I am about halfway through China Mieville’s Looking for Jake: Stories. I enjoyed his novels Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council, and this compilation presents 14 short fictions which combine elements of fantasy, horror and sci-fi. To me, Mieville’s writing style is reminiscent of Jorge Luis Borges, H.P. Lovecraft, Samuel R. Delany, Kelly Link and Shelley Jackson.

One of my favorite novels from recent years is Susanna Clarke’s gothic fantasy set in 18th-century England, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I’m about halfway through her follow-up collection The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, now out in paperback. Its eight stories continue Clarke’s dark tales of society and the supernatural, with hints of Jane Austen, the Brothers Grimm, Nathaniel Hawthorne, H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe.