- Publisher: Fairwood Press
- Publication date: 10/14/2025 (Pre-order available)
- Pages: 236
- ISBN: 978-1-9588880-29-6
- Author: K.A. Teryna
- Translated by: Alex Shvartsman
Black Hole Heart and Other Stories by K.A. Teryna was translated from Russian by Alex Shvartsman. This is an engaging, eclectic set of stories. Some feel like Russian folk tales made new. Some feel like space opera, some like cyberpunk. Some are just plain weird and feel like some of the experimental writing from the 1960’s.
Teryna has an interesting and vivid imagination, creating worlds and populating them with strange and captivating characters, people and otherwise. I can’t tell you what these stories are like in the original Russian, but Shvartsman does a great job in capturing the beauty and the strangeness of language. If I did not know ahead of time, I would not have guessed these were not the original versions.
Stories of longing and loneliness and desire and, sometimes, successes. Unusual worlds. Whale gods. Interstellar space ships. Removal and retrieval of pain. Ghosts and spirits and dreams. A Russian cat, from Leningrad! Virtual Moscows. Cyber Jellyfish. Heir to the throne? Smiles. Golems. Bees. A nice glass of red.
I haven’t read much short fiction lately, but Black Hole Heart and Other Stories is a reason to perhaps change that. These are not frivolous throw-away stories to read for a quick laugh. There is a depth to them that comes back to you later. You sink into these stories and come up for air later. When you do come up, there is a different feel to the atmosphere. It’s a little richer, a little thicker and a little darker.
Matt Truxaw’s newest book is Monster, which released on 1/12/2026. This urban fantasy, horror, thriller will keep you turning the pages.
He is also the author of the hard science fiction thrillers: “Plastiphobia/Plastivore” and “Anthrophobia: A Teacher’s Tale”
You can find them all on Amazon in Paperback, Hardback, Kindle and/or free to read with Kindle Unlimited.
When you read any of them, he would really appreciate a review/rating on Amazon or your favorite book seller/book reader site.
More about Matt:
He was born in Orange County California many years ago and he still lives there. He has been reading books for most of those years and writing up book reviews for the last few years. He gets MANY of his books out of the library/Libby so expect a lot of old science fiction classics book reviews and other science related reviews in addition to newer books he comes across.
If you want to be ‘in-the-loop’ on these and other works, you can follow his author’s page on Amazon or his Facebook page.
For more reviews and articles by Matt here on Amazing Stories (Click here).
Monster: A Novel by Matt Truxaw
