Triangulation: Lost Voices (Triangulation Anthologies)

I love speculative fiction anthologies, but sometimes they can seem a bit too familiar—similar themes, subjects--even authors, at times. So I was thrilled to dive into Triangulation: Lost Voices and discover a treasure trove of authors new to me and stories uniquely thrilling. The theme of the anthology is a good one—lost voices and both the silences and echoes they leave behind. The authors in the collection approach the theme from a surprising and diverse range of subjects, settings, and characters, but what unites my favorites is a sense of dream-like dislocation, as if being taken out of any easily located time and place and set down somewhere at once surreally strange and all too familiarly “real”—whatever that means in these odd, unsettling worlds. Overall the stories are imaginative and well-written; favorites include Passing Through, by Alexandra Grunberg, a short piece putting an unexpected spin on being dead; The First and Second Offering, by H.L. Fullerton, in which the wild creatures find a way to fight back—with a little unexpected help; Bear-Woman, by Rebecca Harwell, about not just a bear and a woman but the strange places in-between; Sea Queen, Sailor Queen, by Melissa Mead, a rollicking sea tale with a lively “hero” and an equally determined “villain”—but which is which?; Opportune, by Paul Abbamondi, another sea tale, this one dream-like in its unique, water-spirit perspective; and The Ghost of Arriscado Basin, by Jon Michael Kelley, in which two schoolboy brothers get a lesson that turns everything they think they know upside down, the end result of which is a mind-blowing tale with a nice twist of humor in just the right place.Highly recommended!