Sean Williams is a prolific and award-winning author who writes for all age groups and across multiple speculative genres, along with occasional forays into âthe real world, or reasonable facsimiles of the sameâ.
Short stories, Williams tells us, were the medium which originally gave him a sense of what he could achieve through writing. Although his focus eventually shifted to novels, examples of short-form work continued to emerge in the spaces between his larger projects, âenigmatic windows through which a much larger world can be glimpsed; haunting, memorable and seductiveâ.
This collection of 14 stories serves as a reflective bringing together of short fiction published across the last 20 years, framed with introductions describing the origin or personal significance of each and an invitation to read either âcover to coverâ or non-sequentially in a âchoose-your-own-adventureâ approach that emphasises the interlocking elements of otherwise disparate narrative worlds and styles.
There are many classically concept-driven stories that explore the implications of one or another technological trope (Williams admits to a particular obsession with that staple of sci-fi Ââ matter transportation or âd-matâ) and plant those musings within plots ranging from action-thriller, to existential and body horror, along with one satisfyingly charming and philosophic detective tale. âTeam Sharonâ â a suitably suburban portrait of mundane masculine perversion, set entirely within the bounds of depressing reality â is another highlight.
You might like
That range of subject matter, style and thematic concerns means even readers who are not genre fans will likely find something to capture their attention, even if the corollary is that many may not find it all equally engaging. Some of the twists or revelations on which certain narratives hinged didnât always hit home for me. Interestingly, it was the stories that delved into more commonplace, deeply familiar concerns â even if explored from within a fantastical world â which lingered most movingly.
These include novella-length piece âThe Sparkâ and its companion âUngentle Fireâ â both drawn from the world of Williamsâ popular Change novels. They seek to conclude a saga of two star-crossed young lovers who reunite later in life, in a way which skilfully subverts clichĂ© by meditating on what it means to see the âsparkâ of love and connection not as a static, predetermined destiny but as something that changes and must be constantly âbrought into beingâ anew.
Similarly, but in a completely realist setting, âImpossible Musicâ is the story of a passionate heavy-metal musician who loses his hearing and must navigate ways of reconnecting with a fundamentally changed world. The story preceded Williamsâ critically lauded novel of the same name and weaves a lightly drawn love story amid the narratorâs efforts to redefine what music means when it can no longer be heard.
Williams has an impressive imaginative range, but â as with all good genre fiction â his greatest strength lies in focusing on familiar truths of experience and heightening them in new ways. Established fans and new readers will find plenty of that in this âcollection of stories that shouldnât existâ.
Uncanny Angles, by Sean Williams, is published by Wakefield Press.
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
Free to share
This article may be shared online or in print under a Creative Commons licence