The protagonist is well-developed, with a compelling arc that balances personal struggles with larger, world-altering stakes. Supporting characters are equally engaging, offering moments of humor, tension, and heart. The plot moves at a solid pace, with enough twists and turns to keep the reader hooked without becoming convoluted.

The House of Illusionists is a stunning collection of 17 short stories. I love a good short story, and this was SEVENTEEN gorgeous stories that, while brief, did not feel rushed (which is unusual for short stories)!

I’m struggling to find a word other than beautiful to describe this. I am a big fan of sci-fi and fantasy - these stories covered both so well. The emotions this book evoked in me, from giggles to tears, were terrific. I can’t wait to purchase a copy when it is released and read it all over again.

Thank you to NetGalley, Interstellar Flight Press, and Vanessa Fogg for providing me with a free eARC, and I am leaving a voluntary review.

I did enjoy these even though I’m not usually short stories however some of the closer worlds stories kinda feel flat for me mainly the first two, I really disliked the character in the first story although I wonder if that might be the point. My favourite was sweetest out of all the stories because it was just the right amount of sad and horrific with the fantastical element grounded in avery really threat of children disappearing. I did like the further worlds stories but non stood out to me as much as sweetest. I felt at times the writing was trying to hard to make the stories mysteries and spooky with some stories it really didn’t work and while with others it did.

This collection was so good that I doled out the last few stories to myself slowly, just one a day, so it wouldn't end too soon.

I met Vanessa Fogg in college but we lost touch until I moved back to the Midwest, near her current hometown. Until we reconnected, I didn't even know she was a writer. I've devoured her work in The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 4; The Future Fire; Lightspeed; and Uncharted. I loved Lilies of the Dawn. When she mentioned a forthcoming book on social media, I was thrilled to be able to read an ARC through NetGalley.

Her stories conjure so many different worlds and people - gods, ghosts, angels, vampires, sickly sweet evil clowns, mothers, daughters, lovers, shapeshifters, magicians - and they all manage to slip inside of you, to make you hold your breath as you wonder what will come next. She writes relationships between characters and circumstances that feel genuine enough to break your heart or lift your spirit. Isn't that what we all want from what we read?

My personal favorites (though it was hard to choose!) include Traces of Us, The Things That We Will Never Say, The Breaking, Of Milk and Blood, Fanfiction for a Grimdark Universe, and the eponymous The House of Illusionists. That final story is beautiful and relevant to our time, in a way that both gave me hope and brought me to tears.

If you love science fiction and fantasy, you need, no, you DESERVE to read this collection.

Great short story collection by Ms. Fogg, and she's definitely a voice I'll be keeping an eye out for in the future. The name in the editorial acknowledgements made my eyebrows raise a bit, I need to check the publisher's editorial board.

I’m quite particular bout short stories, so I was both excited and worried about picking this up. The premise was right up my alley and, I’m happy to report, this collection did not disappoint.

This compilation includes 17 stories that span a multitude of genres, from speculative fiction to fantasy and sci-fi, while exploring different concepts and worlds.

The first part, focuses on worlds that present similarities to our own, hooked me, but it was the second part, “Farther Worlds” that took my heart.

The House of Illusionists and other stories is beautifully written in a dark, fantastical, fluid and almost abstract way, making us travel through not only different realities, but also different perspectives.

My favourite short stories were (in no particular order):
* Traces of Us
* The Young God
* Between Sea and Shore
* Wings
* Fanfiction for a Grimdark Universe
* House of Illusionists

Overall, this is a must read for all lovers of dark short stories, perfect for an autumn night during spooky season.

Thank you so much to Interstellar Flight Press and NetGalley for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy!

This short story collection ranges from sci-fi to magic realism to fantasy.
Some stories stood out more than others, but overall they share a thread of melancholy—of lost love, longing, and the craving for something fantastical hidden within everyday life.

These stories are a quiet and slow collection that lingers in mood and atmosphere rather than fast pacing. Perfect if you enjoy stories that blur the line between reality and wonder.

