyss of deep space, ascending from dark oceans, and prowling strange cities to enter worlds of chaos and wonder, where scientific rigor and human endeavour is tested to the limits. These are cosmic realms and watery domains where old offerings no longer appease the ancient Gods or the new and hungry idols. Deities and beasts. Life and death. Love and hate. Science and magic. And smiling monsters in human skin.
Premee Mohamed's debut collection of contemporary cosmic horror and dark fantasy heralds the arrival of a new and vibrant voice on the cutting edge of modern speculative fiction.
286 pages, Paperback
First published May 16, 2023
138 people are currently reading
2760 people want to read
About the author
Premee Mohamed
83 books741 followersPremee Mohamed is a Nebula award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She is an Assistant Editor at the short fiction audio venue Escape Pod and the author of the 'Beneath the Rising' series of novels as well as several novellas. Her short fiction has appeared in many venues and she can be found on Twitter at @premeesaurus and on her website at www.premeemohamed.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 143 reviews
March 17, 2024
The easiest summary here is "postcolonial Lovecraft," which captures the sheer quantity of dangling tentacles, along with story notes emphasizing which of these depart from a specific HPL story and why and how. Mohamed usually, though not always, swaps the gender of the narrator, and she frequently finds enticing angles that recenter the stories so that the exoticism and racism HPL traded in get dispelled. The restored humanity of these people, so often previously treated as both cannon and narrative fodder, drives home the double (triple?) horror of real-life colonialism and imperialism, as well as the suffering in the stories, and the sadly traditional bigotry of the whole cosmic-horror tradition. Mohamed is also attentive to questions of power and responsibility; despite the sometimes mock-Victorian diction (though most of them are more muscular in style), she's consistently thinking about who and what gets stomped, metaphorically and, here, often quite literally. Fun story notes as well. (If I could mandate those in every collection, I would.) Also: the one with the evil walking cathedral struck me as the most Calvino-esque horror story I've ever read. Her notes cite Eco as an inspiration, so I was just, y'know, a tentacle away.
September 15, 2023
Continuing a trend of reforming Lovecraft by turning his racism against itself, allowing cosmic horror to accelerate a penchant for social justice this collection was encouraging if not successful. I liked the notion of the ancient gods falling prey to the Anthropocene: pollution and technology have altered the order of things. Offerings have underwent a mutation. I’m not sure the regulations list the possibility in the index. I cared least for the stories which featured a military context, save for the last piece. The others were clunky and uncertain. There is plenty here about nightmares, childhood and the occasional ravenous cathedral: Calvino, indeed.
April 6, 2023
Review in the April 2023 issue of Library Journal: https://raforall.blogspot.com/2023/03...
Three Words That Describe This Book: confident, full spectrum of dark speculative, reclaiming Lovecraft
Draft Review:
Mohamed’s debut collection contains 17 stories that span the entirety of today’s dark speculative landscape and present a vision of its emerging future. Many of tales use a Lovecraftian frame, set in the author’s “real gods” universe, exploring the well trod cosmic concepts of hopelessness and fear with a fresh vision, often incorporating parent-child relationships such as in the Pushcart Prize nominated story “Willing” featuring a farmer and his beloved younger daughter who is summoned by the gods to be sacrificed and the eco-Horror tinged “The Evaluator,” presenting a possessed child in a landscape where the old gods have been destroyed by pollution. No matter the plot or setting, however, each story is marked by a strong narrative voice, confident world building, and an unease that seeps into every corner. leaving readers unsettled but also looking at their world from a new perspective.
Verdict: Introducing an exciting new voice, this collection will be enjoyed by fans of Cassandra Khaw and Lucy Snyder, but more importantly, it presents another stellar collection by Undertow Press, making the independent publisher a not to miss player in the Horror marketplace.
Three Words That Describe This Book: confident, full spectrum of dark speculative, reclaiming Lovecraft
Draft Review:
Mohamed’s debut collection contains 17 stories that span the entirety of today’s dark speculative landscape and present a vision of its emerging future. Many of tales use a Lovecraftian frame, set in the author’s “real gods” universe, exploring the well trod cosmic concepts of hopelessness and fear with a fresh vision, often incorporating parent-child relationships such as in the Pushcart Prize nominated story “Willing” featuring a farmer and his beloved younger daughter who is summoned by the gods to be sacrificed and the eco-Horror tinged “The Evaluator,” presenting a possessed child in a landscape where the old gods have been destroyed by pollution. No matter the plot or setting, however, each story is marked by a strong narrative voice, confident world building, and an unease that seeps into every corner. leaving readers unsettled but also looking at their world from a new perspective.
