Lies of Tenderness
by Stephen Volk
(story collection, PS Publishing, 2022)
(story collection, PS Publishing, 2022)
A woman parks her car outside a fateful, familiar motel.
The last giant of Albion finds connection with a soul not long for this world.
A lightning-struck man seeks meaning for his longing and loss.
In this new, startlingly wide-ranging collection, Stephen Volk explores hidden truths and secret wishes, deceit and delusion, the paths not taken, and the creatures that make us human.
CONTENTS:
A Letter of Introduction - Priya Sharma
The Holocaust Crasher
The Airport Gorilla
The House That Moved Next Door
Unchain the Beast
Outside of Truth or Consequences
The Little Gift
The Black Cat
Beat the Card Home
Vardøger
A Meeting at Knossos
Sicko
The Naughty Step
Adventurous
The Flickering Light
Bad Language
Agog
Orr
Story Notes & Acknowledgements
Read Stephen Volk's blog "The Creatures That Make Us Human" and an extract from the book
The last giant of Albion finds connection with a soul not long for this world.
A lightning-struck man seeks meaning for his longing and loss.
In this new, startlingly wide-ranging collection, Stephen Volk explores hidden truths and secret wishes, deceit and delusion, the paths not taken, and the creatures that make us human.
CONTENTS:
A Letter of Introduction - Priya Sharma
The Holocaust Crasher
The Airport Gorilla
The House That Moved Next Door
Unchain the Beast
Outside of Truth or Consequences
The Little Gift
The Black Cat
Beat the Card Home
Vardøger
A Meeting at Knossos
Sicko
The Naughty Step
Adventurous
The Flickering Light
Bad Language
Agog
Orr
Story Notes & Acknowledgements
Read Stephen Volk's blog "The Creatures That Make Us Human" and an extract from the book
"Each story is meaty and satisfying in its strangeness" Priya Sharma (from her Letter of Introduction)
"New work by one of the benchmark voices in strange stories is always great news. One of the most accomplished, ambitious and stunning storytellers around" Hookland
"The breadth and depth of imagination on display here is matched by a mastery of mood and tone, with many stories displaying a wry restraint that belies the intensity of emotion... Excellent" Con Connolly, Phantasmagoria Magazine
"To describe the writer Stephen Volk as a master of contemporary macabre is only to tell the truth – but that’s not the whole story. Rather like his great predecessor Robert Aickman, Volk’s work might be more generally described as being located within the wider realm of the ‘strange’ – in all manifestations of that word. The new collection, Lies of Tenderness (from the enterprising bijou publisher PS Books), is a varied and accomplished volume that demonstrates the range of the writer’s achievement... Volk’s imagination is given free rein in a variety of off-kilter narratives – such as ‘Sicko’, a clever riff on Hitchcock’s Psycho... If you enjoyed (his) work either on screen or the page (as in his innovative Dark Masters Trilogy), you need not hesitate" Barry Forshaw, Crime Time
"Superb... In addition to being attracted to 'difficult' subjects and people, there's a real sense of anger in many of these stories; a sense of profound dissatisfaction with the brutality of the status quo, and a desire for things to be other, better... Lies of Tenderness is another absolutely outstanding collection from a writer who continues to challenge, to grapple with contentious ideas and subjects, and who in the process produces work with an incredible range of moods, textures and emotions. but which are united by an exceptional level of quality" Kit Power, Ginger Nuts of Horror
Read the full review at Ginger Nuts of Horror here
"If there's the potential for a story, and Steve Volk sees a way of developing it, then he will - and if that means entering territory and mindsets that are outside the reader (and the writer)'s comfort zones, then so much the better... Another unsettling, thought-provoking and highly-recommended collection. 10/10" Paul Simpson, Sci-Fi Bulletin
Read the full review at Sci-Fi Bulletin here
"New work by one of the benchmark voices in strange stories is always great news. One of the most accomplished, ambitious and stunning storytellers around" Hookland
"The breadth and depth of imagination on display here is matched by a mastery of mood and tone, with many stories displaying a wry restraint that belies the intensity of emotion... Excellent" Con Connolly, Phantasmagoria Magazine
"To describe the writer Stephen Volk as a master of contemporary macabre is only to tell the truth – but that’s not the whole story. Rather like his great predecessor Robert Aickman, Volk’s work might be more generally described as being located within the wider realm of the ‘strange’ – in all manifestations of that word. The new collection, Lies of Tenderness (from the enterprising bijou publisher PS Books), is a varied and accomplished volume that demonstrates the range of the writer’s achievement... Volk’s imagination is given free rein in a variety of off-kilter narratives – such as ‘Sicko’, a clever riff on Hitchcock’s Psycho... If you enjoyed (his) work either on screen or the page (as in his innovative Dark Masters Trilogy), you need not hesitate" Barry Forshaw, Crime Time
"Superb... In addition to being attracted to 'difficult' subjects and people, there's a real sense of anger in many of these stories; a sense of profound dissatisfaction with the brutality of the status quo, and a desire for things to be other, better... Lies of Tenderness is another absolutely outstanding collection from a writer who continues to challenge, to grapple with contentious ideas and subjects, and who in the process produces work with an incredible range of moods, textures and emotions. but which are united by an exceptional level of quality" Kit Power, Ginger Nuts of Horror
Read the full review at Ginger Nuts of Horror here
"If there's the potential for a story, and Steve Volk sees a way of developing it, then he will - and if that means entering territory and mindsets that are outside the reader (and the writer)'s comfort zones, then so much the better... Another unsettling, thought-provoking and highly-recommended collection. 10/10" Paul Simpson, Sci-Fi Bulletin
Read the full review at Sci-Fi Bulletin here
