THE ORDSHAW VIGNETTES, Vol. 1, by Phil Williams

Author Phil Williams, the creator of the mysteries of Ordshaw – the British city where surface appearances are more than deceiving, and where a trip in its underground entails dangers and encounters with Lovecraftian monsters – returns to his Urban Fantasy concept with a series of twelve very short stories, aptly called vignettes, to offer us some more intriguing peeks into this weird background where thumb-sized fae and slime-trailing creatures are an everyday occurrence.  The single stories were showcased in a October blog tour to which I was privileged to participate, and now they have been grouped into a collection that appeared on the shelves in November. My thanks to Mr. Williams for providing me with a copy.

The Ordshaw Vignettes focuses primarily on the fae, although they prefer to act from the sidelines here, perceived but not seen, so that their antics end up being both quite fascinating and in some instances not a little disconcerting.  In the main books of the Ordshaw series published until now – Under Ordshaw, Blue Angel and The Violent Fae, as well as the novella The City Screams – we met several kind of fae, from belligerent but fundamentally reliable Letty to violent and unstable Lightgate, while in this collection we never actually see any of these creatures, but rather observe the consequences of their actions, like the disappearance of several objects from an exclusive club, or the self-inflicted damage of a child fixated on the gifts of the Tooth Fairy, or rather what the child believes to be the mythical creature.  Again, we meet a concerned woman who quizzes her neighbors about the partying sounds like laughter and music that seem to come from the very walls; or the puzzled policeman who inspects the site of a gang shootout and wonders what kind of very, very small projectile might have killed one of the dead criminals.

I hope you will enjoy these pill-sized stories just as much as I did, and that they might encourage you to read the Ordshaw books: you will be able to learn much more about them at author Phil Williams’ site

And happy reading!!!  🤗

 

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