Verdict: Introducing an exciting new voice, this collection will be enjoyed by fans of Cassandra Khaw and Lucy Snyder, but more importantly, it presents another stellar collection by Undertow Press, making the independent publisher a not to miss player in the Horror marketplace.
January 15, 2023
Cosmic horror only right here in our backyard. Steeped in speculative fiction and dripping with dark shadows, this collection of stories is infested with strange monsters and old gods who seek our attention, our planet, and our very lives.
A few of the standout stories for me were:
- "Below the Kirk, Below the Hill", about a dead girl who washes up on shore and the lighthouse keeper who looks after her
- "The Evaluator" about a guy who is sent out to determine whether or not a young girl has been posessed, and finds himself face to face with something wicked
- "The Honeymakers", about a group of girls and their strange relationship with bees
- "For Each of These Miseries", about what happens when a submarine comes into contact with a long undisturbed underwater entity
- And the title story "No One Will Come Back For Us", which ushers in a strange and otherworldly pandemic unlike anything we've ever seen before
Another notch in Undertow Publication's belt!
A few of the standout stories for me were:
- "Below the Kirk, Below the Hill", about a dead girl who washes up on shore and the lighthouse keeper who looks after her
- "The Evaluator" about a guy who is sent out to determine whether or not a young girl has been posessed, and finds himself face to face with something wicked
- "The Honeymakers", about a group of girls and their strange relationship with bees
- "For Each of These Miseries", about what happens when a submarine comes into contact with a long undisturbed underwater entity
- And the title story "No One Will Come Back For Us", which ushers in a strange and otherworldly pandemic unlike anything we've ever seen before
Another notch in Undertow Publication's belt!
September 27, 2024
This collection was wonderful, and really showed off Premee Mohamed’s range. All of the stories collected here save one had been previously published elsewhere, and even that one that was new to this collection had originally been slated to be in a different anthology that ended up not being published. All that is to say these stories weren’t written together with the intent to make up a singular collection, and yet they work really well together. We get to see Mohamed’s fascination with the elditch--especially how it interacts with the human--as well as her interests in folk horror, political thrillers, social issues and issues around the ideas of justice, equality, and morality, and more. All of them with her captivating prose that really situates the reader in a space, both physical and emotional.
Prior to this collection I had only read Mohamed’s longer work, and I was delighted to find that her short fiction is just as compelling and engaging. She manages to get you to invest in the characters and have a strong sense of location, world, and motive all within a very precise word count. I enjoyed every story in this collection. You can see a few core ideas or preoccupations across the stories, but the wrapping, which is to say the genre, the stakes, the narrative style, changes enough to really let every story stand on its own, enough to make sure there is a little something for everyone.
Additionally, she includes a section at the end where she just offers maybe a paragraph or so about each story, about how it originated, her thoughts on it, and so on. While this isn’t necessary I definitely enjoyed it, it was fun to get a little glimpse behind the curtain, so to speak.
Prior to this collection I had only read Mohamed’s longer work, and I was delighted to find that her short fiction is just as compelling and engaging. She manages to get you to invest in the characters and have a strong sense of location, world, and motive all within a very precise word count. I enjoyed every story in this collection. You can see a few core ideas or preoccupations across the stories, but the wrapping, which is to say the genre, the stakes, the narrative style, changes enough to really let every story stand on its own, enough to make sure there is a little something for everyone.
Additionally, she includes a section at the end where she just offers maybe a paragraph or so about each story, about how it originated, her thoughts on it, and so on. While this isn’t necessary I definitely enjoyed it, it was fun to get a little glimpse behind the curtain, so to speak.
October 26, 2023
Solid collection of speculative horror/ sci-fi stories that were consistently compelling, well written and kept me coming back to them, which for me is a good indicator that this author’s work is something special, as I sometimes struggle with the short story format. Not with this book though and I’ll be adding the author’s books to my wishlist. I noticed on Amazon that she has 3 books coming out in 2024 and Ima gonna get them all!
June 14, 2023
For the first time in a while, I will rate a book based more on what I think about it than what I feel about it, for the simple reason that my current living conditions make reading short story collections an awkward experience at best. Short stories, especially atmospheric, dreamy short stories like Mohamed’s should be experienced in one go, yet I found myself unable to find time enough to sit down and plow through even one of them before being interrupted and then, once I’d finally be back, it would take me a couple of pages to get back into the story, and by then it would all be over. Yet I can recognize how beautiful these stories are (for a certain highly tentacled value of “beautiful”), especially the loosely connected cycle where the old gods of the land meet the even older gods of Lovecraftiana, or the absolutely gorgeous story of Death and the revolutionaries. I should have waited for the proper time, yet I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one, and now here we are.
