Dangerous Games, an anthology – Book Review

Dangerous Games is an interesting collection of SFF short stories – there are eighteen of them, for a total of 320 pages put together by Jonathan Oliver (an interview with him can be found here) –  that explores the concept of game in all its possible nuances.

The foreword is quite telling: “In a world ruled by chance, one rash decision could bring down the house, one roll of the dice could bring untold wealth, or the end of everything.The players have gathered around the table, each to tell their story—often dark, always compelling. Within you will find tales of the players and the played, lives governed by games deadly, weird, or downright bizarre.” A committed gamer myself (RPG and more traditional games like the the Japanese Go) I couldn’t but read it as soon as it has been made available for review on Netgalley. Some of the authors, like Chuck Wendig and Pat Cadigan, I knew – and followed – since long time. Others have been for me a pleasant discovery. And a few stories left me a bit puzzled, possibly because they are more fantasy than SF. The best of them, however, combine literary elements in a unique blend of speculative fiction that I found most entertaining.

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(Credit: Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s blog)

A good example of that is The Yellow Door, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. The story is a fascinating one, where the bizarre and almost magic properties of a mysterious soup makes people crazy, addicted, or whatever in between. It made me think to some of E.A.Poe stories of the kind of the Cask of Amontillado, even though the plot here is quite different – no  revenge motive, for a start. But you still get the atmosphere and the crime and the mystery involved, and the same open-ended conclusion. The fact the author declared it’s based on true stuff just made it more enticing.

Completely different, but not less entertaining, is Chrysalises, by Benjanun Sriduangkaew. If The Yellow Door reminded me somehow of Poe, this tale has brought to my mind some fantastic tales so typical of Japanese fiction, like  some of the legends translated by Lafcadio Hearn.yuki_onna_by_japanmeonly-d49wykx In both cases, we have an insect-like world in a sort of fairy tale. However, there’s a distinction in tones. While Japanese legends are sad, but generally serene stories, this one is dark and chilling.

I have mentioned only these two, but others could have been equally offered for analysis. The quality is consistently high across the whole collection, and it makes for an enjoyable experience no matter which area of speculative fiction you prefer.

Just for the record, this is the complete list of the authors: Chuck Wendig, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Lavie Tidhar, Benjanun Sriduangkaew, Paul Kearney, Libby McGugan, Yoon Ha Lee, Gary Northfield, Melanie Tem, Hillary Monahan, Tade Thompson, Rebecca Levene, Ivo Stourton, Gary McMahon, Robert Shearman, Nik Vincent, Helen Marshall,Pat Cadigan. A short summary of their stories can be found here. Definitively worth my time, and I would certainly recommend it to all SFF lovers.

(Note: I received this book as an ARC from Rebellion through Netgalley.)

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