Tor.com reviews CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 4
Clockwork Phoenix 4 is the subject of Brit Mandelo’s latest “Short Fiction Spotlight” at Tor.com. Brit writes:
Overall, these are good pieces and the anthology is even in quality—amusingly enough, I wouldn’t call most of them experimental or slipstream etc., though a few certainly are. On the other hand, “bold in the style of their telling” applies more or less across the board: all of the authors go in full-speed on the tone and artifice of their stories, which is notable in couple of cases. A few of the most engaging pieces in the collection are fairly straightforward tales of the dark fantastic; other powerful pieces have contemporary settings of various sorts, occasionally science-fictional.
There are too many stories to discuss them all—and I actually think that’s a shame, because again, this is an evenly good anthology where very few of the pieces didn’t stand up to the caliber of the rest. … The stories are, for the majority, executed with panache and depth; their authors have done a good job across the board at developing complex characters and settings, imbuing the stories with tension and, often, emotional intensity. I’d certainly recommend it for an afternoon’s reading of short fiction that spans a variety of genres, tones, and themes.
The review highlights stories by Gemma Files, Marie Brennan, Kenneth Schneyer, Benjanun Sriduangkaew and Barbara Krasnoff. Congratulations to them and to all the CP4 authors.
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