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    Unwelcome Bodies
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    Unwelcome Bodies
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    Unwelcome Bodies
    Ebook286 pages3 hours

    Unwelcome Bodies

    By Jennifer Pelland

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Pain. Pleasure. The sensation of touch...we feel everything through our skin, that delicate membrane separating “I” from “other,” protecting the very essence of self.

    Until it breaks. Or changes. Or burns.

    What would you do if you were the one called on to save humanity, and the price you had to pay was becoming something other than human? Or if healing your body meant losing the only person you’ve ever loved?

    Wander through worlds where a woman craves even a poisonous touch...a man’s deformities become a society’s fashion...genetic regeneration keeps the fires of Hell away...and painted lovers risk everything to break the boundaries of their caste system down.

    Separate your mind from your flesh and come in. Welcome...

    Table of Contents:
    “For the Plague Thereof Was Exceeding Great”
    “Big Sister/Little Sister”
    “Immortal Sin”
    “Flood”
    “The Call”
    “Captive Girl”
    “Last Bus”
    “The Last Stand of the Elephant Man”
    “Songs of Lament”
    “Firebird”
    “Brushstrokes”

    Blurbs:
    “Pelland handles difficult topics with assured storytelling chops, bringing us to the brink of tears, fear, desire, and beyond. Worth your time AND money AND sincere attention.”
    —Steven Gould, author of Jumper

    “Her already-glowing reputation may still be just a hint of promising light on the horizon of those who like their fantastic fiction smart, imaginative, and driven by the mysteries of the human spirit, but each new story as brilliant as ‘Brushstrokes’ and ‘The Last Stand of the Elephant Man’ brings her inevitable future even closer. Trust me on this: Jennifer Pelland’s star has only just begun to rise.”
    —Adam-Troy Castro, author of Emissaries From the Dead

    Reviews:
    “Jennifer Pelland is a very good writer. She can evoke a setting, an environment, a mood in just a few sentences. And she does it so intensely that the reader really feels the fear of touching any potentially diseased subway riders; feels the thirst of a world without water; feels the aloneness that comes behind the metal mask.”
    Ian Randal Strock, SFScope.com

    “Jennifer Pelland is addicted to writing short stories. She’s written an essay about this addiction but you don’t need to read the essay to know it’s true. Each of the tales in this collection is a testament to her love of story-telling, and her imagination. She has a keen sense of irony, and a gift for juxtaposing images and events in a way which enables her to extract emotion at crucial moments from her characters and from the reader.”
    Sarah Hilary, theshortreview.com

    About the Author:
    Jennifer Pelland lives in the Boston area with an Andy, three cats, and an impractical number of books. Her short story collection Unwelcome Bodies was released by Apex in 2008, and contains her Nebula-nominated story “Captive Girl.” Most recently, she’s been published in the Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Three, and she has a story in the debut issue of Shock Totem. In her so-called copious spare time, she studies bellydance in a futile attempt to be graceful before she completely loses her knees. Her web site, which includes a link to her blog, is at www.jenniferpelland.com.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherApex Book Company
    Release dateMar 23, 2010
    ISBN9781452324265
    Unavailable
    Unwelcome Bodies

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    Reviews for Unwelcome Bodies

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    • 4/5
      I love the unifying thread of this anthology which is summed up beautifully in the title: Unwelcome Bodies. Bodies that are changed or uncomfortable or deformed or manipulated; each story concerns itself with the body and self in a speculative environment. I am fascinated and captivated by each and every one of these stories.
    • 4/5
      It took me a while to finish Unwelcome Bodies: I discovered that after reading each story I needed recovery time, the same way I did when I first read Harlan Ellison (his stories from the 60s-70s, before he disappeared up his own enfant terrible legend), because however fantastic or futuristic the settings, the people and emotions are true and the stories cut deep. I read "Big Sister/Little Sister" in the evening, and it seriously interfered with my sleep, so consider yourself warned. On the other hand, there are pieces like "When Science Fiction Cliches Go Bad" which are just plain fun, almost guaranteed to leave you unscarred.
    • 5/5
      Phenomenal!! I couldn't put this book down. Normally, I don't read a lot of sci-fi, but after reading this collection of terrifying sci-fi stories, I can't wait to pick up more. I wonder what took me so long. Other than one story that really wasn't my taste, every single story was exciting and new and just a great read. I really liked that Pelland wrote about a lot of female protagonists, which seems to be missing in a lot of speculative fiction. It was refreshing. The writing was top notch. Loved it.
    • 4/5
      Unwelcome Bodies is a collection of, well, frankly, utterly unnerving tales. It’s rare for me to review SFF and rare for me to review short stories, so a combination of both is practically unheard of. However, Jennifer Pelland’s collection looked to be full of intriguing ideas and I wanted to try something new.Pelland presents a range of scenarios that range from slightly eerie to full blown frightening. From the story about the woman whose sister has been sewn into her body to the man on a quest to find the key to eternal life, these are thought provoking stories of what life in the future could be like. I found myself flitting from repulsion to fear to awe as I worked my way through the volume.Each story is a relatively short length and easily digestible. All are followed by notes from the author, divulging ‘the story behind the story’. The volume is well narrated by Linette Geisel, who applies a steady pace and clear enunciation, making this a relatively easy listen for such a disturbing volume. If it lacks in one thing, it’s quite possibly in the editorial of the narration. There were times when the end of a story and the beginning of the ‘notes’ ran so closely together it took me a moment to realise that the story had finished. However, this is a minor complaint and only occurred a small number of times across the seven hour volume.As a fan of John Wyndham and Isaac Asimov I often wonder why I don’t really consider myself a science-fiction fan these days. Reading/listening to a volume such as this makes me realise that this isn’t a genre I should close myself off to. This was one of the most intriguing volumes of short stories I’ve encountered. Pelland is an excellent storyteller with a vivid imagination. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her writing or to look out for future volumes.Note: I received this audiobook from Audiobook Jukebox in exchange for a fair and honest review. I did not receive any further compensation. All views are my own.
    • 4/5
      Jennifer Pelland's cleverly and appropriately named collection presents eleven stories--speculative, futuristic, apocalyptic and dystopic--of horrifying futures, worlds and lives in which the greatest terrors are bound to the self. The stories are intelligent, stark, and nightmarish, touching on the closest fears of humankind now, and simply, the closest fears of humankind. Some stories are stronger than others and some are perhaps a little too pushy--but, both timely and timeless in their horrors, it's an utterly affective and thoroughly engrossing read.