INVADERS FROM BEYOND

One book, three novellas, this alien invasion collection opens with Colin Sinclair’s Midnight In The Garden Centre Of Good And Evil, a slackers vs aliens tale which crosses The Day Of The Triffids with Shaun Of The Dead. It’s followed by stand-out story Blighters (Tim Major), which feels like Starship Troopers meets Body Snatchers for the Snapchat generation. It features giant slugs (nicknamed Blighters) crashing to Earth, being filmed on camera phones and gossiped about on Facebook; but when our heroes encounter one of the creatures, their lives change in (very) unexpected ways.

The collection’s closed by Julian Benson’s Rags, Bones And Tea Leaves, which has an extremely original take on alienation, using a structure driven by storytelling to deliver a powerful time-jumping tale that twists and turns in surprising ways, as our protagonist searches for a mysterious man named Goan.

These three novellas are impressive, frequently feeling like a trio of lost Black Mirror episodes. Blighters is probably the best, with its fast-paced narrative building to a beautiful reveal. But each author has a distinct voice, vivid imagination and elegant style. And each tale is so thrillingly cinematic, we’d advise beaming aboard before these stories start invading your local cinema. Sam Ashurst