Born to Strange Sights brings together eleven short stories that take readers on a journey through myth and modernity, fable and the distant future, where the boundaries between reality and the fantastic collapse and normal life is unexpectedly shattered by the bizarre.

Rocks gathered from the seashore divulge long-kept secrets. A giant automaton grinds to a halt, leaving the people of a remote island suddenly without their guardian. Gorillas appear out of nowhere to observe all of humankind, with one curious exception. The emergence of spring flowers inspires brutal tribal violence. Flocks of flamingoes in a small Welsh town herald an uncanny apocalypse . . .

Bewitching, darkly lyrical, and uniquely imaginative, the stories in Born to Strange Sights expose humanity at its most vulnerable, exploring themes of sacrifice and survival, power and resilience, metamorphosis and destruction. With its blend of fantasy, science-fiction, fabulism, surrealism, and the absurd, this collection invites you to question what it means to be human in a word of unfathomable strangeness.

PRAISE FOR STORIES IN THIS COLLECTION

"Dreamlike and full of mystery."

—Locus on "The Flamingo Maximizer"

"A moving story about secrets, about silence and the brave and necessary act of breaking the silence. A wonderful read!"

—Quick Sip Reviews on "Secret Keepers"

"Satiric and surreal."

—Tangent Online on "The Flamingo Maximizer"

"As dark and intense as this story is, it offers the hope of finding new ways to live our lives in the shadow of a troubled past."

—Strange Horizons on "Gingerbread"

"An excellent flash fiction story. . . . McKimm's darkly lyrical prose sings and flows like a spell."

—Maria's Reading on "Art, and Wit, and Changing"

"This story is beautiful in the most shattering of ways. Its brevity holds a whole world, and its wrenching narrative is drenched in wonder.

—SF Story of the Day on "A Lady of Ganymede, a Sparrow of Io"

"Striking and original."

—Tangent Online on "Peach Child, Woman, Stone"

"A strange and compelling read, full of a mix of desires, grim and otherwise, pushing toward an ending full of life but also of transformation and dissolution."

—Quick Sip Reviews on "Art, and Wit, and Changing"

"A fantastic tale and one that I highly recommend."

—Tangent Online on "Secret Keepers"

"An utterly beautiful flash piece of horror and hope, torment and escape, set in a far-future science-fiction/fantasy world."

—It's a Jumble on "A Lady of Ganymede, a Sparrow of Io"