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Shards
Shards is dark fiction at its shortest and sharpest, a collection of disturbing stories from Australia's master of dark flash fiction, Shane Jiraiya Cummings. Each shard is an imaginative fragment, broken, sharp, and poised to draw blood.
- GenresHorror
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
2 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Shane Jiraiya Cummings
32 books35 followersShane Jiraiya Cummings has been acknowledged as "one of Australia’s leading voices in dark fantasy". Shane is the author of the forthcoming Yokai Wars series (Circle of Tears, Clockwork Legion, and Blight of the Underworld) and the dark fiction books The Abandonment of Grace and Everything After, Shards, the Apocrypha Sequence (Deviance, Divinity, Insanity, and Inferno), and the Ravenous Gods cycle (Requiem for the Burning God and Dreams of Destruction). He has won the Australian Shadows Award and two Ditmar Awards, and he has been nominated for more than twenty other major awards, including Spain's Premios Ignotus.
Shane is an Active Member of the Horror Writers Association and former Vice President of the Australian Horror Writers Association. When he is not writing, Shane is an editor and journalist by day. By night (and on weekends), he can be found indulging in hobbies such as playing the guitar, photography, sword fighting, and testing the limits of his new cruiser motorcycle.
In his youth, Shane was trained in the deadly arts of the ninja, and the name Jiraiya (lit. "Young Thunder", after the legendary ninja Jiraiya) was bestowed upon him by his sensei.
Shane was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. He lived for many years in Perth, Western Australia, and Wellington, New Zealand, but he recently returned to his old home town to revisit the ghosts of his past.
More information on Shane (including his free fiction) can be found online at www.jiraiya.com.au.
Shane is an Active Member of the Horror Writers Association and former Vice President of the Australian Horror Writers Association. When he is not writing, Shane is an editor and journalist by day. By night (and on weekends), he can be found indulging in hobbies such as playing the guitar, photography, sword fighting, and testing the limits of his new cruiser motorcycle.
In his youth, Shane was trained in the deadly arts of the ninja, and the name Jiraiya (lit. "Young Thunder", after the legendary ninja Jiraiya) was bestowed upon him by his sensei.
Shane was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. He lived for many years in Perth, Western Australia, and Wellington, New Zealand, but he recently returned to his old home town to revisit the ghosts of his past.
More information on Shane (including his free fiction) can be found online at www.jiraiya.com.au.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 20, 2017
A disturbing collection of short, sharp tales from one of Australia's most imaginative dark fiction scribes. I especially enjoyed the suburban magic of "Spin the Witch Bottle" and the Dead Zone feel to "Prescience". In particular, fans of supernatural horror and urban fantasy will enjoy Shards - and indeed all of Shane's work.
February 12, 2011
Shards by Shane Jiraiya Cummings is as its subheading spells out; a collection of short, sharp, tales.
A collection of polished Flash fiction, it leaves the reader with poignant imagery and as horror, a lingering sense of unease.
Bad flash can be like a half rendered idea, an unfinished thought -thankfully Shards is a collection of carefully crafted work that leaves you with a sense of foreboding, or wishing you hadn't just eaten.
Like any collection there are things the reader will prefer dependent on their own tastes and experience. While there were pieces that didn't grab me as a reader, there was nothing in the collection that felt to me as if it were padding.
There is a sense here that Shards is a bit of a showcase of what Cummings is capable of as a horror writer. While all tinged with the macabre there is breadth and depth in its offerings. We have the delicious and darkly humorous Smoldering Eyes at only 5 lines long, the witty Revision is Murder and the rather grotesque Itch.
My three top picks though were:
R U OK - terrifying in its depiction of a very realistic and plausible situation.
Post Card from Paris (a reply) - again because the story skirts the edge of plausibility - this horrifying situation could happen.
Congo Jenga - almost for its title alone, as an excellent metaphor for the tale it names. This tale riffs nicely of the dangers of traveling the dark continent and the punishment that awaits those with dark desires.
A reader might be forgiven for thinking that writing flash is easy because it's short, I think like poetry though, writing good flash, polished flash is a skill that requires practice. And Shards is the collection of a well practiced horror writer.
Shards is available through Amazon Kindle, Smashwords or in print form from Brimstone Press. It contains 33 macabre and monstrous tales of varying length.
Note: this book was provided by the author at no cost to myself.
A collection of polished Flash fiction, it leaves the reader with poignant imagery and as horror, a lingering sense of unease.
Bad flash can be like a half rendered idea, an unfinished thought -thankfully Shards is a collection of carefully crafted work that leaves you with a sense of foreboding, or wishing you hadn't just eaten.
Like any collection there are things the reader will prefer dependent on their own tastes and experience. While there were pieces that didn't grab me as a reader, there was nothing in the collection that felt to me as if it were padding.
There is a sense here that Shards is a bit of a showcase of what Cummings is capable of as a horror writer. While all tinged with the macabre there is breadth and depth in its offerings. We have the delicious and darkly humorous Smoldering Eyes at only 5 lines long, the witty Revision is Murder and the rather grotesque Itch.
My three top picks though were:
R U OK - terrifying in its depiction of a very realistic and plausible situation.
Post Card from Paris (a reply) - again because the story skirts the edge of plausibility - this horrifying situation could happen.
Congo Jenga - almost for its title alone, as an excellent metaphor for the tale it names. This tale riffs nicely of the dangers of traveling the dark continent and the punishment that awaits those with dark desires.
A reader might be forgiven for thinking that writing flash is easy because it's short, I think like poetry though, writing good flash, polished flash is a skill that requires practice. And Shards is the collection of a well practiced horror writer.
Shards is available through Amazon Kindle, Smashwords or in print form from Brimstone Press. It contains 33 macabre and monstrous tales of varying length.
Note: this book was provided by the author at no cost to myself.
November 21, 2017
This was a collection of dark tales, some of the stories were good other not so much. I also found a few of them the same such as the storyline with the same outcome. would recommend if you like creepy type stories.
April 3, 2018
Different and Good.
I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. Most of them were unpredictable, and had unique endings. The writing style was good, as was the variety of content. If you're looking for something different, try this compilation.
I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. Most of them were unpredictable, and had unique endings. The writing style was good, as was the variety of content. If you're looking for something different, try this compilation.
November 19, 2011
Don't really have anything to say about it at all.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews