Nothing Is Everything by Simon Strantzas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Simon Strantzas’s fifth collection brings together ten prime examples of why he’s considered one of the best authors of “strange stories” working today. He’s a master at building a sense of unease and keeping his readers off-balance. You won’t find explanations for supernatural occurrences in a Simon Strantzas story, but you will find yourself thinking about them long after you’ve read them. Among the strongest pieces in this collection, in my opinion, are the novella “All Reality Blossoms in Flames,” in which a group of anti-establishment artists take up a cause that turns out to be part of something much larger than they can control, and “The Terrific Mr. Toucan,” in which a cheap dinner-theater magic show goes hauntingly awry. But the strongest story in the collection, and my absolute favorite, is “Ghost Dogs,” which is an expert piece of dark science fiction that utilizes pitch-perfect voice and tone. An original story to the collection, “Ghost Dogs” is worth the cover price alone. Strantzas’s fiction continues to leave me in awe, and NOTHING IS EVERYTHING is a welcome addition to his growing body of work.
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