This is a spectacular collection of short stories! I’m a big fan of folkloric stories and tales, so I went into this with curiosity and high expectations and wasn’t disappointed.

I really enjoyed the way this book was formatted by having stories separated by ‘Closer Worlds’ that are stories set in a world like ours, and ‘Farther Worlds’, the tales set in distant places. There are 17 short stories split between these two sections, and each of them was an intriguing and excellent read. I appreciated that all of these stories were actually short, with the longest being around 19 pages and the shortest around 4. Every story had the appropriate length; none of them felt too long or too short, which I think can be a common issue in short story collections, but this book didn’t face this issue. The stories all flowed even though their contents were all different, which was perfect as a reader. The writing, as well, was just done so incredibly well; I was thoroughly impressed when reading. This collection is a perfect read for those who love folkloric short stories and could even be a great introduction for readers wanting to get into the world of mythical tales and short stories.

My favourite of the short stories were ‘Traces of Us’, ‘The Young God’, ‘The Message’, ‘The Things That We Will Never Say’, ‘Between Sea and Shore’, ‘Wings’ and ‘An Address to the Newest Disciples of the Lost Words”

Thank you to NetGalley and Vanessa Fogg for this ARC!

I almost don't even know how to write this review without sounding like I've lost my ever loving mind. These stories hit so deep and so hard.

There is not a single story in this collection that felt like filler or was unimportant. I've never read such a strong collection of stories. It's sci-fi, it's speculative fiction, it's fantasy but mostly it's just so human. The stories are full of fear, joy, longing, identity, hope, pain, and love, so, so much love.

I sobbed over minds uploaded into a computer, a mother's fear and desires, a young God's sadness, and a boy's remembering. I felt so strongly for so many of the characters. I didn't want the stories to end. But when they did, they felt complete. How can I feel so satisfied with the story while simultaneously wanting to read a 500-page book about it?

The writing was truly lovely and enchating at every turn. Fogg has a way of blending the language and strengths of science with the imaginative vastness of fantasy in a way that speaks on such a deep level of human experiences.

If you like witches, sea spirits, space travel, uploaded consciousness, murderous beings, shapeshifting, fanfiction, curses... or literally anything. You will love at least one of these tales, and you will likely deeply enjoy all of them.

This will absolutely be my go-to book that I gift to friends for the foreseeable future. And an instant recommendation for anyone who enjoys fantasy/sci-fi.

Thank you to Vanessa Fogg and Interstellar Flight Press for the eARC of The House of Illusionists and Other Stories via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This is a collection of short stories written by Vanessa Fogg with fantasy and sci-fi themes/genres. The first part of the book, 'Closer World', is set in worlds that are similar to ours, while the second part of the book, 'Farther Worlds', is set in more fantasy worlds. I personally preferred the second part of the book because I'm more into those kinds of worlds. Overall, Fogg did a great job of worldbuilding, especially since they are short stories. That was my main concern while going into this book, since it is fantasy/sci-fi based, which often requires extensive worldbuilding for the story to make sense or have an impact. Gladly, this was done well, so I could really get into the stories.

Now let's go into the stories themselves. I liked the variety of all the stories with very interesting concepts. They were all different enough to feel like they had their own little worlds. My favorite stories overall are: (I won't describe them because of possible spoilers + I also don't know how to hide parts of my review because I haven't written a lot of reviews on Goodreads yet ;) )

1) 'The Things That We Will Never Say' --> It's a short story that had the most impact on me by far. I loved the way it was written, with the headings being things she would want to say. fav quote: "I love you. We will never say these words aloud. But in every timeline I can see, we know it’s true."

2) 'Wings': This one is my overall favorite!!! I always love the theme of magic and fairytale-like stories, so this fit right into my alley. It's a very sweet story and a very sweet ending.--> fav quote: "There is a language deeper than words. A language of silence, touch, and simple presence."

3) 'Fanfiction for Grimdark Universe': very interesting concept, I've never read anything like it. I also liked the explanations of the different ones and how they would wish it were their lives. My fav quote --> "These are the fics where the bad things never happened. Where the story still takes place in our universe, but the universe took a different turn."

