Calvaria Fell
by Cat Sparks & Kaaron Warren
Calvaria Fell is a stunning collaborative collection of weird tales from two acclaimed authors, Kaaron Warren and Cat Sparks. It features previously published stories from both authors, along with a new novella by Kaaron Warren and four new stories by Cat Sparks. The collection offers a glimpse into a chilling future world that is similar to our own. Readers will be drawn into experiences at once familiar and bizarre, where our choices have far-reaching consequences and the environment is a force to be reckoned with. The title of the collection tethers these stories to a shared space. The calvaria is the top part of the skull, comprising five plates that fuse together in the first few years of life. Story collections work like this; disparate parts melding together to make a robust and sturdy whole. The calvaria tree, also known as the dodo tree, adapted to being eaten by the now-extinct dodo bird; its seeds need to pass through the bird’ s digestive tract in order to germinate. In a similar way, the stories in Calvaria Fell reflect the idea of adaptation and the consequences of our actions in a changing world.
5 out of 5 fairies
Reading this with the state of the world today felt a bit surreal, I won’t lie. It’s dark, and in some ways you want to believe it’s satirical, but it’s all too easy to see some of it happening in the not-too-far future with how quickly technology is progressing and how quickly we seem to be slipping into a dystopian timeline. The stories vary in overall theme and length, but running through them all is a dark thread. It was interesting to see how people and adapted to their dystopian worlds, the characters being as unique and diverse as the worlds they populated. I will say, I’m glad they were mostly fairly short, so I could read when I had a little time, then take time to digest what I’d read while working on other tasks. If you like dark and dystopian, this collection is definitely for you!
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Cat Sparks is a multi-award-winning Australian author, editor and artist whose former employment has included: media monitor, political and archaeological photographer, graphic designer, Fiction Editor of Cosmos Magazine and Manager of Agog! Press.
A 2012 Australia Council grant sent her to Florida to participate in Margaret Atwood’s The Time Machine Doorway workshop. She’s currently finishing a PhD in sci fi and cli fi.
Her short story collection The Bride Price was published in 2013. Her debut novel, Lotus Blue, was published by Skyhorse in March 2017.
Kaaron Warren
I wanted to be a writer from a very young age, and wrote my first proper short story at 14. I also wrote a novel that year, called “Skin Deep”‘, which I really need to type up.
I started sending stories out when I was about 23, and sold my first one, “White Bed””, in 1993. Since then I’ve sold about 70 short stories, two short story collections and three novels.
I’m an avid and broad reader but I also like reality TV so don’t always expect intelligent conversation from me.