In the tradition of the Fantastic and magical realism, this short story collection presents a collection of primarily new voices that deliver fresh, haunting stories. They're not what a Western reader would recognize immediately as Horror or SFF--rather, they're closer to 'weird fiction' or 'magical realism' and bring to mind such writers as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino. Often quiet and unassuming (until they are not), the stories offer up a Mexico and a literature that is as gorgeous and deep as it is unfamiliar. In most of the stories, the prose is luscious and careful, whether in the flash fiction or the longer stories, and the collection has introduced me to a number of names that I can't wait to look up.

Absolutely recommended. ( )

After the first four stories incorporated the trope of "this character is dead but the story doesn't tell you" I put the book down. I just couldn't get into that. ( )

You can read my review of this book at The New York Journal of Books here: http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/review/three-messages-and-warning-contemporary-m... ( )

This is such an interesting collection, full of stories that I know will stay with me for a long time. Like the introduction says, Mexican science fiction is a bit different from a lot of American/British science fiction. In general I'd say there's a lot more ambiguity than I'm used to reading in this genre; you're often left to make your own interpretations. But the stories here span such a wide range of styles that it's hard to make any broad statement about the collection as a whole. I will say that it's a book with a lot of stories (most of them are pretty short), and none of them are duds, which is rare. If you want to read a bunch of stories about death, monsters, bats, and secrets, I can't recommend this highly enough. ( )

The introductions mention that these are not very "sci-fi" in the way that the British/US-influenced SF world thinks of science fiction. But it's not just a mix of things-I'd-call-SF and things-I'd-call-fantasy, but also things-I'd-call-plain-litfic. It's not that I mind the line being drawn in a different place, it's that I find myself wanting to read some of what Mexicans would call litfic so I can understand where they're drawing the line. Or are they?

So the anthology is a mix, for me, of stories that really had an impact, stories that were okay, stories I clearly don't have the context to appreciate ("The President Without Organs"), and stories that I could appreciate some but would obviously be more meaningful for those with the context. Maybe that's true for all of them.

A few stuck in my head:
Jiménez Mayo's introduction refers to "The Return of Night" as "apocalyptic", one of several about "death and resurrection". I read it as a creation story about colonisation - but then it moves to what happens after, so maybe it is somewhat apocalyptic after all. "Wolves" makes an interesting companion piece, viewed through the same metaphorical lens but saying different things.

"Future Nereid" did wonderful things with tense and person. Hard to get into, but it becomes invisible and then it's all explained perfectly.

"Wittgenstein's Umbrella" is a horrid apologia for the kind of guy who thinks that every woman around him not only owes him a smile, but also the offer of her umbrella, followed by a drink together and then true love. Because if she doesn't shelter him from the rain then he'll be killed by a mugger and it'll be all her fault. Seriously, this is what the story says in so many words. Fortunately in the anthology it was immediately followed by "Mannequin", a poem raging as I wanted to rage about men using women and then discarding them like trash. Not exactly a fun read, but good not to have just the one side of things. ( )