1952-53 (collected 1954) / Audiobook / 169 pages / USA
***
The best stories adopt an alien perspective. The worst are about demons.
Faves: 'The Monsters,' 'Keep Your Shape,' 'Seventh Victim.'
Worsties: 'The King's Wishes,' 'Warm,' 'The Demons.'
1977 / Audiobook / 192 pages / UK
***
The monastic double-act prefigures The Name of the Rose, but this mystery is less compelling. Like all good historical fiction, you laugh at the characters' zany obsessions, then realise it's just a variation on more familiar nonsense. It was mainly worth sitting through for Stephen Thorne's narration, the comforting voice of childhood audiobooks.
Rhys Hughes, The Smell of Telescopes
1996-2000 (collected 2000) / Ebook / 280 pages / UK*****
Setting myself moronic reading themes pays off every now and then, I probably never would have come across this obscure oddity from a new favourite writer without it. These twenty-six tales of Weird Wales share the occasional irrepressible character, but they're mainly linked by recurring preoccupations and a consistent tone that can't help itself from regularly deflating the unnerving atmosphere with exquisite puns and convoluted twists. Too many faves to bother listing.
China Miéville, Emma Bircham and Max Schaefer, Looking for Jake and Other Stories
1998-2005 (collected 2005) / Audiobook / 303 pages / UK****
Not as many stand-outs as his next collection, but still an engaging mix of moderately weird tales and successful and failed experiments.
Faves: 'Entry Taken from a Medical Encyclopaedia,' 'Different Skies,' The Tain.
Worsties: 'An End to Hunger,' ''Tis the Season,' 'On The Way to the Front.'
Faves: 'Entry Taken from a Medical Encyclopaedia,' 'Different Skies,' The Tain.
Worsties: 'An End to Hunger,' ''Tis the Season,' 'On The Way to the Front.'
2019 / Audiobook / 304 pages / UK
***
A strange mix of a comedian's 2017 diary and eclectic album reviews. I didn't feel like bursting my synthwave bubble and checking out as many of the recommendations as I normally would, apart from the irresistibly bizarre ones like gospel black metal and the Flanders band. It never stopped being distracting that he pronounces "record" like an American.