December 22, 2022
You want darkness and turmoil? This collection has got you.
April 8, 2023
Premee Mohamed is one of those writers I had often heard about, but I foolishly never made the time to explore her work. However, after reading her contribution to the upcoming dark Peter Pan anthology (The Other Side of Never, Titan Books), I could no longer ignore this force.
No One Will Come Back for us collects Mohamed’s stories from the past few years, as well as some new work. These stories occur in a world where the old gods must be satisfied; a nightly offering is essential, and if they summon you to make the ultimate sacrifice, your attendance is not optional. The stories Below the Kirk, Below the Hill, Us and Ours, and Willing explore this realm beautifully.
But Mohamed is far from a one-trick-pony, and the reader hugely benefits from this incredible imagination. At the Hand of Every Beast, a story of a giant cathedral walking through France (yes, you read that right) creates some beautiful visuals. We meet a widow in The Adventurer’s Wife, speaking about her late husband’s strange death; the last paragraph of this story blew my mind.
There are some interesting science fiction stories here too. Soldiers are subject to weird sleep-deprivation experiments in Quietus, and a lost colony is discovered in Fortunato (which Mohamed mentions in her story notes is partially inspired by Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan).
But my favorite story of the collection is The Redoubtables, where a journalist goes to interview one of the few survivors of a strange experiment gone horribly wrong. It raises some interesting questions about war, science, and guilt. In fact, the other two stories in the collection where the protagonists set out to investigate the unknown (The Adventurer’s Wife, and No One Will Come Back for Us) were very strong too. There’s something appealing about the reader following the story in real-time with the narrator.
This is such a strong collection, and I am now a full-blown Premee Mohamed fan. Her writing is entrancing; I fell into the world of each story quickly and completely. These stories are smart, scary, interesting, and funny.
No One Will Come Back for us collects Mohamed’s stories from the past few years, as well as some new work. These stories occur in a world where the old gods must be satisfied; a nightly offering is essential, and if they summon you to make the ultimate sacrifice, your attendance is not optional. The stories Below the Kirk, Below the Hill, Us and Ours, and Willing explore this realm beautifully.
But Mohamed is far from a one-trick-pony, and the reader hugely benefits from this incredible imagination. At the Hand of Every Beast, a story of a giant cathedral walking through France (yes, you read that right) creates some beautiful visuals. We meet a widow in The Adventurer’s Wife, speaking about her late husband’s strange death; the last paragraph of this story blew my mind.
There are some interesting science fiction stories here too. Soldiers are subject to weird sleep-deprivation experiments in Quietus, and a lost colony is discovered in Fortunato (which Mohamed mentions in her story notes is partially inspired by Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan).
But my favorite story of the collection is The Redoubtables, where a journalist goes to interview one of the few survivors of a strange experiment gone horribly wrong. It raises some interesting questions about war, science, and guilt. In fact, the other two stories in the collection where the protagonists set out to investigate the unknown (The Adventurer’s Wife, and No One Will Come Back for Us) were very strong too. There’s something appealing about the reader following the story in real-time with the narrator.
This is such a strong collection, and I am now a full-blown Premee Mohamed fan. Her writing is entrancing; I fell into the world of each story quickly and completely. These stories are smart, scary, interesting, and funny.
March 8, 2025
On reflection, this is about 3.5 stars for me, rounded down because it dragged in proportion to its length. Nearly every story has at least one killer passage or memorable image, but I'd have a hard time telling some of them apart with a few weeks of distance.
Favorites:
- The General's Turn. A bizarre and fascinating novelette. In a display of fantastic authorial instincts, this is the keystone piece of her new collection, One Message Remains.
- Willing. A short, exquisite story about sacrifice. This is the absolute height of the old-gods strangeness that pervades the collection.
- Quietus. Not available online, but an excellent story. Visions of war combined with emails of lab testing protocol. The author's note says this one took forever to sell because it's weird-- and it is, but in a way that's exactly my taste.
- Honorable mention to The Adventurer's Wife, which has an excellently punchable narrative voice and a great structure. Almost made me interested in reading Lovecraft.
