A dazzling collection of short stories, intellectual without pretension, that weave and re-enter each other in fascinating ways. It’s impossible to read this collection without being reminded of other writers’ works, and equally hard to decide exactly who influenced whom. Certainly many of the works resemble those of HP Lovecraft in presenting themselves as contemporary or eye-witness accounts of fictional happenings, or as reviews of non-existent books. I was also strongly reminded of one of my favourite Robert Heinlein short stories “The man who travelled in elephants”: that same magical realism appearing in a framework that’s almost, but not quite, science fiction.

5/5. Finished Sunday 26 September, 2021.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)