No One Will Come Back For Us

by Premee Mohamed

Overview

Here there be gods and monsters - forged from flesh and stone and vengeance - emerging from the icy abyss of deep space, ascending from dark oceans, and prowling strange cities to enter worlds of chaos and wonder, where scientific rigor and human endeavour is tested to the limits. These are cosmic realms and watery domains where old offerings no longer appease the ancient Gods or the new and hungry idols. Deities and beasts. Life and death. Love and hate. Science and magic. And smiling monsters in human skin.

Premee Mohamed's debut collection of contemporary cosmic horror and dark fantasy heralds the arrival of a new and vibrant voice on the cutting edge of modern speculative fiction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781988964423
Publisher:	Undertow Publications
Publication date:	05/16/2023
Pages:	290
Sales rank:	76,929
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.65(d)

About the Author

Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She is an Assistant Editor at the short fiction audio venue Escape Pod and the author of the Beneath the Rising series of novels as well as several novellas. Her short fiction has appeared in many venues and she can be found on Twitter at @premeesaurus and on her website premeemohamed.com. She has new novellas forthcoming in the next few years, as well as her novel The Siege of Burning Grass with Solaris Books.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/27/2023

Dark, strange, and wonderfully wild, these 17 short stories from Nebula and World Fantasy award winner Mohamed (the Beneath the Rising trilogy) thrust human characters into impossible, otherworldly situations. In “Below the Kirk, Below the Hill,” a lonely lighthouse keeper must decide what to do with a drowned child coughed up by the ocean once she discovers that the kid isn’t all the way dead. “The Honeymakers” sees the bizarre bond between a group of girls and a swarm of bees made even stranger and deeper after the swarm attacks. The folk horror story “Everything as Part of Its Infinite Place” follows a young boy as he mourns his brother’s death while exploring the mysterious standing stones of his village. In the title story, a journalist travels to Africa to report on a strange plague only to find himself out of his depth as the impossible nature of the threat is revealed. The collection is by turns brutal and tender, terrifying and sweet, and Mohamed accomplishes the rare feat of maintaining a sense of human connection no matter how outlandish the stories’ premises. The result will both terrify and delight—and is especially recommended for fans of Caitlin Starling and Rivers Solomon. Agent: Michael Curry, Donald Maass Literary. (May)

Publishers Weekly

04/01/2023

Mohamed's (The Void Ascendant) 17 stories span the entirety of today's dark speculative landscape and present a vision of its emerging future. Many are set in the author's "real gods" universe, exploring the well-trodden cosmic concepts of hopelessness and fear with a fresh vision. They often incorporate parent-child relationships, such as the Pushcart Prize—nominated story "Willing," which features a farmer and his beloved younger daughter who is summoned by the gods to be sacrificed. There's also the eco-horror tinged "The Evaluator," presenting a possessed child in a landscape where the old gods have been destroyed by pollution. No matter the plot or setting, however, each story is marked by a strong narrative voice, confident worldbuilding, and an unease that seeps into every corner, leaving readers unsettled but also looking at their world from a new perspective. VERDICT Will be enjoyed by fans of Cassandra Khaw and Lucy Snyder, but more importantly, it's another stellar collection from Undertow, making the independent publisher a not-to-miss player in the horror marketplace.

Library Journal