The Ghastling

In Dustin Triplett’s ‘The Last Good Season’, strange things are happening in Marrowbone, a weather system that’s impossible to adjust to, but when one member of the community notices the walls are bleeding, it seems the environment, the atmosphere has its own agenda… In ‘Blood Tomatoes’ by Sarah Blackshaw, the harvesting and simple act of ‘picking’ this delicious ripe fruit is more akin to a cull. What if these plants were found to be sentient? What if they don’t like to be picked?…In ‘Leviathan’s Womb’ by Alistair Rey two marine biologists are sent to explore a rare ‘whale fall’ far too close to shore. A terrifying discovery is made…In Nathaniel Spain’s ‘Meadow Seep’, a couple move into their new home knowing full-well it’s not perfect but no neighbours, a beautiful view and a big house in the countryside, they can make it work, right?…It’s lambing season in Rhianna Jones’s story, ‘The Undrowning’, and Efa Powell is confronted with a horrifying discovery in the lambing shed and the once drowned village is visible once more…In J. Rosina Harlow’s ‘Corn Sister’, Master Sage makes the rules in this small village community and they should be grateful for him. One child is enough, any more and ‘sacrifices’ must be made… In Katherine Stansfield’s tale, ‘Record’, a woman all alone in the world finds a recording from an old broadcast, decides to reach out and record her own, but is there anybody left to hear?…In ‘Cold Front’ by Andie Weber ‘The’ place to escape to is New Erebus (if you can’t afford to leave Earth for a prestigious Mars colony). Here people go on immersive tours to imagine what the Arctic must have been like, but one day the Arctic returns of its own accord…