{"id":10691,"date":"2025-12-17T00:07:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T04:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=10691"},"modified":"2025-12-17T00:09:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T04:09:54","slug":"book-review-the-empire-of-the-moon-and-stars-and-other-stories-by-simon-bleaken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-the-empire-of-the-moon-and-stars-and-other-stories-by-simon-bleaken\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Empire of the Moon and Stars and Other Stories by Simon Bleaken"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cover<\/a><\/p>\n

The Empire of the Moon and Stars and Other Stories<\/i> by Simon Bleaken
\nIndependently published, 2025
\nISBN 979-8343998535
\nAvailable: Paperback, Kindle edition
\nBuy:\u00a0\u00a0Bookshop.org<\/a> |\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Empire of the Moon and Stars<\/i> is an interesting mix between horror and science fiction, independently published by a writer who is definitely worth watching \u2013 and reading.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The title story \u201cThe Empire of the Moon\u201d is a fine example of what I mentioned above, namely an extremely disquieting mix of horror and science fiction. Another standout is \u201cAnarred Asylum\u201d, a very dark story where madness and supernatural merge. Admittedly, suspension of disbelief is hard to maintain throughout the whole tale: however, it remains a powerful journey into horror. \u201cOcean Song\u201d is yet another strong, quite horrific piece, revolving around the invasion of deadly parasites coming from the sea.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I won\u2019t even try to describe what happens in \u201cA World Behind Glass\u201d. It will suffice to say that it has all the features of a nightmare, where anything bad can happen and no explanations are required.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cFinal Words\u201d is an atmospheric piece, revisiting the secrets surrounding the elusive Robert Chambers book, The King in Yellow, while \u201cThe Breath of the God\u201d is a claustrophobic example of \u201carchaeological\u201d horror.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The final section of the volume, called “Echoes of the Future”, is extremely oriented toward science fiction. Readers looking for an author who can write both horror and science fiction will want to check this collection of stories out.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Mario Guslandi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Empire of the Moon and Stars and Other Stories by Simon Bleaken Independently published, 2025 ISBN 979-8343998535 Available: Paperback, Kindle edition Buy:\u00a0\u00a0Bookshop.org |\u00a0Amazon.com   The Empire of the Moon and Stars is an interesting mix between horror and science fiction, independently published by a writer who is definitely worth watching \u2013 and reading.  <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[645,749,226,1526,495,5903,5904],"class_list":["post-10691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-horror-book-reviews","tag-horror-books","tag-science-fiction","tag-short-stories","tag-short-story-collections","tag-simon-bleaken","tag-the-empire-of-the-moon-and-stars-and-other-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10691"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10694,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10691\/revisions\/10694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}