Strange Birds Indeed

Here is the Locus review of Strange Birds (Nick Gevers):

Dreamhaven Books has started a series of story chapbooks illustrated by Lisa Snellings-Clark - her bizarre images prompt the writers' imaginations - and the first, "Strange Birds" by Gene Wolfe, is very good indeed. The opening tale, 'On a Vacant Face a Bruise', relates the arrival among circus folk of a runaway boy, Tom, who, guided by a curious trio of talking "birds," joins the outfit as an assistant, and, eventually, a beast master. As they tour the galaxy, Tom grows up and seeks justice for those around him; the atmosphere is richly peculiar. But the true highlight of "Strange Birds" is 'Sob in the Silence', a contemporary story about a "horror writer" bent on a horrible, self-indulgent crime; as becomes obliquely evident, the nihilistic mindset of his genre is the true guilty party, and the ghosts who haunt his house and entrap him are only avenging a philosophy that explicitly denies them Heaven. This is chilling, masterful writing, Wolfe in exceptional form.




And even better, the books are now available to order: DreamHaven Books, Strange Birds.


My coffee has been drunk. It's time for making art.

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