Having received this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers, I forgot to review it. This means I had to re-read it, which was not something I dreaded.

This is an interesting collection. At times the short stories feel like an idea looking for an execution. But there is just enough substance in each to make them a real story. Some of the stories' post scripts, where the author Dave Hutchinson explains what was the origin of each, reinforce this notion. Several were commissioned to fill a blank space in an anthology, whereas other started with a title or a random scene. Somehow these little, often self-deprecating explanations support the stories rather than detract from them and they are an asset to this collection. I am no writer, but as the author concedes himself, "All the news, all the time, from all the world" could have done with a few extra words.

Overall, I am definitely glad I got to know this author. I will be keeping an eye out for some of the anthologies mentioned in this collection. And I will definitely give the author's long form creation, Europe In Autumn, a try. ( )

The first thing I noticed about this six story collection is how many stories feature protagonists who have somehow reaped the benefits of social or physical apocalypse.

The heroine of “Sugar Engines” can work seeming miracles in a severely depopulated world. But this is a self-consciously “cosy catastrophe” where the weeds are under control, the sewer and water lines still work, and there’s electricity (if no internet). The miracles of Rae may have something to do with her dead husband’s research into nanotechnology, and the last surviving member of His Majesty’s Secret Service would like to know what really happened – because he has some hints that things are most definitely not what they seem.

The apocalypse of “Dali’s Clocks” is social (if very mellow in result). Most everyone in the world feels the compulsion to create something. And they all want the narrator, who is one of the rare ones who doesn’t suffer this compulsion, to critique their work.

The narrator of “The Incredible Exploding Man” is one of the few who can navigate who can navigate the dimensions sanely after a lab accident at a superconducting supercollider throws a group of humans out of our normal space. But he, and the rest of the world, about what will happen when the others figure out how to do the same. They are particularly concerned about the world’s greatest physicist, and not very nice person, figures out how to control his destructive powers.

It’s an elven apocalypse in “All the News, All the Time, From Everywhere”. In the middle of what seems some sort of European civil war, the elves of England reassert their power, ban almost all technology, kill a bunch of people, and reintroduce the efficacy of prophecy via animal sacrifice. The latter is how newspapers (about the only communication form still permitted) like the one the narrator works for get some of their news. This protagonist is privileged by having a contact in the elvish version of MI-5 working at crushing rebellion. He may have done – and forgotten – some favor he did for the elves in the past.

The supernatural also shows up in “The Fortunate Isles”, a murder mystery, with a nice detailed opening, in Ireland’s West Country in a rundown, poorer future of retirees, like the detective protagonist’s detective father, existing on the scraps of broken pensions. (It’s one of two stories in the collection in which we get a nod to the last surviving member of U-2. Ah, the future is not all bleak.)

The second thing is that Hutchinson uses a variety of English and European settings which are refreshing. We’ve come away from the days when Peter F. Hamilton’s publishers chided him for two much local detail for the Rutland, UK setting of his Greg Mandel series. The one exception to this rule is the “Sioux Crossing” mentioned in “The Incredible Exploding Man”. For some reason, Hutchinson put his supercollider in Iowa (it was once planned for Texas). I think he just wanted to have a Midwest tornado.

The third thing I noticed is that a couple of these could have been longer which Hutchinson acknowledges for “All the News, All the Time, From Everywhere”.

My favorite story, just because I favor mixtures of history, mystery, and science fiction (not to mention Roman history) was, “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi”. Its narrator, an archaeology student turned journalist, is dragged into helping an old professor examine the excavated villa of one Lucius Claudius Setibogius, a provincial of Roman Britain who did very well for himself by supplying some strange creatures for the Coliseum’s gladiatorial games. The story is original to this collection, and it rather put me in mind of Michael J. Flynn's Eifelheim.

I can’t guarantee I’ll read any more Hutchinson. But I won’t dismiss him. ( )

I have had this review copy of the epub for awhile. I read the first four stories. I will probably never read the rest. There were unique premises, creative and sometimes intriguing writing, but each seemed to fall short, never quite delivering its promise. It seemed as if the author's imagination just never made it to the end of the stories. I wanted to give it a great review, but I just can't. From other reviews, it appears as if this is the author's intent - to leave the completion to the reader. To me, it's as if they were tossed in the drawer, to be finished at the next burst of inspiration or simply abandoned in favor of a better idea that took over the author's imagination and effort. ( )

I love short fiction, so I couldn’t ask for a better introduction to Hutchinson’s work than this amazing collection. The six science fiction/fantasy short (but not very short) pieces compiled in this book are varied, highly entertaining, well-written, and brimming with humor and original ideas (what about a world run by elves in which newspapers find out about the news reading animals’ entrails). Although I enjoyed each and every story, my favorite one was “Dali’s Clocks”, a funny story about creativity. Without any doubt, this is one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read this year. Highly recommended for any science fiction/fantasy short fiction lover, and probably also for anyone who has read and enjoyed Hutchinson’s recent and praised novels. ( )

I have been reading a good share of short fiction lately, mostly literary but some genre stuff of which [Sleeps with Angels] is one such collection.
As a whole, I enjoyed it though a few of the stories were too 'quirky' for my taste. I did enjoy 'The Fortunate Isle' and 'The Incredible Exploding Man'.
The first appealed to my mystery bent and the second I just liked. A quick read and overall recommended. ( )