I think the softness on my rating here is largely a taste thing. Mohamed is clearly a talented author-- I just don't love eldritch being/ cosmic horror narratives most of the time, and this collection is packed with it. This is going to be a hit for plenty of readers who have more an interest in that subgenre. I'm also excited to try One Message Remains, which sounds like it will build on my favorite elements in this collection.
//
It's always difficult to rate collections like this. A few of the stories (particularly The General's Turn, Willing, and Quietus) are excellent and will stick with me. Others blur together in their focus on eldritch or unknowable menaces: it's not a bad theme, but I've never been much of a Lovecraft fan, and this seems more targeted to that group. Overall, an interesting set, but very little that approaches the high of The Butcher of the Forest for me. The author writes in the endnotes that short stories are hard (the shorter, the harder), and that fits-- I think her work is best when the central ideas have more room to breathe and bloom. RTC.
Other recommendations:
- If the "strange old gods of the forest" stories here caught your interest, absolutely try The Butcher of the Forest. It's an excellent novella, packed with rich imagery and a dark folkloric mood that I'm still thinking about months later.
- To browse through her stories in general, check out her short fiction page. There are plenty more here that I'm interested to try.
Favorites:
- The General's Turn. A bizarre and fascinating novelette. In a display of fantastic authorial instincts, this is the keystone piece of her new collection, One Message Remains.
- Willing. A short, exquisite story about sacrifice. This is the absolute height of the old-gods strangeness that pervades the collection.
- Quietus. Not available online, but an excellent story. Visions of war combined with emails of lab testing protocol. The author's note says this one took forever to sell because it's weird-- and it is, but in a way that's exactly my taste.
- Honorable mention to The Adventurer's Wife, which has an excellently punchable narrative voice and a great structure. Almost made me interested in reading Lovecraft.
I think the softness on my rating here is largely a taste thing. Mohamed is clearly a talented author-- I just don't love eldritch being/ cosmic horror narratives most of the time, and this collection is packed with it. This is going to be a hit for plenty of readers who have more an interest in that subgenre. I'm also excited to try One Message Remains, which sounds like it will build on my favorite elements in this collection.
//
It's always difficult to rate collections like this. A few of the stories (particularly The General's Turn, Willing, and Quietus) are excellent and will stick with me. Others blur together in their focus on eldritch or unknowable menaces: it's not a bad theme, but I've never been much of a Lovecraft fan, and this seems more targeted to that group. Overall, an interesting set, but very little that approaches the high of The Butcher of the Forest for me. The author writes in the endnotes that short stories are hard (the shorter, the harder), and that fits-- I think her work is best when the central ideas have more room to breathe and bloom. RTC.
Other recommendations:
- If the "strange old gods of the forest" stories here caught your interest, absolutely try The Butcher of the Forest. It's an excellent novella, packed with rich imagery and a dark folkloric mood that I'm still thinking about months later.
- To browse through her stories in general, check out her short fiction page. There are plenty more here that I'm interested to try.
November 16, 2024
I'm very glad I picked this up from my library's spooky reads shelf, I needed a W read after the last few choices.
I loved the stories presented here. There were a lot of similar themes and approaches to old gods of the land and sea, and to monstrous Old Ones a la Lovecraft. Mohamed has a great blend of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror here, I was thoroughly pleased with this collection. I'm definitely going to check out more of her work.
I loved the stories presented here. There were a lot of similar themes and approaches to old gods of the land and sea, and to monstrous Old Ones a la Lovecraft. Mohamed has a great blend of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror here, I was thoroughly pleased with this collection. I'm definitely going to check out more of her work.
August 25, 2023
Seemingly out of nowhere (but plainly not), Premee Mohamed has, in a very short time, become one of the most acclaimed Canadian genre writers of the past several years. This collection of stories proves the acclaim is well-deserved and, right now, she stands alongside Hailey Piper and Cassandra Khaw as one of the most exciting talents in the biz.
September 14, 2023
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Overall, I'd say this collection was alright. My favorite stories were The Evaluator, The General's Turn (#1), Four Hours of a Revolution (#2), For Each of These Miseries, No One Will Come Back for Us, Us and Ours, Quietus
Overall, I'd say this collection was alright. My favorite stories were The Evaluator, The General's Turn (#1), Four Hours of a Revolution (#2), For Each of These Miseries, No One Will Come Back for Us, Us and Ours, Quietus
August 15, 2024
Lots of good short stories, a few I wasn't a fan of, but overall really liked it! 4.5 ⭐
October 2, 2023
Not only is Premee a thoroughly delightful human being, but she also tells amazing stories. “Four Hours of a Revolution” was my first exposure to her work when we purchased this for publication at PseudoPod. I thoroughly enjoyed Beneath the Rising, and the rest of her works are on my TBR pile. This book is delightful, and there’s a story and genre that should appeal to any discerning reader. Absolutely worth your time.
