Allusion is not Illusion
You'll pry my books off my cold, dead body. By the time you shift them all I'll be flat and dessicated.
Currently reading
Sarah Monette short stories, Booth and other
In 2007 Sarah Monette released The Bone Key, a collection of previously-published stories featuring the same protagonist, the shy museum archivist Kyle Murchison Booth. After an unwise and reluctant participation in a college chum's attempt to bring his wife back from the dead, Booth finds himself attuned to the supernatural, and it just won't leave him alone.
I really liked Booth and enjoyed these stories. I ordered Somewhere Beneath These Waves because I thought there were further Kyle Murchison Booth stories included. In fact, there is only one, "The World Without Sleep." I see why that wasn't published in The Bone Key, as it is far more fantastical than the other Booth stories.
I was a little disappointed that there weren't more stories with Booth, but other than that I enjoyed the volume and thought most of the stories were good. I few, if one wished to quibble, seemed more thought pieces than stories, and a few were more like seeds of novels yet to be written. I thought the latter was especially true of "Seance at Chisholm End" and the two Mick and Jamie stories (a note from the author indicates that at least one more BPI story is written and others intended). "Amant Doree" stood on its own as a story but the main character could definitely have more spy adventures.
Overall, interesting and well written. I would potentially recommend this for fans of Kelly Link's short stories; I would say that Link is a slightly better prose stylist but Monette a stronger plotter. They definitely share some influences, such as Angela Carter. Monette is certainly influenced by Lovecraft as well and has a story in the volume Lovecraft Unbound.
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