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LOST SIGNALS is an anthology edited by Max Booth III & Lori Michelle. I seem to be on the wrong "wavelength" with this one, compared to other reviews. While there were some stories that were rather impressive and made me think about them afterwards, I found that the majority just fell flat for me. A few even seemed like they were only half written stories--either that, or I was just hopelessly lost in figuring out the meaning to them.There were some standouts for me, however. --"If He Summons Hi...
So, I made a note after each story as I read it. This anthology was THAT good. Here are my thoughts below:If He Summons His Herd by Matthew M. Bartlett. This is how you do Weird fiction! I absolutely loved this story.Transmission by T. E. Grau. Another brilliant story for this anthology, and I'm only 2 in! Cosmic Horror at its finest!The Dangsturm Interruption by Joseph Boutiette Jr. Science Fiction/Cosmic Horror. Super short experimental weirdness.The Givens Sensor Board by Josh Malerman. I had...
There were two or three decent stories but the rest were of varying levels of amateurish skill, stories you might find in a self-published collection. A few concerned weird radio signals and “numbers stations,” but most barely met the “lost signals” hook and felt like random selections.
This was awesome, every single story in this collection is fantastic. You might think that a collection of short stories featuring transmissions, radio stations and other electrical signals might be a strange idea but it works brilliantly! The stories chosen for the anthology work really well together and the order of the stories must have been really thought through, it feels that each story shares a theme with the story that precedes and follows it.The anthology also features some of the best
How to properly read this book:* Be alone. Go into your bedroom, close the door.* Find recordings of EVPS, television/radio static, Numbers Stations. Turn them on, listen while reading.* Turn off the light. Read by candlelight, Christmas tree lights, kindle lights, whatever is dim.* Hope that you don't fall asleep and have strange transmissions invade your dreams.(I received an e-copy of the book from the publishers in exchange for a review)
High caliber anthology with a great, creepy premise. The authors give the subject matter a lot of range, and there's a lot to love about the overall product. Standout favorites included The Givens Sensor Board, by Josh Malerman, The Desert of Wounded Frequencies, by Betty Rocksteady, The Man in Room 603, by Dyer Wilk, Armageddon Baby, by John C. Foster, Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home, by Damien Angelica Walters, and All That You Leave Behind, by Paul Michael Anderson.
Mixed bag, as anthologies tend to be. There were few excellent pieces here and coupke that were less than stellar, but all in all I had good time with this.
The concept didn’t seem very appealing to me, at first, but the more stories I read, the more I began to appreciate how original some of the ideas were. Nearly every story in Lost Signals is about personal horror; many stories have characters that connect very well to each other, with relationships that must endure whatever horrific conflict is transpiring. There are a couple of exceptions; arguably, there is only one story that brings in shock value, but its presence in the collection is timely...
This is a long collection, and it took me a long time to get through it, chipping away here and there. I definitely found a good few winners -- the entries by Dyer Wilk, Gabino Iglesias, and James Newman come to mind in particular. I labored with a fair number of them, though, both stylistically and in forming a connection with the concept. I'd have liked it if more of them were short and sharp like Newman's.
Themed anthologies can tend to have a problem of too much "sameness" about them. But do not have those trepidations with "Lost Signals" edited by Max Booth III. There are some powerful stories here written by (in some cases) relatively unknown authors. Don't get me wrong, there is some great work hee from Matthew Bartlet, T.E. Grau, Michael Paul Gonzalez, Damien Angelica Walters and James Newman. I recommend applying portion control in consuming the variety plate on offer here. I tried to limit
24 stories, total average 2.79. There were some stories I liked but over-all it just wasn't the anthology for me.
PMM Publishing is no stranger to deliver extremely original works, and Lost Signals is the umpteenth example of a well curated collection of compelling stories. I couldn't help appreciating the cure that has been put into this anthology -from the cover to the great illustrations, everything is perfect. Each and every story is beautifully written -fluent and engaging, this book will absorb you completely. Read more on The Serial Reader Blog.
Just so, so long (I think the PDF version I read was 288 sides of small print A4) but luckily I was able to breeze past about 40% of it by skipping a story whenever it did two out of these three things: referencing the main character drinking whiskey, naming the manufacturer of a handgun, or an out-of-character paragraph leering at a female character. A handful of great stories in here, but I've long been wary of short genre fiction based on the mostly time-saving assumption that it's not worth
As with most anthologies, the quality of the individual stories varies in Lost Signals and while a few didn't do much for me, the collection overall is well worth reading if you enjoy horror.A lot of enjoyment comes from how the authors make use of the broad theme of the book, with the inevitable stories about weird radio transmissions, and others that get even weirder, darker or both. There are references to the Cthulhu mythos, Twilight Zone-ish dead people calling on phones, jovial electronic
Given that I'm notorious for being an short story anthology grump, the long-awaited LOST SIGNALS was some of the best time I've had reading one. The best stories were Paul Michael Anderson's dark and suffocating "All That you Leave Behind" and T.E Grau's contemporary classic "Transmission" followed by Damien Angelica Walters' "Little Girl Blue Come Cry Your Way Home", George Cotronis' "Darkhorse Actual", Amanda Hard's "Rosabelle Believe" and John C. Foster's twisted and oddly sassy "Armageddon B...
If He Summons His Heard by Matthew M. Bartlett ★★★★☆ The first cut is the deepest. Finn felt a personal connection to the dark mystery of his town. The story never lets you in all the way, but you feel it when it doesn't let Finn in either.Transmissions by T.E. Grau ★★★☆☆ “The voice in the darkness had sliced open the forbidden fruit and offered a taste to Max.” Wandering trucker finds himself drawn to an abandoned radio station in the desert run by the disciples of the Old Ones. This should ha...
Not taking my own story into account, I give this antho 4 out of 5 stars. (My story bumps it up to a 5, suckaz!)Seriously tho, so much talent, grateful to be a part of this.
I'll be writing a full length review of this later in the week, but wanted to put a quick two cents in here.Lost Signals is brilliant in concept and even more so in execution. With outstanding and disturbing stories by T. E. Grau, Gabino Iglesias, John Foster, and others it's a who's who of some of the best voices in short genre fiction. I highly recommend this book.
When editors Lori Michelle and Max Booth III put out the call for Lost Signals, they were looking for "...horror fiction about radiotelegraphy. We want to be disturbed. Stories should somehow involve radios, radio stations, radars, cell phones, military broadcasts, distress signals, walkie talkies, podcasts, or anything similar." So, right out of the starting gate, we have that first element covered. They have a unique and intriguing theme that is of interest to the authors involved in the proje...
This eclectic anthology is jam packed with stories. My favorites included three tales of obsession: "Children of a German Autumn" by Matt Andrew, "The Small Hours" by Vince Darcangelo, and "Hush" by Regina Solomond. The rich sensory details of Andrew's eerie tale transport the reader seamlessly to the story world of East Berlin in 1977 and 1992, where a mother strives to protect her son. Derangeleo's protagonist grapples with the psychotic pull of the Lurking Man entrenched within his psyche. So...