Book Review | Untethered

Untethered is a recent anthology from Rhonda Parrish. She is prolific with these, and every author should check out her website to see if their writing might have suited past calls, and what the current call for submission is (Women and The Sea, by 30th September).

I was really disappointed when I realised I’d missed this one, but I doubt if any of my ideas would have come to fruition, or been considered, given the excellence of those accepted. But enough of me, what about the book?

Untethered

Ed. Rhonda Parrish

Unicorns locked away in the cargo holds of spaceships, becoming roller skating phenoms or leaving sparkly rainbow poop in a poor bartender’s living room are just the start. There’s a demi-god trying to figure out where Pegasus has disappeared to, horses formed of sea, or steam and even one who thinks he’s a spider. And so much more. These stories are all a little untamed, a little wild, a little… untethered.

Featuring stories by Alyx Barter, Beth Cato, M.L.D. Curelas, Alyson Grauer, Lucy Hagan, Jamie Lackey, Carter Lappin, Sally McBride, Marshall Moore, Wendy Nikel, Jamie Perrault, Jennifer Lee Rossman, Rose Strickman, DJ Tyrer, Rachel M. Thompson, and Laura VanArendonk Baugh, this anthology is sure to have something for every horse lover. (goodreads)

My Review

I’ve always loved horses, so this was a must for me. I also know that there’s never a dud one among Rhonda Parrish’s collection.

So it was with anticipation that I settled down for several enjoyable reading sessions, since I don’t like to read more than two or three short stories at a time. And I found… exactly what I had anticipated.

In some ways I missed some straightforward horse stories. I may have forgotten one or two in the middle, but there are a great many unicorns (at the start) and a great many flying horses (at the end). I think I might have preferred them to be less clustered, although having clustered some of my stories in my collections, maybe it works best for most people. But regardless of presentation order, these are great stories. I bow to all the authors selected, only some of whose work I have met before. It is truly scary how many wonderful authors there are out there.

Did I have a favourite? Um…the ones that came out of the sea, the one made of steam… neither of those are unicorns or flying horses, funnily enough. Well, the steam one might. As a companion volume to Rhonda’s previous Equus selection, these tend to be more fantastical, but just as good. Maybe not as scary. More uplifting. But they are still horses, and nothing’s as magical as a real horse!

Book Review | Untethered – anthology ed. @rhondaparrish 'great stories – I bow to all the authors' #shortstory #horse #unicorn #pegasus Click To Tweet