Locus Recommended Reading List

Showcasing longform fiction
by Mike Allen, C. S. E. Cooney,
Amanda J. McGee and Jessica P. Wick

“With fiction from C.S.E Cooney, Jessica P. Wick, Amanda J. McGee, and Mike Allen, Mythic Delirium’s excellent new anthology, A Sinister Quartet (edited by Mike Allen), provides fur­ther evidence that long-form genre fiction is not just alive and well but thriving.”
— Locus

“Easily one of the best things I’ve read this year . . . ‘The Twice Drowned Saint’ alone is worth five times the cost of the collection.”
— The Little Red Reviewer

World Fantasy Award finalist
Locus Recommended Reading List

“Allen’s strange and lovely fifth genre-melding fantasy anthology selects 20 new short stories of unusual variety, texture, compassion, and perception. … All the stories afford thought-provoking glimpses into alternative realities that linger, sparking unconventional thoughts, long after they are first encountered.”
— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“The arrangement is superb. This anthology of 20 stories can resemble a symphony of themes and variations in a wide range of keys, or a tapestry whose elements form patterns of imagery and meaning that shift and offer new insights throughout the book.”
— Locus

“Brilliant … Vivid prose and creepy concepts.”
— Publishers Weekly

“Rich word choices and settings that blend speculative concepts with quotidian reality highlight this stellar anthology of prose and poetry from well-known editor Mike Allen (Clockwork Phoenix) and his wife and copublisher, Anita Allen … This anthology is a winner from cover to cover.”
— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“This book is in several distinct ways a look into the future: the future of fantasy and science fiction, diverse, strange, and wonderful; the future of these individual writers, many of whom are at or near the beginning of careers which promise to be interesting; and, additionally, the future of publishing, in which a crowd-sourced publication from a very small press can produce, and can present professionally and beautifully, work which is at the height of what is being written in genre. This particular phoenix has risen from its ashes triumphant.”
— Strange Horizons

“Allen’s third volume of extraordinary short stories reaches new heights of rarity and wonder … Without a wrong note, all the stories in this anthology admirably fulfill Allen’s promise of ‘beauty and strangeness.'”
— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Allen finds his groove for this second annual anthology of weird stories, selecting 16 wonderfully evocative, well-written tales. … Each story fits neatly alongside the next, and the diversity of topics, perspectives and authors makes this cosmopolitan anthology a winner.”
— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Locus Recommended Reading List

“Author and editor Allen (Mythic) has compiled a neatly packaged set of short stories that flow cleverly and seamlessly from one inspiration to another. …. Lush descriptions and exotic imagery startle, engross, chill and electrify the reader, and all 19 stories have a strong and delicious taste of weird.”
— Publishers Weekly

“A very strong first volume … Established writers and new names all are in good form here.”
— Locus

“Mythic 2 can be viewed as its own fantasy universe, with a heavenly realm of gods, a middle realm of lesser magic and human enchantment, and a lower realm where all the magic has drained away, leaving imperfect memories and forlorn longing or opportunities for erudite display.”
— Strange Horizons

“Mythic is a beautiful book, well designed inside and out. … No less care went into the thought in selecting and arranging the works.”
— Strange Horizons

ORDERING INFORMATION

out of print