Title: Boys, Beasts & Men
Author: Sam J. Miller
Publisher: Tachyon Publications
Publication Date: May 2022
Pages: 232
Format: eBook - EPUB
Genre: LGBT Short Stories
Source: ARC from Publisher
In Nebula Award-winning author Sam J. Miller’s devastating debut short-fiction collection, featuring an introduction by Amal El-Mohtar, queer infatuation, inevitable heartbreak, and brutal revenge seamlessly intertwine. Whether innocent, guilty, or not even human, the beings in Miller’s gorgeously crafted worlds can destroy readers, yet leave them wanting more.
Despite his ability to control the ambient digital cloud, a foster teen falls for a clever con-man. Luring bullies to a quarry, a boy takes clearly enumerated revenge through unnatural powers of suggestion. In the aftermath of a shapeshifting alien invasion, a survivor fears that he brought something out of the Arctic to infect the rest of the world. A rebellious group of queer artists create a new identity that transcends even the anonymity of death.
Boys, Beasts & Men was an intriguing collection of tales tenuously linked by short snatches of another story interspersed between them. The stories certainly contained some interesting concepts and ideas, all within the loose genre of speculative fiction, and I enjoyed that aspect of this collection. A couple of the stories caught my attention, but for the most part, although I found these tales intellectually interesting, I never really engaged with them on a deeper level, so I was always reading at something of a distance, without much emotional connection. As such, I am giving this book three and a half stars. It was an interesting collection featuring some unique ideas, but while there was nothing wrong with the writing, I just never fully got into the stories for some reason.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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