4) 'Once Upon a Midsummer's Night': This is a story that I could read an entire book of. I love the POV of this story and the way it was told, changing between the past and present. My fav quotes --> "We remember. We are made of almost nothing but memories." and "We are the Garden, and each life here has left us an echo of its soul. We know them in full. We carry them all: the memories, the soul imprints, of all our children."

5) 'Traces of Us': I was a bit confused at the beginning when the storylines switched between the ships and the scientists, but it became clear when reading it further, and it felt very sweet then. I also loved the scientific themes of neurology and the brain itself. My fav quote --> "The only real immortality is in the memories we leave behind for our loved ones."

Overall, some stories were a bit difficult to understand/get into at the beginning, but almost all make sense at the end. I think the meaning of certain stories will hit even more when rereading the stories, so I probably will be doing that in the future :). I WOULD recommend this book to others who might want to get into the fantasy/sci-fi genre because it allows you to read different kinds of stories so you can find out what you like best.

Thank you Netgalley for sending me this book in exchange for my honest review! <3 #TheHouseofIllusionists #NetGalley

ps) a part of the story 'the breaking' reminds me a lot of the movie 'Contact' (1997): the part of the message from the starts. I recently watched the movie, hence the reminder hihi --> quote: "A star whose light (if we could see it) would take 289 years to reach us. Something near that star, my mother explained, had sent all of Earth a Message."

Thank you to Interstellar Flight Press over on NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC and review this book. This was an impressive collection of short stories with a wide variety of stories that would cater to many different types of readers. Each of these short stories were beautifully written and transported me to vastly different worlds, and best of all each of them were a handful of pages long so it was like entering numerous pocket dimensions from chapter to chapter.

This book has incredible potential and I can even see it being adapted for a short series on television some day, however the entire book felt more like a manuscript of ideas or a journal with rough drafts instead of a fleshed out product. Perhaps it could be because the individuals stories are so brief that I am not experiencing the deep grip a more fleshed out story could offer me, but for what it was it was a very interesting and unique read.

What I did love about this book were the continuing themes of love and connection that were interwoven into most of the tales, and the prose was breathtaking in most of the short stories. One of my favorite quotes from this book was "There is a language deeper than words. A language of silence, touch, and simple presence."

Although this book was not exactly my cup of tea, I was thoroughly impressed by it. Vanessa Fogg used the emotions of her characters and her skillful words to paint scenes full of depth and emotion that sometimes felt vivid enough to touch and I think many people would find this anthology delightful and inspirational.

The House of Illusionists: and Other Stories by Vanessa Fogg is a collection of short stories that are mainly fantasy . The stories each have a different setting and focus while taking place in both our world and others worlds.

Vanessa Fogg is a without a doubt a good writer who clearly has a lot of different ideas. She is very straightforward in her writing, but she still manages to have some beautiful sentences and overall great character and world building. I think a lot of people will really love this collection based on both her writing and the creativity. There is most likely a story for everybody.

I liked the book, but for some reason I didn't finish the book feeling satisfied in terms of what each story delivered. I so badly wanted her to take the stories and the ideas a little bit further and just go a little bit crazier with the direction in general. I felt like it wasn't very hard to predict the flow of each story, once I had read a few of them - which meant it got a little boring for me even if the set-up was interesting. I feel like the most interesting stories were on the shorter side, so often times it meant, that I wanted a lot of the shorter stories to be longer, and I wanted a lot of the longer stories to be shorter.

While this wasn't my favorite book/collection, I'm certain I'll read more from Fogg based on how interested I was in just the ideas behind every story and the overall world building. I would also still recommend this to everybody who likes reading fantasy or maybe people who want to try the genre for the first time, as the variety of stories in this collection will give a great insight into what the genre has to offer.

My favorite stories were: "Sweetest", "The breaking", "Between the sea and the shore" and "The House of Illusionists"

- 3.5*

Beautiful anthology of fantasy short stories , loved the difference in the two halves of the books with “closer worlds” and “farther worlds”. The writing was great - loved the different POV’s. Even with some stories which didn’t grab my arenas much as others they were still an easy read. I didn’t expect to like all 17 stories - this would have been a miracle haha

This is a really well written collection of stories - Fogg is an incredibly talented writer who seems to effortlessly excel at all genres. The stories all lean towards fantasy but there's enough to please everyone in this book.