May 6, 2024
Совсем короткая форма; на почти два десятка рассказов в небольшой книге где-то два очень удачных, остальные ощущаются как наброски или попытки строительства мира.
October 7, 2024
Big, big fan. Please keep them coming.
Excellent short story collection, and I'm so glad a GR friend recommended this collection to me.
Excellent short story collection, and I'm so glad a GR friend recommended this collection to me.
May 18, 2023
One of the finest SF, fantasy and horror short fiction collections I’ve read. Mohamed’s ability to use setting, character and story and play with parts of the genre to tell new and exciting (and often surprising) stories makes them one of the authors to watch and you must read. Strongly recommended!
Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
December 17, 2023
Everything seemed taken from more notable works.
Im not a fan.
Im not a fan.
Read
June 1, 2024eldritch horrors rendered in gorgeous and inspiring prose ❤️🤭
plane ride paris to newark
plane ride paris to newark
August 7, 2023
I discovered Premee Mohamed years ago on Twitter because she shared one of her stories taking place in the Permian. I found out she wrote Sf and cosmic horror - genres that I love, and she frequently interacts with Adrian Tchaikovsky, one of my favourite authors. Her Twitter-presence inspired me to read her cosmic horror/fantasy-trilogy which was great fun. Now she has a short story collection out and to a short story afficionado like me I of course had to pick that one up too.
Reading this though I must say that I think Mohamed is a bit stronger in her longer work (not that I have read all of it, mind). It's not often that authors are both strong novelist and strong short story authors. Many concentrate on one form or the other. And when people write both, they are often stronger in one aspect. For me, I think my short stories often pack more of a punch than my novels and I haven't been even to write a trilogy at all ... So, my overall enjoyment of her novels exceeded my pleasure of reading these stories. To me they lacked the surprising twists and gut punches the best short stories deliver, often more describing a situation and its consequences, making the reader think, but not pulling the rug from under him/her. In the same way her novels did not really have mind bogglingly original twist, but at their heart beat the wonderfully complex characters and their interactions, observed with a loving eye by the author, following their fracturing relationship in fantasmagoric circumstances and landscapes. Here, a bit of that is present. Most characters are interesting, sympathetic. They are normal, hard working people thrust in bizarre circumstances, as in the noves. But we spend too little time with them to really come to absorb them, turn the pages just to see what they will do next.
Which is not to say I did not enjoy this collection, after all, I gave it four stars! There are some great ideas in here (like in 'The Redoubtables' with a science experiment gone wrong, where the fail safe mechanism itself is more devastating than any cosmic horror) and great descriptions. Many stories take place in a rural landscape where the local gods are real (they are not good or evil, they just are - and people sacrifice to them). There was an earthiness to the descriptions that made me feel a connection to these places and the people living there. It's not only rural environments, though - a shot up town on the brink of revolution is brought to live as well. But the horrors are described well too, with a deft hand at both showing and concealing what's going on. There are also some more experimental stories that I appreciated, like 'Instructions' that gives instructions for British soldiers fighting the Germans in France ...
Some highlights besides those I already mentioned are the title story, that has aid workers in Africa trying to combat a disease and a reporter joining their mission. Tense and exciting and scary.
'Fortunato' is a great 'Alien'-inspired SF-story about a rescue mission sent to a failed colony and finding more than they bargained for. Great atmosphere and a terrifying conclusion.
'At the end of every beast' - an experimental story that has a cathedral rampaging the country side ...
'The Adventurer's Wife' - a classic Lovecraftian story that features a woman as the protagonist.
'Willing' - one of those stories that takes local gods and their summons as a given, but manages to give a touching conclusion.
All in all some great tales, and the rest was fun to read as well, but did not really stand out. Even so, if you like weird fiction and cosmic horror, this is a collection to look out for.
