The Birdcage Heart Other Strange Tales

12 short stories those who love strange, heartbreaking, and unforgettable fantasy. What if kaiju decimated your hometown, but only half the population could see them? What if mermaids unleashed their wrath against Copenhagen using mechanoid war-machines? What if the man you loved wanted nothing more than running away to live with the faeries, but you were the one they wanted to take with them? The Birdcage Heart & Other Strange Tales gathers together twelve wild and genre-bending fantasy tales from the pen of Peter M Ball, the Ditmar and Aurealis Award-winning author of the cult hit Horn and the Keith Murphy urban fantasy thrillers. These scintillating tales draw inspiration from myth, pop-culture, magic realism and Lovecraftian horrors, showcasing Peter M. Ball’s talent for blurring the line between genres and finding the sublime in both the everyday and the extraordinary. Come meet a man with a birdcage where his heart should be, the resident of Isla Tortuga’s most dangerous bordello, clockwork goats and smokestack magi, dragonkeepers, vengeful musicians, and frustrated public servants. Walk paths through briar-choked cities, deceptively ordinary towns, and an endless stairwell populated by tourists. Prepare yourself for the wickedly inventive magic and startlingly human moments. Whether you’re already a fan of Peter M. Ball, or you’re just about to become one, The Birdcage Heart & Other Strange Tales is a debut collection that shouldn’t be missed. PRAISE FOR PETER M. BALL "Only Peter M. Ball's fiction makes falling down the rabbit hole feel like flying. Funny and surprising, with moments of extraordinary grace." Angela Slatter, Author of the World Fantasy Award-winning The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings TABLE OF CONTENTS - The Last, Great House of Isla Tortuga - On the Destruction of Copenhagen By the War-Machines of the Merfolk - The Seventeen Executions of Signore Don Vashta - It’s Not A Bad Job, Really - The Dragonkeeper’s Wife - On the Finding Of Photographs Of My Former Loves - The Clockwork Goat & The Smokestack Magus - The Birdcage Heart - On the Cliffs, By The Sea - Briar Day - L’esprit de L’escalier - On the Arrival of the Paddle-Steamer on the Docks of V—

In this collection a man named Rat descends a staircase that never ends, following the rules laid out by his guidebook. Copenhagen is invaded by angry merfolk who pilot war-machines crafted from old shipwrecks. A musician with a grudge upsets the delicate balance of a very unusual seaside town.The Birdcage Heart & Other Strange Tales collects twelve weird and unusual fantasy stories from Peter M Ball. Come walk beside an executioner tasked with killing a man who cannot be killed, a young man with a birdcage where his heart should be, and a frustrated public servant trying to deal with an unruly wizard determined to prove his powers. Watch a relationship unravel as former lovers are revealed to be creatures of myth, reminisce with the residents of a city overrun with giant thorns, and visit Isla Tortuga¿s last, great house of ill repute where no-one is exactly what they seem on the surface. Some of the stories contained within have happy endings, and some end in sorrow, but the journey always takes an unexpected route through moments of wonder and unexpected pleasure. "Only Peter M. Ball's fiction makes falling down the rabbit hole feel like flying. Funny and surprising, with moments of extraordinary grace." Angela Slatter, Author of the World Fantasy Award-winning The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings

If you love your fiction weird, heartbreaking, and unforgettable, take this opportunity to introduce yourself to the short stories of Peter M. Ball. This debut collection of fantasy tales will take you on strange and wonderful journeys that contrast the sublime and the everyday, introducing you to unforgettable characters and unexpected landscapes. Walk beside an executioner tasked with killing a criminal who cannot be killed, a young man learning to love while there's a birdcage where his heart should be, and a frustrated public servant trying to deal with unruly wizard determined to prove magic exists. Watch a relationship unravel as former lovers are revealed to be creatures of myth, reminisce with the residents of a city overrun with giant thorns, and visit Isla Tortuga's last, great house of ill repute where no-one is exactly what they seem on the surface. Follow a man named rate down a staircase that never ends, watch as Copenhagen is invaded by the war machines of angry merfolk, and despair as a musician with a grudge upsets the delicate balance of a very unusual seaside town. You may never be sure if these tales are leading you down a path towards joy or sorrow, but the route will always be touched with moments of wonder and unexpected pleasure. The Birdcage Heart & Other Strange Tales collects twelve weird and unusual fantasy stories from award-winning Australian fantasist Peter M Ball."Only Peter M. Ball's fiction makes falling down the rabbit hole feel like flying. Funny and surprising, with moments of extraordinary grace." Angela Slatter, Author of the World Fantasy Award-winning The Bitterwood Bible and Other RecountingsTABLE OF CONTENTS- The Last, Great House of Isla Tortuga- On the Destruction of Copenhagen By the War-Machines of the Merfolk- The Seventeen Executions of Signore Don Vashta- It's Not A Bad Job, Really- The Dragonkeeper's Wife- On the Finding Of Photographs Of My Former Loves- The Clockwork Goat & The Smokestack Magus- The Birdcage Heart- On the Cliffs, By The Sea- Briar Day- L'esprit de L'escalier- On the Arrival of the Paddle-Steamer on the Docks of V--

