Beneath an Oil-Dark Sea

The Best of Caitlin R. Kiernan, Vol. 2

By: Caitlín R. Kiernan

Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka, Neil Hellegers, Nancy Wu, Bronson Pinchot, Lisa Flanagan, Robert Fass, Kevin Kenerly, Shiromi Arserio, Tavia Gilbert, Lauren Ezzo, Xe Sands, Chelsea Stephens

In his Locus review of Two Worlds and in Between - the first volume of The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan - Gary K. Wolfe wrote, “...it makes you wish the second volume were here now.”

Well, the long wait is over.

Beneath an Oil-Dark Sea: The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan, Volume Two completes this ambitious undertaking, collecting the finest of Kiernan’s stories from 2004 to 2012, selected by the author herself. The book includes 25 short stories and one poem, plus the short novel Black Helicopters - more than 200,000 words of fiction, including the World Fantasy Award-winning “The Prayer of 90 Cats”.

©2015 Caitlín R. Kiernan (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Oh, Ms. Kiernan, how do I love your stories?

Let me count the ways... One, two, three... Hey! Whoa! Slow down! I can't keep up! Caitlin R Kiernan is easily one of the best and most prolific writers of Weird Fiction (possibly too limiting a phrase for her work) out there right now. I have reviewed a couple of her titles in the past, but I've never mentioned how her writing has gotten me through some of the hardest times of my life. I won't go into detail about me. However, I will say that her prose and ability to create incredible circumstance allow little else in as you read (or listen). I started with, "Threshold: A Novel of Deep Time," and never looked back for a second. Orpheus would have been proud (Poor Eurydice). No one else on the planet writes like this, my friends. NO ONE! and in case you think that's my opinion alone allow me to read you an excerpt from S.T. Joshi's introduction (and he would know!): "Caitlin R. Kiernan is so much better than anyone writing imaginative fiction these days that it has become something of an embarrassment. She is the best in her field at so many things- The best in the exquisite modulation of her prose; best in the sensitive portrayal of the complex and at times contradictory motivations of humans, quasi-humans, and non-humans; and, most of all, best in the compelling evocation of fear, terror, loneliness, pain, tragedy, and heartbreak." Well, I couldn't have put that any better myself (obviously). Some of my favorite stories here (and BOY was it hard to choose just a few!) are: Galapagos: A sci-fi tale to chill you to your core. The Ape's Wife: A, sort of, retelling of King-Kong with a very different emphasis. And Tidal Forces: a love story between two women as one them undergoes something... otherworldly, alien, and terrifying. This last one, oddly, put me a bit in mind of Stephen King's, "The Float." (Later, "The Raft."), and yet... so very different, moving, and powerful! So follow me and join the Queen of Weird, Imaginative, Horrific, and Wondrous fiction! And, Ms. Kiernan, If you're listening... Please don't stop! We need these stories now more than ever! Because nothing unites us like pain along with its cessation, and the pain and wonder in your writing distracts from that of real life like nothing else I've experienced! Also, thank you all for reading... And before I forget: there are some awesome narrators here!