Descrizione:
Finalist for the Aurora Award
Doug's first collection of short fiction, from the award-winning UK press, PS Publishing, as part of their "Showcase" series highlighting genre fiction's best up-and-coming writers.
“Highly, highly recommended” —Fantasy Book Critic
We all have things we hide away inside—secrets, fears, aspects of ourselves we keep locked away. Or try to.
In that respect, the characters we meet in Impossibilia are like any of us. They have things inside them too. Only their things are a little... different.
A dead wife that won't leave. A wolf with a past. The secret to being the luckiest man alive.
In 'Bouquet of Flowers in Vase, by van Gogh', remote viewing drives a search through the past for lost masterpieces. An ex-CIA agent, haunted by the presence of his dead wife, falls in love with a beautiful remote viewer with her own secret. But can viewing the past change the present?
Cree Indian legends, a love triangle, a covert government agency, and shape shifters collide in the award-winning 'Spirit Dance', described in Challenging Destiny as "...a vivid and wonderfully written tale about Native Canadian spirits, in the vein of Thomas King."
In 'Going Down to Lucky Town', an itinerant gambler chases a streak of luck across the country, while trying to win back the love of his daughter. The secret he finds forces him into an ultimate gamble for the highest stakes of all: his daughter's life.
And through all the stories, these characters share one more thing beyond what they hold inside. In the decisions they face, in the choices they make, they do what they do out of love. Lost love, found love, the love of a child. But love. So maybe they aren't that different from us after all...
"Rarely have I seen such an apt title to any book! Douglas Smith has given us three amazing stories that are so unusual and beautiful that no other name than Impossibilia could possibly describe this collection. Each tale was rapture and ecstasy, magical and mysterious, perfect and implausible. In short, I loved them all from the first word to the last. ... I don’t know what else to say without spoiling things for you so I won’t say anything else, except READ THIS BOOK!!!" — Mass Movement Magazine
"The three stories collected in 'Impossibilia' are very different, covering almost the entire range of speculative genres. The writing is superb. Douglas Smith is an artisan and his stories beautifully crafted. ... In my search for the perfect short story, the three in this volume certainly qualify." —Kelly Jensen, SF Crowsnest Book Reviews
"Both thematically and stylistically, these stories sometimes recall the work of better known authors, including Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, and Ray Bradbury. But Smith puts such a personal stamp on his stories, and invests them with such depth of feeling, that they transcend the dangers of … imitation and emerge as wholly original. … There is a certain exhilaration that comes from reading the book’s complex and powerfully emotional stories couched in that deft and smooth prose. It is easy to see why PS Publishing considers Smith an author who deserves more attention. … [Smith deserves] to be known to by a very wide audience indeed." —Dead Reckonings review magazine |
