Crushed Mexican Spiders (Possibly Forty Ships) [Hardcover]

The first thing to note about the book is how short it is. "Crushed Mexican Spiders" is a mere 12 pages on small pages and "Possibly Forty Ships" is 20 pages. The book is nicely put together, a dinky hardback with the stories printed flipside by side so you have to turn the book around to read the other story when you've finished the other one, and the jacket is nicely designed. And that's basically what you're paying for, a nicely put together book with some ok-ish but very short stories.

"CMS" is about what living in London does to a person, how it changes them from decent people into soulless, mistrustful drones. A woman returning from a business trip finds her key won't open her flat door and that someone else is living in it. She doesn't recognise her neighbours nor does anyone recognise her. Her bank cards don't work, her friends and family phone numbers don't work, and she is all alone in London with nowhere to go and no idea what's happened to her life. The story stands out for its ambiguity and could be read as what homelessness and mental illness must be like or a kind of witch's curse story (the protagonist kills her neighbour's spiders who were specially bred - maybe her neighbour magicked her life away?). But it's haunting finale and overall creepy factor make this an interesting story and the better of the two.

"PFS" is about what "really" happened at Troy and is told by a witness of the events, revealing that in fact what happened was there were far fewer ships, men, and heroes, and it was mostly a lie. It's an interesting-ish idea, that I think Fischer thought was funny but really isn't, and the writing of it isn't that great to read. Also, who cares about Troy - really?

The book is put out by Unbound, a crowd sourced publisher who say they are doing something revolutionary though they are only putting out second rate material from already established writers - for my money, not that revolutionary. If you go to their website you can find out more about how it works and if you chip in with a donation, you get your name printed in the book, the list in this book being almost as long as the stories themselves. Still, an interesting experiment but I think self-publishing via the Kindle is far more revolutionary.

Not the best work from Tibor Fischer but a well-made book and at least one of the stories was fun. That said, it takes about 10 minutes to read so if you love book design you'll be buying this more for the tactile object of the book rather than the content. For anyone else, you have to ask yourself if paying seven quid for 32 pages is worth it or not - for me, not really.

Two great short stories deservedly given the hardback treatment via clever Unbound publishers - I read both without putting the book down. "Possibly Forty Ships" is laugh-out-loud audacity. "Crushed Mexican Spiders": well, few people do biting wit better than Tibor Fischer on top form, implacable enemy that he is of the humdrum but horrifying pomposities, idiocies and cruelties of big city life. An ideal stocking filler /festive gift for that sophisticated, and broad-minded, reader in your life.

These two stories make for a read outloud feast. No question, Fischer has a way with (in this case, very few) words. I won't go into detail about the plots as half the fun of Tibor Fischer is reading his each and every word/phrase and punctuation mark. His writing is fine, though I sometimes wish he would take a break from always changing his voice (I mean the guy has written from the perspective of everything from a clay pot to a woman) to a developing a story that mainlines his own perspective, without the costume (would that be naked?). CMS is worth the ducats.