Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Williamson, Ephemera (2006)

Neil Williamson, The Ephemera. Elastic Press, 2006. Pp. 217. ISBN 0-95488-126-5. £5.99.

Reviewed by Djibril al-Ayad

This latest collection from the growing stable of Elastic Press features sixteen impressively varied short stories, published over the last ten years in such venues as The Third Alternative, Interzone, and other small press titles. One story is previously unpublished. The literary range covered by Williamson between these covers is very wide—both in terms of genre and mood and style—but almost all of them are somewhere between good and excellent in quality. As a collection, consequently, this is far more readable cover-to-cover than most.