Unpossible [Kindle Edition]

Daryl Gregory (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

A Publishers Weekly Top 5 SF / fantasy book of the year. A "knockout debut collection." publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/2011/sf-fantasy-horror#book/book-4

Faren Miller, Locus Magazine: "With three outstanding novels and plenty of stories on his résumé, Daryl Gregory has found ways to explore the human mind and spirit - for good, bad, or any of the strange places between such absolutes - that seem very much his own in his first collection." tinyurl.com/7ynb7s3

Gary K. Wolfe, Locus Magazine: "...One of the most consistently interesting and yet least predictable writers of the last decade... Gregory can write so fluently and convincingly about relationships that he barely needs the machinery of the fantastic at all."

Product Description

A PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY BEST BOOK of 2011!

The short stories in this first collection by critically acclaimed writer Daryl Gregory run the gamut from science fiction to contemporary fantasy, with a few stories that defy easy classification. His characters may be neuroscientists, superhero sidekicks, middle-aged heroes of children’s stories, or fantatics spreading a virus-borne religion, but they are all convincingly human.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 459 KB
• Publisher: Fairwood Press (December 21, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B006OU1VC6
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,250 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Daryl Gregory's first novel, PANDEMONIUM, appeared from Del Rey Books in 2008 and won the Crawford Award for 2009. It was also a finalist for several other awards, including the Shirley Jackson Award and the World Fantasy Award. It's a romp that takes in Jungian archetypes, superheroes, and demonic possession.

His second novel, 2009's THE DEVIL'S ALPHABET, was named one of the best books of the year by Publisher's Weekly and was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award. The book combines murder, quantum evolution, and religion in a small mountain town.

RAISING STONY MAYHALL, his third novel, will be appearing in June, 2011. It's a coming of age tale about the most polite living dead boy you'd ever want to meet.

His short stories have appeared in Asimov's, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and a variety of "year's best" anthologies and foreign editions. His story "Second Person, Present Tense" won the Asimov's Readers' Choice Award and was a Sturgeon finalist. The stories run the gamut from neuroscience to religion to superheroes.

Daryl lives in State College, Pennsylvania with his wife, a couple of teenagers, and a passive-aggressive dog. He's online at darylgregory.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy This Now, November 13, 2011

By 

Kurt Dinan "Teacher101" (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Unpossible and Other Stories (Paperback)

This is a fantastic collection. Gregory has a natural ability to bring honesty and heart to fantasy stories, something difficult to pull off. Whether it's the racing of demon-powered cars, a superhero sidekick enacting his revenge, or a nostalgic trip back to a time of rocket building and Super 8 movie making, Gregory makes the stories about his characters, not the worlds they live in. Not a bad story in the bunch, but entirely worth buying just to read "Second Person, Present Tense." Oh, and come on, the guy ends one story with the word "unstubbable." How many times in your life are you going to see that? But this now.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The First Story Alone is Worth the Price of the Book, November 9, 2011

By 

James W. Van Pelt (Grand Junction, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unpossible and Other Stories (Paperback)

In the spirit of complete disclosure, I know Daryl Gregory from seeing him at science fiction conventions, and I was asked to write a blurb for the book, which I gladly did. It's an amazing work.

I first read the opening story in this book, "Second Person, Present Tense," several years ago. I've been using it in my high school Science Fiction class as one or our texts since then. It's an honest, heart-rending look at the world from a teenager's point of view, and at the same time is a kick-ass exploration of how a future drug might effect how our brain works. In other words, the perfect science fiction. High school kids who don't like to read, like this story, and kids who didn't think they liked science fiction, like this story. That's quite a feat for an author to pull off that double whammy.

The rest of the stories are profound in their own ways. I particularly liked "Persistence" and "The Continuing Adventures of Rocket Boy."

Highly recommended. This is one of my favorite books of the year.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read if you're interested in the human condition, February 16, 2012

By 

Dr. Brandon B. Hunt (State College, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unpossible (Kindle Edition)

This collection of short stories, although labeled SciFi/Fantasy, really defies genre and focuses on the human condition. Some stories had me laughing, others had me crying, and some left me gobsmacked. I still think about some of his characters many weeks after reading the stories and wonder how they are and what they're up to now. If you like reading stories about how people exist in their daily lives, I highly recommend this book as well as Daryl's novels. He's just a brilliant writer.