For fans of the weird and enchanting, Peter M Ball returns with a third collection of speculative fiction stories that dance along the borders between horror, fantasy, and science fiction. These Strange and Magic Things collects fifteen tales showcasing why he’s among the finest writers of the strange and fantastic working in Australia right now. A zombie survival kit started as a private joke takes on new meaning in a failing marriage. A trip to the moon goes wrong when dinosaurs attack the anti-grav train in transit. The difficulties of high school prove much worse when Mike learns he’s a werewolf. A drunken party trick goes wrong when a boy with bats in his head decides to show everyone he can catch a bullet with is bare hands. Hit man to the supernatural, Keith Murphy, comes up against a demon who draws power from the wrestling ring. He’s too tough to gun down and impervious to magic, which means Keith’s only got one option - step up, play by the rules of the ring, and accept the possibility he might just be the local hero the Gold Coast needs. In These Strange and Magic Things Ball spins magic, horror, and pop culture together into an unforgettable collection of tales featuring rogue jinn, uncanny rock bands, magic bees, flying crocodiles, laundromat ghosts, haunted coins, cyberpunk gangs, and lost loves.

Their final gig ended with two hundred people dead. Patrick’s only regret is that he wasn’t there to be a part of it. There were three things everyone knew about the band: they played like demons, sang like angels, and there was definitely something magic about the way they glowed onstage. Patrick’s still hanging onto that, 15 years after their final gig. All those people may be dead, but they were part of something special and he chickened out before the end. Now he’s back on the Gold Coast for the first time in years, walking the streets where he used to see the posters, going past clubs that have been turned into Korean restaurant instead of a home for punk gigs. He can remember everything about those years when he was a fan, and he’s loaded with regrets about the gigs he missed. The band were called many things in their day: Hornet’s Attack Your Best Friend Victor; Whisky-Whisky-111; All that Glitters and We Will Always Have the Lighthouse My Melancholy Bride. None of those names stuck. None of them felt real. And Patrick isn’t sure he cares what the band was called—he just wants to touch that feeling he lost, no matter what it might cost him.

Keith followed orders. He came back home. He freed his soul and laid claim to a magic sword. But Keith Murphy doesn’t have time to rest, because his sorcerous partner Danny Roark is out of commission and the end of the world is thundering towards humanity like a freight train on steroids. As the elder entities from the depths of the Gloom break through the veil of reality with increasing regularity, Keith is forced to assemble a rag-tag army of demons, seers, and reluctant allies to stop Ragnarök from occurring.

Their music could be fatal, but their legacy lives on. Mia Dermott documents the stories of surviving in the back room of a record store, seeking a connection to the father she never got a chance to know. Her latest interviewee recounts a story of the band’s first gig, and the surprisingly legacy that her father left behind: the sole bootleg of the four-piece’s gigs that actually registered their music. It’s a tape Mia needs to find if she ever wants to understand why her father chose to die. And a tape the obsessed fans would kill to hear, if only they knew where to find it. Issue 2 in The Kaleidoscope’s Children, a mosaic series of uncanny tales set in the world of Hornets Attack Your Best Friend Victor & Other Things We Called The Band.

Read the first short story in Peter M. Ball’s Seraphim Plague series, One Saturday Night, With Angel (also available in the short story collection Not Quite The End Of The World Just Yet). There’s an angel perched on the Nite Owl roof when Mike shows up for the graveyard shift. He thinks it’s the same angel whose been following him for a week. Everybody thinks Mike’s going to be purged before morning, Elvis and all the other regulars are telling him so. But Mike figures he’s lasted six days without pissing the angel off. With luck, he can make it seven and they’ll find some other victim…