Reading this though I must say that I think Mohamed is a bit stronger in her longer work (not that I have read all of it, mind). It's not often that authors are both strong novelist and strong short story authors. Many concentrate on one form or the other. And when people write both, they are often stronger in one aspect. For me, I think my short stories often pack more of a punch than my novels and I haven't been even to write a trilogy at all ... So, my overall enjoyment of her novels exceeded my pleasure of reading these stories. To me they lacked the surprising twists and gut punches the best short stories deliver, often more describing a situation and its consequences, making the reader think, but not pulling the rug from under him/her. In the same way her novels did not really have mind bogglingly original twist, but at their heart beat the wonderfully complex characters and their interactions, observed with a loving eye by the author, following their fracturing relationship in fantasmagoric circumstances and landscapes. Here, a bit of that is present. Most characters are interesting, sympathetic. They are normal, hard working people thrust in bizarre circumstances, as in the noves. But we spend too little time with them to really come to absorb them, turn the pages just to see what they will do next.
Which is not to say I did not enjoy this collection, after all, I gave it four stars! There are some great ideas in here (like in 'The Redoubtables' with a science experiment gone wrong, where the fail safe mechanism itself is more devastating than any cosmic horror) and great descriptions. Many stories take place in a rural landscape where the local gods are real (they are not good or evil, they just are - and people sacrifice to them). There was an earthiness to the descriptions that made me feel a connection to these places and the people living there. It's not only rural environments, though - a shot up town on the brink of revolution is brought to live as well. But the horrors are described well too, with a deft hand at both showing and concealing what's going on. There are also some more experimental stories that I appreciated, like 'Instructions' that gives instructions for British soldiers fighting the Germans in France ...
Some highlights besides those I already mentioned are the title story, that has aid workers in Africa trying to combat a disease and a reporter joining their mission. Tense and exciting and scary.
'Fortunato' is a great 'Alien'-inspired SF-story about a rescue mission sent to a failed colony and finding more than they bargained for. Great atmosphere and a terrifying conclusion.
'At the end of every beast' - an experimental story that has a cathedral rampaging the country side ...
'The Adventurer's Wife' - a classic Lovecraftian story that features a woman as the protagonist.
'Willing' - one of those stories that takes local gods and their summons as a given, but manages to give a touching conclusion.
All in all some great tales, and the rest was fun to read as well, but did not really stand out. Even so, if you like weird fiction and cosmic horror, this is a collection to look out for.
December 7, 2024
No One Will Come Back For Us is an anthology that another review described as postcolonial Lovecraft, and that is apt but incomplete. This is a collection of stark and often understated fears, of confrontations between humanity and the unknown.
Mohamed shuffles her themes like cards. There is rational narrator, perhaps some kind of professional rational observer (literally in "The Evaluator" and "No One Will Come Back For Us" to pick two stories at random), sometimes a concerned parent or uncanny child, who is confronted with a situation of cosmic horror. The unknown threat balances between the Old Gods of the Land, spirits who demand respect, offering, and the occasional sacrifice, but who are basically beneficent, and Elder Things, extradimensional monsters entirely anathema to sanity and human existence. And of course, rationality and professionalism are thin shields against the true nature of the universe, and end up broken. Fortunately not in the histrionic prolixity of a Lovecraft protagonist, but more in the soft snap of despair and acceptance.
The collection suffers due to its format. If this had been about half the length, eight stories instead of seventeen, I would have had no hesitation rating it five stars. At a certain point, however, I started feeling like I was returning to The Complete Short Stories of J.G. Ballard , and its thematic repitition. "Okay, I get it. Let's move along." This is unfair, Mohamed is a much less nihilistic and hateful author than Ballard, and is on average a better storyteller, but the collection is a lot to take in. The good news is that I only disliked one story, which is a great hit rate.
To pick my eight: Instructions, The Evaluator, The General's Turn, Fortunato, Four Hours of a Revolution, No One Will Come Back For Us, Willing, and For Each of These Miseries.
Mohamed shuffles her themes like cards. There is rational narrator, perhaps some kind of professional rational observer (literally in "The Evaluator" and "No One Will Come Back For Us" to pick two stories at random), sometimes a concerned parent or uncanny child, who is confronted with a situation of cosmic horror. The unknown threat balances between the Old Gods of the Land, spirits who demand respect, offering, and the occasional sacrifice, but who are basically beneficent, and Elder Things, extradimensional monsters entirely anathema to sanity and human existence. And of course, rationality and professionalism are thin shields against the true nature of the universe, and end up broken. Fortunately not in the histrionic prolixity of a Lovecraft protagonist, but more in the soft snap of despair and acceptance.
The collection suffers due to its format. If this had been about half the length, eight stories instead of seventeen, I would have had no hesitation rating it five stars. At a certain point, however, I started feeling like I was returning to The Complete Short Stories of J.G. Ballard , and its thematic repitition. "Okay, I get it. Let's move along." This is unfair, Mohamed is a much less nihilistic and hateful author than Ballard, and is on average a better storyteller, but the collection is a lot to take in. The good news is that I only disliked one story, which is a great hit rate.
