We know them from ancient legends and tales whispered by the campfire. They don’t sparkle or have any interest in us except to tear us apart. Forgotten, unknown, misunderstood, overused, watered down. We want to give them a renaissance, to reestablish their dark reputation, to give them a comeback, let the world know of their real terror.
The Fox Spirit Books of Monsters is a coffee table book series from Fox Spirit Books with dark fiction from around the world, written by local authors, short stories and graphic stories based on local folklore, legends and myths. Illustrated by local artists.
The series has 7 books published between 2014 and 2020, starting with Europe (2014), continuing with Africa (2015), Asia (2016) and Pacific area in 2017. Volume five and six will cover South, Central and North America before the series end with Eurasia in the end of 2020.
Asian monsters is filled with speculative fiction (short stories and graphic stories) about monsters based on Asian folklore, legends and history, written by authors with a strong connection to the continent. The book is edited by Margrét Helgadóttir and published December 8th 2016.
You can buy the book on Amazon here (UK) or here (com). The book is on Goodreads here.
Table of contents
Xia Jia: ‘A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight’ (translated by Ken Liu)
Ken Liu: ‘Good Hunting’
Eve Shi: ‘Blood Like Water’
Usman T. Malik: ‘Blood Women’
Aliette le Bodard: ‘Golden Lilies’
Isabel Yap: ‘Grass Cradle, Glass Lullaby’
Benjamin Chee: ‘Unrestful’
Eliza Chan: ‘Datsue-Ba’
Eeleen Lee: ‘Let Her In’
CY Yan: ‘The Poacher of Qingqiu’
Fran Terminello: ‘Aswang’
Sunil Patel: ‘The Vetalas’ Query’
Yukimi Ogawa: ‘Kokuri’s Palace’
Vajra Chandrasekera and Dave Johnson (art): ‘Vikurthimagga’
The book has illustrations by Cindy Mochizuki, Vincent Holland-Keen, Kieran Walsh and Imran Siddiq.
Cover art by Daniele Serra.
Awards
Asian Monsters was shortlisted to British Fantasy Awards 2017 in the category “Best Anthology.”
Reviews
- 20.03.2018 : Everybody’s Reviewing
- 13.01.2018 : Runalong the Shelves
- 10.05.2017 : The British Fantasy Society
- 01.05.2017 : Joanne Hall
- 27.04.2017 : James Everington
- 13.04.2017 : Mithila Review
- 19.03.2017 : A Fantastical Librarian
- 01.03.2017 : Shona Kinsella
- 20.02.2017 : The Future Fire
News, articles and mentions
- 21.07.2017 : Summer Reading List 2017: Charles Payseur – Nerds of a feather, flock together
- 22.04.2017 : Asia Literary Review features Asian Monsters!
- 13.04.2017 : Mithila Review features Asian Monsters
- 10.04.2017 : The rise of translated fiction from Asia – Asia House (interview with the editors of Asia Literary Review
- 15.03.2017 : Editor Query – Margrét Helgadottir – A Fantastical Librarian
- 25.02.2017 : Interview with Isabel Yap – The Future Fire
- 17.02.2017 : Interview with Yukimi Ogawa – The Future Fire
- 02.02.2017 : Interview with Eve Shi – The Future Fire
- 15.01.2017 : On editing Asian Monsters – The Future Fire
- 20.12.2016 : Asian Monsters special feature: On editing – The Asian Writer
- 20.12.2016 : Asian Monsters special feature: Sunil Patel & Usman Malik – The Asian Writer
- 08.12.2016 : Asian Monsters. Release Day – Fox Spirit Books
- 14.09.2016 : Table of Contents – Fox Spirit Books
Blog posts from the contributors
- 24.04.2017 : Eliza Chan – Reviewing the Monsters
- 17.12.2016 : Margret Helgadottir – The World Tour of Monsters – Fox Spirit Books
- 14.12.2016 : Eliza Chan – The monster who breaks the ice with, “Where are you from?” – Fox Spirit Books
- 12.12.2016 : Yukimi Ogawa – Fox Spirit Books
- 12.12.2016 : Eve Shi – In Which Doors Make A Great Analogy Tool – Fox Spirit Books
Margrét Helgadóttir 
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