Tim Lees Fantasy Books

 Tim Lees’s fiction has been compared to that of Michael Moorcock, Ray Bradbury, Franz Kafka, Ted Chiang and Mervyn Peake. In this, his latest collection, you’ll meet a couple of artistically-inclined hit-men (“Scenes from Country Life”), a woman caught up in an interdimensional war, whose friends are far worse than her enemies (“Love and War”); you’ll visit a Heavenly realm invaded by monsters (“Gumps”), and witness a terrifying ritual which nonetheless sustains the peace and stability of the world – and causes hell when it’s disrupted (“The Shuttered Child”). From familiar city streets to strange, inhuman landscapes, from the fields of England to the unknown cities of America, these are stories which push the boundaries of genre and show human life adapting to the weird, the alien – and the outright terrifying. 

 All Ray wanted was a nice, safe office job...  Instead, he’s working on the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital, out of his depth and very, very nervous. But he’s struck by the camaraderie of the staff, their care for the patients, and by the patients themselves, beneath whose quirks and delusions he quickly recognises a common humanity. There’s the jumping man, who believes himself the new messiah, and Sandra, a talented artist, whose fantasies conceal an ugly family secret. There are shocks and surprises: the mild, nervous man with whom Ray plays pool was convicted of a vicious killing, and a cocky youngster proves terrified of life outside the ward. The patients’ oddities are plain enough. Those of the staff become apparent only over time. For those who work there, a locked ward is like a pressure cooker, and close teamwork hides a wealth of old alliances, resentments and affairs. It’s a work hard, play hard culture, and it can take a heavy toll... The world of mental health care is a hidden one.