I recommend dipping in and out of this collection, especially in the second half as it did start to feel a little bit same-y and I think it works better as a casual read.

The House Of Illusionists: and other stories - Vanessa Fogg

What a charming collection of short stories. My favourite was ‘all the souls like candle flames’ 🪶🧜‍♀️ beautifully written, the feather charms remind me of baiting-up to go fishing down the creek. 🎣 🚤

These stories all had that “it” factor that I search for. Vanessa Fogg has a real talent for creating unique sci fi / fantasy worlds and delivering on the interesting premise each time. I laughed and I cried to these stories. A huge thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for providing an arc for review. I would highly recommend this collection!!

This was absolutely incredible. I am quite hard to please when it comes to short stories. I often feel authors are unable to wrap them up satisfactorily, while still having a strong storyline. But this author absolutely excels at this. The writing was incredibly strong, I can honestly say that all of the stories included are incredibly unique and well thought out. Seeing as this collection is fantasy, the author often has to set up a world, characters and a magic system within 10-20 pages, and she nails it every time. I am deeply impressed by this collection and will definitely read more by her.

My personal favorite from this collection was ‘Fanfiction for a Grimdark Universe’. That story was so unique, and I cared so much for these characters that I was only with for 11 pages. I would read an entire book about most of these stories, but this one most of all. I am just so impressed by this collection and I’m so happy I read this on a whim, I know that I will be thinking about some of these stories for a long time.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Interstellar Flight Press for providing me with an ARC for this book in exchange for an honest review.

A fantastic set of short stories exploring the themes of humanity, finding your place in the world, and what it means to be you. Many of the stories have stayed with me long after reading, with many of the stories feeling very personal. Spanning both sci-fi and fantasy (with a nice spooky touch of horror) most of the stories are effective and relate back to real experiences and feelings. Vanessa Fogg's writing is just lovely, capturing me from the very first story, the way she captures the complexity of different types of love is pretty magical.. She treats the audience with intelligence - she doesn't have to spell out everything in her world building, she drops you in it and her writing is so great that you don't feel disorientated. A couple of the short stories felt a tad too long, which is the only reason I have given it four stars, but that might also be a reflection of the emotional toll the book took on me (in a good way)! I will read anything by Vanessa Fogg. Give me more!

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. I usually struggle with short stories but these had me gripped from the beginning. The only issue is that I feel some of them were a little too short, a handful more pages would have dealt elevated them for me

What I'd consider to be the best short story collection I've read in a while, "The House of Illusionists" is a lovely compilation of 17 stories that span a multitude of genres—from speculative fiction to sci fi to fantasy.

The collection is split up into two different sections, the first section being "Closer Worlds" which features stories that are set in worlds very similar to our own. But in these cases, the worlds are altered from our reality by means of extreme technological advances or mythical elements that have either suddenly appeared or have secretly always been lurking in the shadows. Meanwhile the second section, "Farther Worlds", contains stories set in worlds that are not quite as close to ours—these worlds are ones where magic and mythical elements have always been their reality.

I found the writing itself to be very fluid and oftentimes fantastical. There was also a mix of different formats and tenses that helped keep things interesting. All of the plots as well are distinctly unique which was very refreshing for me as a reader. That said, as with all collections there were some stories I really enjoyed, as well as some that didn't really get my attention as much. But even with those stories I wasn't as invested in, I did still think they all had interesting concepts—my biggest complaint with them would just be that they were too short for my tastes.

Overall, after totaling up my ratings for each individual story, I ended up with an average of 4 stars! And because I don't really want to spoil any of the stories by giving details, I'll just leave this off with saying that my personal favorites (and ratings) from the collection are: "Traces of Us" (5), "Sweetest" (4.5), "The Wave" (4), "Between Sea and Shore" (4), and "An Address to the Newest Disciples of the Lost Words" (4).