sawyl | Somewhere Beneath Those Waves

And so to the most recent collection of Sarah Monette's short stories in the form of Somewhere Beneath Those Waves. Unlike The Bone Key, the stories span a wide range of genres from dark faerie tales to brutal SFnal war stories via all points in-between. Some of the themes are common across the stories: loners trying to find ways to connect; people who can't or won't conform to expectations or who take radical or brave decisions that completely overturn the conventions of the story that seem to have them trapped.

All the stories are wonderful. Each one beautifully written. Every one a dark and unsettling delight. From the Carterian faerie tale, to the Orpheus myth that isn't, to the Marxist Dream-Quest for Unknown Kadath, to the Victorian seance gone wrong, to the slice of superior Southern Gothic that gets more and more upsetting with every revelation, it's hard not to enthuse about each piece in turn. But, since brevity is the soul of wit and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, it's time to conclude: I really liked it; it's worthy successor to the gothic charms of The Bone Key.