Promise by Christi Nogle
I would like to thank Flame Tree Press and Anne from Random Things Tours for an advance copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Flame Tree Press
Published – Out Now
Price – £12.95 paperback £3.92 Kindle eBook
Promise collects Christi Nogle’s best futuristic stories ranging from plausible tech-based science fiction to science fantasy stories about aliens in our midst: chameleonic foils hover in the skies, you can order a headset to speak and dream with your dog, and your devices sometimes connect not just to the web but to the underworld. These tales will recall the stories of Ray Bradbury, television programs such as Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone, and novels such as Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin or Under the Skinby Michel Faber. They are often strange and dreadful but veer towards themes of hope, potential, promise
Stories can be very simple where a leads to b and then c. Stories can be snapshots of a moment and leave the reader room to think what comes next and some stories fit play with all of those and create something different. In Christi Nogle’s beguiling short fiction collection Promise we have an unusual sweeping collection of tales that an unsettle and play with time and identity in many unexpected ways.
Among the stories I enjoyed in this collection were
Cocooning – The opening tale is a great example of how Nogle pays with expectations. We hear of a character and their partner Donny who no longer do any exercise and then things get quickly weird – mirrors are all covered up; there are strange special agents in rubber suits going around the neighbourhood and very soon the couple are taken to a mysterious cell for observation. Our lead character takes this in all calmly telling us of their experiences and then slowly we move into strange body horror and with little explanation bar a few hints as to what’s been going on we see a bigger tale emerge. Its very neatly executed and manages to be disturbing without ever becoming too graphic.
Laurel’s First Chase – a mother and daughter walk through the woods. But we soon find that they have a sinister purpose. Nogle lets us into the minds of someone not quite human and we watch them as they watch their potential victims. We try to understand them and it’s a great feeling of alienness and humanity at the same time as we try to guess their actions. Unsettling again without getting graphic.
Finishers – we move into the future with a mother and daughter who make robots. Here Nogle creates a whole world and history but does through brief scenes and recaps as we slowly get to understand the world these people now live in and the dangers they face. There is a running theme of isolation and loneliness in this tale and even potential escape will have dangers and the outcome remains nervously uncertain.
What Do You See When You’re Both Asleep – not all the tales are horror and in this bit of SF we have a device that dog owner uses to explore the mind of their pet to understand them better and it’s a heartwarming tale.
Flexible Off-Time – this is my favourite tale in the collection. A young woman needs a break from life to do something she has always wanted – to write the autobiography of her father. Her solution is using something called Off-Time a VR system that allows you to live many days in a much shorter piece of time. But out narrator is stuck. Nogle excels at creating this eerie feeling of reliving one day again and again. The house slowly alters and decays and eventually our narrator senses other people live in this world. It’s a tale of obsession, loneliness and escape and is a great piece of writing.
An Account – a strange eerie yet heartwarming tale of a daughter and mother talking about their mother’s ability to live in many alternate lifetimes. The tale is explained, time is played with and there is a sense of one generation aiding the other. Its unusual and really works to create the bond between the two characters.
The Laffun Head – Another favourite in the collection is a subtle exploration of grief. A son gives his parents a new electronic communication device - it can take the form of anyone and answer calls and even engage in conversation but when the husband unexpectedly loses his wife, he decides to make the tale take up her persona. This tale is unsettling – is this just clever electronics or has his wife come back from death? It’s a tale of love and loneliness and the future may be uncertain for the characters but the relationship between them is never in doubt.
Cubby – an unusual tale of a daughter and mother travelling from the far future to meet her partner. It’s a tale of life lived backwards and forwards in time, losing themselves and finding hope again. A strange circular tale that works well.
Promise is a collection of strange and often open-ended tales that are fascinating, hypnotic and make you ponder what happened next to our characters. Very little in life is simple and these tales remind us not all endings are sad or happy but often a mixture of both and things will always change. Well worth a look if you enjoy the more experimental side of science fiction.