To pick my eight: Instructions, The Evaluator, The General's Turn, Fortunato, Four Hours of a Revolution, No One Will Come Back For Us, Willing, and For Each of These Miseries.
June 21, 2025
I'm very impressed by Premee Mohamed's 2023 collection of short stories, which is my first foray into her work and definitely won't be the last. She explores numerous genres in No One Will Come Back for Us (and sometimes all of them at once), including fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and dystopia, but all of them are rooted in speculative fiction. Mohamed's short story concepts are largely brilliant, mostly executed with deep research, remarkable sensitivity, and truly gorgeous prose and structure. Some of these are five-star tales (especially 'Four Hours of a Revolution', 'No One Will Come Back For Us', and 'Willing') and only a few struck me as lacking, but all of them I feel are worth reading. As I think I've outgrown my Lovecraftian interests, Mohamed lingers with the Old Gods a bit much for me, but her repeated encounters with 'new gods of the hill and the green' add some freshness to the well-trodden cosmic horror genre. Yet she displays her mastery of the human condition by knowing not to tell us too much, sitting comfortably with the unknown to convey enormous discomfort throughout. Overall, I think this is a rich and undulating volume of bite-sized spec-fiction stories and a great place to start delving into Premee Mohamed's work.
December 27, 2023
I dnf'd 4(?) stories in this collection....which is a lot for me. I am trying to dnf more liberally. There were a couple really good stories, but ultimately, a lot of these stories had flat characters, weird pacing, and confusing scene jumps. I often wished for just a little more explanation of the situations/settings. I do like the style of world building where you are just dumped in the middle of everything with little explanation, but I did need a tiny bit more as I felt more confused than I like. My biggest complaint is that I often felt unengaged in the stories.
In its favor, there are a lot of really cool ideas here. I love Mohamed's preoccupation with the undead, eldritch horror, folk deities. The way she mixes up science, nature, horror, monsters, and paganism is so interesting!
I definitely plan to read more by Mohamed, but sadly, this collection really didn't work very well for me. I suspect that many of these stories are from early in her career since I feel that the novella that won the nebula was tiers above these stories.
In its favor, there are a lot of really cool ideas here. I love Mohamed's preoccupation with the undead, eldritch horror, folk deities. The way she mixes up science, nature, horror, monsters, and paganism is so interesting!
I definitely plan to read more by Mohamed, but sadly, this collection really didn't work very well for me. I suspect that many of these stories are from early in her career since I feel that the novella that won the nebula was tiers above these stories.
Read
January 21, 2025Below the Kirk, Below the Hill - this is probably my least favorite one that I read in the collection. A dead girl washes up on shore, and they have to turn her spirit back over to the ocean so she can find peace
The Evaluator - I feel like this is a critique of harming the environment and not caring about the people it affects the most, but I'll be honest, I didn't get the end of this story.
At the Hand of Every Beast - this reminded me a little of Mortal Engines simply because of the moving cathedral. It has a great opening and is very imaginative
Sixteen Minutes - A prepper goes crazy in his bunker. He didn't have time to save his family, and now it haunts him and rats taunt him.
No One Will Come Back for Us - the titular story is definitely my favorite and the one that has stayed with me the longest. A journalist goes to a remote village where there is a disease outbreak. He is unprepared for what he finds, but the way of life there and the very mysterious events that might be the cause of the disease
The Evaluator - I feel like this is a critique of harming the environment and not caring about the people it affects the most, but I'll be honest, I didn't get the end of this story.
At the Hand of Every Beast - this reminded me a little of Mortal Engines simply because of the moving cathedral. It has a great opening and is very imaginative
Sixteen Minutes - A prepper goes crazy in his bunker. He didn't have time to save his family, and now it haunts him and rats taunt him.
No One Will Come Back for Us - the titular story is definitely my favorite and the one that has stayed with me the longest. A journalist goes to a remote village where there is a disease outbreak. He is unprepared for what he finds, but the way of life there and the very mysterious events that might be the cause of the disease
January 27, 2025
Variations on a theme, honestly, but no less effective for it. Mohamed is clearly less interested in detailing the mechanics of the worlds she creates than she is in the way her characters experience them, and I think that’s a fun way to approach sci-fi/fantasy/horror. There’s a lot that goes unexplained in the way that things go unexplained in reality, because the average person just doesn’t know everything about how everything works.
