Little Gods

by Tim Pratt

Book Overview

Tim Pratt's debut collection brings together fifteen stories, including the Nebula-nominated "Little Gods" and a previously unpublished novelette, "Pale Dog." Within these pages you will encounter a train to the underworld, a feral bicycle, a thief with peculiar eating habits, an amnesiac superhero, a haunted zoot suit, star-crossed monsters, fallen angels on vacation and other wonders. From fast-paced sorcerer-punk to weird Westerns, from the loss...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809556863
• ISBN13: 9780809556861
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Wildside Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 16 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 11 and higher

Customer Reviews

Time crunch readers...

This is a great book for readers who want to read but don't have the time to devote themselves to hours of reading or who aren't really feeling the longing to immerse themselves in one book. Seriously one of my favorite books. I can always pick it up and read something in it at anytime and feel fulfilled.

A gem, if unpolished...

Tim Pratt is clearly a gifted writer and LITTLE GODS, a collection of his short work (possibly the larger proportion of it), is a lovely read, with some delicate, poignant, and otherwise beautifully crafted stories. Somewhere between de Lint and Zelazny on the "contemporary fantasy" scale, most of these stories are set in familiar, realistic settings, drawing on interesting themes. Particularly notable is his sense for wistful, somewhat shy protagonists: he does "pained" well. The book is uneven, with some stories bordering on juvenalia or "learning experiences" (good for the author, but not so much for the reader), but what is good is very very good. Reading the author's end notes was actually helpful to me in finding the stories that were good (and avoiding those that didn't work as well for me). I'm not usually drawn to books of the ilk of STRANGE ADVENTURES OF RANGER GIRL (his latest), but on the strength of (the better parts of) this volume I think I'll check it out.

Tim Pratt - "author to watch"

Tim Pratt is one of fantasy fiction's up-and-comers, an "author to watch," as they say (a phrase I never much cared for - authors are meant to be read, not watched). His first collection, Little Gods (2003), was released by Prime Books to relative acclaim in the genre community, and is a worthy introduction to his fiction (though it shows a few too many novice-warts for me to recommend without reservation). Pratt is a genre purist, as his fiction wholeheartedly embraces the fantastic without skirting genre borders. You won't mistake his fiction for New Weird, slipstream, interstitial, or magic realism - it is good-old-fashioned genre fantasy (with a bit of horror and sci-fi thrown in for good measure). His shtick is definitely contemporary, urban fantasy, as the best stories in Little Gods all partake of this sub-genre, but he also tackles high fantasy ("Fable from a Cage"), mythical fantasy ("Entropy's Paintbrush"), and fairy-tale fantasy ("Unfairy Tale"). In these latter stories, though not the best in the collection, one of Pratt's strongest assets is evident: a willingness to upend genre conventions. For instance, in "Unfairy Tale" he tackles the theme of Sleeping Beauty, but by the story's end it is clear that Beauty is only a foil, a mcguffin, for what the story is really about - wicked twist of fate. When Pratt's tales succeed, it's because he's writing clearly and concisely about what he knows and loves: magic in the everyday world. That is why stories like "The Witch's Bicycle," "The Scent of Copper Pennies," "Down with the Lizards and the Bees," and "Pale Dog" all work so well. Of course, this does not mean Pratt is lowering the fantasy-ante in exchange for the everyday in these stories, but simply that the fantasy element is integrated expertly with real-life characters and surroundings. In fact, "Pale Dog," which is the only original story to this collection, is probably the most fantastically outrageous story on display: it could be described as a sorceror-punk-detective story with a cuddly hell-dog and a haunted suit. It's quite a wild ride! When Pratt falters, it's because he tackles too much, making his stories feel like merely sketches of a greater whole (which is why I feel Pratt will be a better novelist than short story writer). In "Bleeding West," a story that wants to be a paean to the Old West and a confrontation of archetypes, Pratt has tackled themes that feel too large to be captured on a small canvas. Other times in Little Gods, Pratt's major influences come through too clearly. Stories like "Little Gods" and "Entropy's Paintbrush" bear too much familiarity with the work of Neil Gaiman; and, at times the Buffy and Angel universes appear to be just off the page. All in all, Little Gods proves that Pratt is currently a very talented genre author who could one day be very successful. According to recent reviews, Pratt's latest short stories are evidence of him quickly becoming a more assured and mature writer, so I l

An excellent collection

I obsessively hoarde books... there are books on my shelves that I may never get around to reading, but if I were allowed to choose only a handful of books to keep, the books that I truly treasure, this collection would be among them. For any fan of Urban fantasy, or science fiction, or just good stories in general, I would say it's a must-have.