Threads: A NeoVerse Anthology - Volume 1

Great short stories! This is a wonderful anthology of 20 really interesting stories by 20 different authors. I've read one or two at a time and they each are different in style and tone. Very cool that it's from a contest! If this is what these kind of contests generate, I'm looking forward to more! Love the illustrations!

Fantastic stories! Easy read and love all the stories. I bought it because I know one of the authors personally. I am enjoying All the stories though. Great read. One story at bedtime every night!

Excellent collection of short stories. Highly recommended!

Great collection of talented authors! Excellent read!!

Highly recommend this anthology. A fun read for all tastes!

Good mix of short stories, something for everyone in there.

Great easy read! Talented authors and variety of stories.

Disclaimer: I have a story included in this anthology, so this review focuses on the other work and the anthology itself.In reading this I am impressed with the narrative ability of each author. While they seem to vary widely in printed experience, each delivers an accomplished level of high emotional tension.The three winners of the contest are all good, naturally. “One Time Hero” by Neil Chase is deceptively simple but its tension builds steadily to an almost unbearable level. Edith Clark’s “Night Insects” is subtle in its savagery; I am quite pleased that it took a winning spot, because the truths beneath its storytelling could have been overlooked. Chuck Regan deftly handles a possible transhuman future with an ever-accelerating hypercultural pace, in “Dysphoria”.The others, though, are of equally high quality so that the contest decision-making process must have been difficult. I mention only a few:I always admire well-wrought, immersive worldbuilding that mimics no other, so Stephen Case’s “Gold, Vine, and a Name” and Tessa Hatheway’s “Stormsong” greatly appeal to me.I rarely read modern, non-speculative work with heavy emotional weight, but Pamela Bobowicz’s “Say When” grabbed me with its almost neutral narrator observing how others express their pain.M. Lopes da Silva shows us an unwanted outpouring of a town’s secrets and woes in “The Carving”. Fantasy has two outlooks: one gritty and desperate in Hannah Marie’s “The Queen’s Dragon”, one tongue-in-cheek and subtly uproarious in K. G. McAbee’s “A Knight, A Wizard and Bee--Plus Some Pigs”. “No Protections, Only Powers” by Katie Lattari pulls the reader along unexpected twists in the mind of its young narrator. Charles D. Shell’s “Boneyard Prophet” explores in a cloud of confusion before it swells with righteous fury.The design and color aesthetic of the book are noteworthy. The painted double cover, in desaturated blues, contains elements from each tale. Inside, the rough typeface of the story titles connotes a well-used typewriter, and each story has its own illustration. The paragraphs are more web-style, with spaces between each paragraph instead of indentation. The book is 9”x6” and satisfyingly hefty.I am quite lucky to be included among these stories.