“Character studies, dystopian tales, and commentary on modern society… Alistair Moore has curated this collection beautifully” — Catherine Beeman, Reedsy Discovery
These stories span a period of about 12 years. One of the earliest is Kickoff, a very short flash fiction style story about a protest spilling over into violence, which was adapted into an award-winning short film (UK Film Festival Best British Short 2013) directed by Zoran Trajkovic.
The eight stories vary a lot in length, style and tone, from the dark humour and surrealism of LM039, in which a narcissistic researcher tries to get a lab monkey to speak, to the satire of Save the Future, in which a spiritual guru clashes very publicly with a scientist. The Box is a memoir-like account of a First World War veteran reflecting on his life in his final years.
One recurring theme is the hubris of puffed-up authority figures and the perils of trusting blindly in them – something that has become unintentionally relevant over the past two years, with the world convulsed by the coronavirus pandemic.