THE CARNIVAL OF HUMAN NATURE

“Welcome to the carnival city, most extraordinary of visitors, our highly distinguished patrons.” The words reverberated from the house walls in a chorus of echoes, emanating from the gills of somber gargoyles and from murmuring water pipes. The city was a maze of fog and bridges, gondolas drifting over canals, their punting poles stirring up…

Weiterlesen

DESCENT INTO THE ARCHIVES

“We require the Tirani correspondence from the archives. Do not open it. Do not read it. Bring it to us.” The instruction came from the fax machine line by line, accompanied by toneless buzzing. M. watched the paper, searching for a way to escape this assignment, but there was none. The instruction was in writing,…

Weiterlesen

THE GARBAGE MANDALA

“Irakov’s breath condensed in the air, barely visible in the traces of brightness that trickled down from the streetlights. The hours before dawn always seemed to be the coldest, perhaps because they were furthest from the sun, perhaps because the men themselves were still at their most vulnerable. “It’s some kind of mechanical device, like…

Weiterlesen

Video: THE DUST BATHYNAUT

Please check out the kickstarter for “Sins and Other Worlds”, a marvelous anthology of dark science fiction put together by Eric Fomley and containing my story “The Dust Bathynaut”!

Weiterlesen

THE TYRANT AND THE FOG

“A thick and heavy fog was hanging over the street, a theater curtain possessed by unnatural life. If the Castaway extended his arm, the fog swallowed his hand, transmuted it into something strange, a black claw or a hovering insect. The Castaway looked around, searching for some point of reference, something familiar. The fog ebbed…

Weiterlesen

NOWHERIAN FUNERAL

“The house was said to have been ravaged by a storm that had yet to reach the rest of the town, and that its occupants had abandoned it after that future night. It was the very last house of town and beyond it stretched only vast fields, where the Gespernbauern didn’t sow or reap, but…

Weiterlesen

IN THE FESTIVAL TENT

“The tent begins to open like a blossoming flower, reaching out with its ropes and tarpaulins like straggling masses of tentacles. Mouths open, tongues roll out, and a multitude of eyes watch the spectacle of the congregated town. As always, there is hesitation, a long pause while the men and women muster their courage. Yunrum…

Weiterlesen

THE FESTIVAL OF DISSOLUTION

“The Festival of Dissolution is coming to town, and just like in previous years, Franok is still too young to go. He and his friends know very little about the festival, only that it is in a clearing deep in the forest, only adults are allowed visit it, and there is a great tent in…

Weiterlesen

NOWHERIAN FUNERAL

“The house was said to have been ravaged by a storm that had yet to reach the rest of the town, and that its occupants had abandoned it after that future night. It was the very last house of town and beyond it stretched only vast fields, where the Gespernbauern didn’t sow or reap, but…

Weiterlesen