The Mad Butterfly’s Ball

The 35 shorts in this star-studded anthology focus on the innate horror and pathos of the insect kingdom. The contents are sorted into the parts of an insectoid body: “The Head” includes introductions from both editors, while “Thorax” and “Abdomen” gather reprints of classics from the likes of Algernon Blackwood and H.G. Wells alongside new works from modern masters including Ramsey Campbell and Eugen Bacon. In “The Wings of Mourning” by Jeffrey Thomas, a family grieving the death of their youngest daughter is greeted by an apparition comprising dozens of butterflies shaped into a familiar silhouette. Preston Grassmann’s “The Parliament of Wasps” explores a postapocalyptic London dominated by a thrumming population of wasps. In “Warning Wings” by Arlton Eadie, a seaman recollects an incident at sea involving a moth capable of tapping out the letters S.O.S. to save the narrator’s crew from a watery grave. “Butterflies of Eastern Texas” by Kij Johnson concerns a train attendant who sees the signs of their salvation in a passenger whose face erupts into a bouquet of butterflies. The stories are by turns horrifying and heartbreaking, sweet and brutal, and without exception thought-provoking. This otherworldly anthology establishes a wonderfully surrealistic atmosphere that readers are unlikely to find anywhere else. Fans of weird fiction should snap it up. (Aug.)