First of all I have to say that this is one of the most beautifully put together books I have in my collection. The wraparound artwork is stunning. The Front and end-piece both have a really weird picture and all but one of the stories is accompanied by something equally good.
The paper quality is palpable. The title page is embossed with the Press logo - something I've never seen before- and the whole thing is just gorgeous to look at and hold. It's also limited to only 330 copies.
It's a collection of weird tales based around trees and nature. The only author in the collection that I knew before I picked this up was Adam Nevill. It's fair to say that he was the whole reason I forked out the surprisingly low price for this.
There are 12 stories in here of varying quality.
It opens strongly with Roots- by Die Booth. This is a strange tale about a young girl and her relationship with a root witch, which becomes the oracle for the small village she lives in. The ending was nicely ambiguous.
One of the highlights from the rest of the book is Adam Nevill's Rock Hopping- where adventurous kayakers come to regret their hop onto an island off the Devonian coast. This has already been selected by Ellen Datlow for her annual best horror of the year collection if you don't believe me that this stor is excellent.
Other highlights include Burnt orchard by Charles Wilkinson- a young family, newcomers to an English village find it difficult to fit in in the heart of the rural community- The Fell by Alys Hobbs- which reads like a particularly strange fever dream- and In the White May by Mat Joiner which brings horror into stories of the Fae.
It closes strongly too with Tracey Fahey's environmentally themed Uhripuu.
There are a couple of stories I found to be very weak, favouring an overwrought writing style over actual storytelling.
Overall this is a good collection but not excellent. The couple of weak stories and the fact that nearly all the stories have the same tone with little variation prevent it IMHO from reaching great heights.
It's still well worth what I paid for it, just as a thing of beauty in its own right. If you can get hold of a reasonably priced copy, I would recommend you do so. The good stories outweigh the bad.
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