Ominous Realities Review
By Casey Douglass
If you are a fan of
happy endings, I wouldn’t pick up a copy of Grey Matter Press’
Ominous Realities. Some of the tales inside might not have a
particularly bad ending, but even those don’t come anywhere near
happy. If happy was an exclusive VIP bar where all of the drinks are
free, these stories linger two blocks away huddled around burning
tires fighting over who gets to swig the turpentine next.
Sixteen stories are
contained within, each offering the authors’ own takes on
speculative fiction and reality, from hellish beings to apocalyptic
end of times survivalists struggling to keep humanity going.
The stories are:
“How to Make a Human”
by Martin Rose is a tale of robots trying to recreate the extinct
human race.
“Angie” by John
F.D. Taff is the tasty survival tale of a bickering couple during a
zombie-type apocalypse.
“On the Threshold”
by William Meikle is a tale of boffins bringing dangerous things into
our own reality.
“Doyoshota” by Ken
Altabef is the story of a strange background hum that residents of
Doyoshota begin to hear one day.
“Third Offense” by
Gregory L. Norris follows an unhappy soul who just wants to express
himself in a world of advertising and stifled creativity.
“Metamorphosis” by
J. Daniel Stone follows a brother and sister on a subway ride that
opens their eyes to a whole new aspect of the world.
“We Are Hale, We Are
Whole” by Eric Del Carlo depicts a future where people are paid in
health credits and the ones with the deadliest jobs gain the most
whilst risking it all.
“Pure Blood and
Evergreen” by Bracken MacLeod is set in an internment camp and
tells the tribulations of two strangers who develop a painful
friendship.
“John, Paul, Xavier,
Ironside and George (But Not Vincent)” by Hugh A.D. Spencer tells
the story of a world beset by dangerous clouds of nano-bots ripping
everything asunder and one man’s job of caring for a disabled man
in the final days of his life.
“And the Hunter, Home
from the Hill” by Edward Morris is a quirky look at superhero tales
and what they might really be based on.
“Born Bad” by
Jonathan Balog delves into the topic of good and evil and nature
against nurture. Which will prevail?
“The Last Bastion of
Space” by Ewan C. Forbes shows a world where corporations pay
people for the unused capacity in their brains.
“Every Soul is a
Grimoire” by Allen Griffin is a story of the occult, madness and
the perils of dabbling.
“From the East” by
Alice Goldfuss follows a scientist lost in a jungle and desperately
trying to work out what has brought about the end of humanity.
“Deciding Identity”
by Paul Williams is the tale of two parallel worlds about to collide
and a vote to decide which will be destroyed.
“The Last Elf” by
T. Fox Dunham is a tale of the hunt for and extermination of the
thing that brings man false hope.
I enjoyed reading all
of the stories in Ominous Realities but the couple of
stand-out ones for me were We Are Hale, We Are Whole and
Deciding Identity. The former just intrigued me with its look
at the question of taking the safe route through life or going all
out and hoping for something great to come of it. The latter I
enjoyed because it was written in a clever alternating paragraph way
and gave the ending that I didn’t expect.
I would recommend
Ominous Realities to anyone who enjoys dark and apocalyptic
fiction, and who used to enjoy The Outer Limits kind of
ending, where the best outcome you might hope for was somewhere
between the poles of happy or sad.
Ominous Realities
is bleak, in a cerebral and satisfying way.
Check out the Grey Matter Press page for Ominous Realities here.
Check out the Grey Matter Press page for Ominous Realities here.
Rating: 4/5
You might also like to
check out my review of Grey Matter Press’ Splatterlands here. A
compilation of splatterpunk stories that make you feel dirty for
reading them.
