One of the questions I ask when reviewing a single author anthology is ‘what’s special about it?’ There are plenty of story collections that are perfectly good but nonetheless fail to create that frisson of intrigue that makes them shine. In Pete W. Sutton’s A Tiding of Magpies, reissued last year with extra stories, I felt that mental ‘shiver’ a few times.
It’s a confident collection – Sutton knows what he wants to say and how to say it. The stories journey through magical markets, medieval taverns, lonely highways, starship bridges, ordinary suburbias, apocalyptic cities, locked rooms and the dreams of schoolboys, often populated by working-class characters who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. The stories all maintain a real sense of authenticity and ‘lived experience’, and have an economical yet expressive prose, particularly when describing people, who he depicts as distinct and vivid.
The stories often end with unanswered questions and futures in the balance – with looming possibilities unexplored – leaving the reader wondering, but they contain some fabulous ideas. There are the Biblionauts, who travel into the worlds of well-known novels to solve their mysteries, there are supernatural machines capable of ‘picking up’ the spirits of the dead, and a musical muse distilled into clockwork. Not to mention the satnav with its own agenda.
The stories range in length from flash fiction to longer tales, but all are quite unique in theme and character, gathering a worthy and enjoyable group.
It was shortlisted for a couple of awards on its initial publication back in 2017, and has now been published in a new edition.
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