Living Shadows: A Collection

By John Shirley

One of the darkest, edgiest, boldest writers around, John Shirley lays downan adrenalized yet artful prose that fairly skids across the page, dragging thereader along into shadowed corners of terror and desire. Yet while it'sthrilling, there's psychological depth, too, as Shirley bores into the brains ofhis characters, revealing the motivations of those who walk on the wild side. Many writers extrapolate from peripheral observation and research, but JohnShirley's stories come from personal experience with extreme people and extrememental states, and his struggle with the seductions of addiction. On thestreets, in the midst of darkest suburbia, or just beyond consensus reality -Shirley brings the shadows to vivid life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080955786X
• ISBN13: 9780809557868
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Wildside Press
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.6" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 16 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 11 and higher

Customer Reviews

Dark, edgy, crazed, excellent.

I've read all John's work (that I could lay my hands on) at least once, most of it twice and lots of it three & four times. His style is unique and many of his concepts prescient. He makes the street side literary. He takes the apparently banal & mundane aspects of peoples lives and shows the true personal depth that most others miss - or wouldn't dare jump into. At the same time he can pull back and reveal the broader cosmic strokes. All the 'John the Baptist of cyberpunk' stuff aside, while reading this collection it finally occurred to me that John Shirley is the darkside streetwise compliment to Ray Bradbury (I cut my scifi literary intellectual teeth on Ray). And I really can't think of anybody else in the pantheon that's in Ray's particular ballpark except perhaps, to some extent, Phil Dick. Anyway it was good to re-read these, hopping, skipping and stage diving across the years - as well as hitting the few I hadn't read before; War and Peace is a superb piece of mainstream writing, the Poe collaboration was both surprising and satisfying to the extent that I think Edgar himself would have dug it, and The Sea Was Wet As Wet Can Be trims the concept's of James Dickey's Falling to the essentials and gives it a more satisfying ending. Even 'preowned', the line-up allows the collection to speak with a new energy and urgency. It's almost as if John takes on the role of reporter in a world eating it's own tail. Dark, edgy, often crazed, but all excellent.

The Poe of Punk

Here is writing to sink your mind's teeth into. Shirley always delivers and this a compelling and riveting collection of short stories sure to bring reading pleasure again and again. When I received this volume in the mail was all dressed in heavy parka and boots to go outside and I stood at the door sweltering and reading. I just could not put the book down because the stories were so riveting. "Blind Eye", The collaboration with Edgar Allen Poe is seamless between the old and new master's style. Shirley finished the tail in a way I think Poe would have wholeheartedly approved. A new Poe Story, and new Shirley story, what a combo! Other pieces which were original, fresh and exiting were "Miss Singularity" a day trip into alternate reality, "The Gunshot" and "Isolation Point, California". Shirley's writing always titillates the mind as well as the senses. He is undoubtedly one of the best writers of our time. Looking for something special? Try Living Shadows.