Discovering Hidden Gems - "Zombie Sharks With Metal Teeth" by Stephen Graham Jones

So I have been feverishly reading aquatic horror themed books for my summer challenge and as a side-effect I am discovering hidden gems every now and then. Even though it isn't necessarily aquatic horror, one of these gems definitely is Zombie Sharks With Metal Teeth, a short story collection by Stephen Graham Jones from times back when the Lazy Fascist Press was still alive.

I love short stories and I love SGJ books, so this has to be ideal for me, right? Right! As in all his writing, Jones really puts thought into every single one of his stories here too, no matter how short they are, which makes this seriously quality reading. I think I will keep on returning to these stories often.

My highlights:

“How Billy Hanson Destroyed the Planet Earth, and Everyone On It” 

In a bid to argue in favor of Billy Hanson's innocence of having annihilated Earth I found some absurd sentences here, such as the epic opening line “He wouldn't say this later, because he'd be dead along with everyone else, blasted into a cloud of comparatively warm ash swirling around in what had been Earth's orbital plane, but it wasn't his fault. Really.”, which reminded me of the pleading in The Night of the Mannequins, and I love that novella!

The story here takes an unexpected turn into serious speculative terrain – and I love that just as much.

“The Sea of Intranquility” 

Another speculative, absurdist piece of writing: What starts as a detective looking for his client's missing husband ends up opening for us readers the doors to a completely insane universe which involves space lobsters. Awesome.

“The Case Against Humanity” 

The title say it all. Somehow manages to be sad, kind of funny, infuriating all at once in, like, a one page story.

“Zombie Sharks with Metal Teeth” 

One of the many stories revolving around people conducting laboratory work and had me guessing the connection to the infamous title until the very last line.

“Rocket Man” 

Baseball with zombies... Zombies who destroy your love life...

“Because My Therapist Asked Me To Tell A Story Using Hamsters” 

Is it OK that I love this story despite its title and despite the fact that it deals with domestic violence in hamster families? I say it is.

“The Calorie Doctor” 

Nice and short one, great final story!

In the very end of the book, there are notes for each story too; how they were written, how the idea came to be, sometimes how fast they were written. Reading that really gives you a little more insight and sometimes helps better understand the writing.

If you know and love the SGJ-style I say, turn back time - his newer stuff is awesome but it's such a great pleasure discovering older treasures such as this one too!