Aurealis magazine has recently reviewed the two newest volumes of the Twelve Planets series.
Of Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer, Deanne Sheldon-Collins writes in Aurealis Issue 63:
Dyer writes with a direct, accessible voice. Yet, as you drift through Asymmetry‘s subtly distorted worlds, you are never quite sure what you are reading. Wrongness runs beneath the stories, a sense that things are not as they should be or that some important fact lies just beyond reach. This is not a book to skim, but one that rests on small details and requires concentration. Pay attention, and it will reward you with glimpses into astonishing places.
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Each of Asymmetry‘s four stories establishes a world with complex characters and dark conflicts, lets those conflicts play out, then ends hauntingly, looking towards an uncertain future. Dyer has a gift for fitting large questions into small spaces. This gift, along with her grasp of the real and surreal, allows Asymmetry to successfully explore imbalances, transformations, and unsettling asymmetries.
Caution: Contains Small Parts by Kirstyn McDermott was reviewed in Aurealis Issue 64 by Jack Reed who writes:
The supernatural lurks in the shadows of Kirstyn McDermott’s first collection, an ambiguous or mundane presence that keeps these four quasi-horror stories feeling palpably real.
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McDermott’s poignant stories defy genre labelling, being primarily about damaged people seeking solace, escape, or meaning. The otherworldly merely gives them a chance to find it, and makes these unflinching but touching stories even more evocative and irresistible.