Also, like I said in a review of another one of her books, sometimes the world ends, but you’ve still got to go to work, and it’s interesting to see that reality explored in different ways. Maybe a little LESS interesting these days, what with the whole hell in a hand basket thing we’ve got going on right now (Hello from January 2025! Did things go really bad at some point between now and 2029? How fast? Leave a comment below!), but still, a different approach than most!
Also, like I said in a review of another one of her books, sometimes the world ends, but you’ve still got to go to work, and it’s interesting to see that reality explored in different ways. Maybe a little LESS interesting these days, what with the whole hell in a hand basket thing we’ve got going on right now (Hello from January 2025! Did things go really bad at some point between now and 2029? How fast? Leave a comment below!), but still, a different approach than most!
September 6, 2023
I read a lot of short story collections and this one is my favorite so far this year, worth the price of admission solely for the 1-2-3 punch of "The Evaluator," "At the Hand of Every Beast" and "The Adventurer's Wife," the arriving back to back near the start of the book.
It's that middle one that will stay with me, with its image of a nightmarish living cathedral ravaging the French countryside. (The title story also more than earns that distinction, following a determined doctor and semi-hapless journalist investing a strange illness plaguing Uganda.)
But there are no weak stories here, and memorable, haunting images throughout. I can't wait for her next collection to arrive.
It's that middle one that will stay with me, with its image of a nightmarish living cathedral ravaging the French countryside. (The title story also more than earns that distinction, following a determined doctor and semi-hapless journalist investing a strange illness plaguing Uganda.)
But there are no weak stories here, and memorable, haunting images throughout. I can't wait for her next collection to arrive.
November 20, 2025
Not as strange as you would suspect or hope, I found. I think there were a lot of cool ideas presented in here but a lot of the stories left me wanting.
I feel like there were a lot of trappings of Weird Fiction in a lot of the stories but not a lot of actual Weird Fiction substance. I don’t know. It just felt kinda artificial.
There’s exceptions here though. I was creeped out by Fortunato pretty good, it was also conveniently one of the longer stories. The titular No One Will Come Back For Us was also pretty good, though I think it would have benefited from being a little longer.
Overall though this is one of them “Decent read but will never touch again” books, I think.
I feel like there were a lot of trappings of Weird Fiction in a lot of the stories but not a lot of actual Weird Fiction substance. I don’t know. It just felt kinda artificial.
There’s exceptions here though. I was creeped out by Fortunato pretty good, it was also conveniently one of the longer stories. The titular No One Will Come Back For Us was also pretty good, though I think it would have benefited from being a little longer.
Overall though this is one of them “Decent read but will never touch again” books, I think.
November 9, 2023
Absolutely marvelous! Seventeen short stories and not a dud in the bunch! Mohamed Jumps most from folk horror to sci-fi weirdness with absolute aplomb and I am living for it. Of the bunch my favorite are the 'real gods' universe stories ('Below the Kirk, Below the Hill', 'The Evaluator', 'the Honeymakers', 'Willing', & 'Us and Ours') mostly folk horror with a solid sprinkling of cosmic, but her deep science stories and general weird are also wonderful! If you're looking for well grounded cosmic horror look no further than No One Will Come Back For Us and Other Stories.
December 7, 2023
Below the Kirk, Below the Hill 3⭐
Instructions 3⭐
The Evaluator 4⭐
At the Hand of Every Beast 3,5⭐
The Adventurer's Wife 4⭐
The General’s Turn 4,5⭐
Sixteen Minutes 4,5⭐
Fortunato 4,5⭐
The Honeymakers 3⭐
Four Hours of a Revolution 3,5⭐
For Each of These Miseries 3⭐
Everything as Part of Its Infinite Place 3 ⭐
No One Will Come Back For Us 3 ⭐
Willing 3,5 ⭐
Us and Ours 3⭐
The Redoubtables 3 ⭐
Quietus 3,5 ⭐
Instructions 3⭐
The Evaluator 4⭐
At the Hand of Every Beast 3,5⭐
The Adventurer's Wife 4⭐
The General’s Turn 4,5⭐
Sixteen Minutes 4,5⭐
Fortunato 4,5⭐
The Honeymakers 3⭐
Four Hours of a Revolution 3,5⭐
For Each of These Miseries 3⭐
Everything as Part of Its Infinite Place 3 ⭐
No One Will Come Back For Us 3 ⭐
Willing 3,5 ⭐
Us and Ours 3⭐
The Redoubtables 3 ⭐
Quietus 3,5 ⭐
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