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E. Catherine Tobler
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The Grand Tour: A Jackson's Unreal Circus & Marmalade Collection Kindle Edition

by E. Catherine Tobler (Author), A.C. Wise (Introduction) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
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Step right up! Come one, come all, to Jackson's Unreal Circus and Mobile Marmalade. The steam train may look older than your great-grandmother's' china, but within her metal corridors are destinations you have only ever dreamed. They're real, friends, each and every one—and yours for the taking.

Witness Rabi, Vanquisher and Vanisher Extraordinaire, who can make coins and the past vanish before your very eyes. Dare to visit the Beauty and the Beast, our conjoined twins who are terrible and tortured by turns. Sample Beth's marmalade, the sticky sweetness containing the very memory of the day you turned sixteen, and your beloved's lips touched yours once and never again.It's worth the price, traveler. Jackson's Unreal Circus is where you can be whoever or whatever you want. Whether it be a ride on the Ferris wheel, slipping inside a skin that is not your own, or the opportunity to live as you never have before—it is all possible on this, the grandest of tours. The train beckons you—come, come!

For the first time, E. Catherine Tobler has compiled a collection of her popular circus stories. With nine stories ranging from the first publishing within this universe to a previously unpublished piece, this is your ticket to her magical world. Welcome to The Grand Tour.

Contains the following destinations:
"Vanishing Act"
"Artificial Nocturne"
"We, As One, Trailing Embers"
"Liminal"
"Blow the Moon Out"
"Ebb Stung by the Flow"
"Lady Marmalade"
"Every Season" (original to this collection)
"Inland Territory; Stray Italian Greyhound"

Featuring a special introduction by A.C. Wise!
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  1. Print length
    206 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    June 16, 2020
  5. File size
    3326 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

E. Catherine Tobler has never run away with the circus, but there s still time. Among others, her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Apex Magazine. She edited the World Fantasy and Hugo-finalist Shimmer Magazine, and co-edited the World Fantasy Award finalist anthology, Sword & Sonnet.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B086VNW374
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 16, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3326 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 206 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1937009815
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 16 ratings

About the author

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E. Catherine Tobler

E. Catherine Tobler

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E. Catherine Tobler’s short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, F&SF, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Apex Magazine, and others. Her novella, The Necessity of Stars, from Neon Hemlock, was a finalist for the Nebula, Utopia, and Sturgeon Awards. She currently edits The Deadlands.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
16 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Maria Haskins
5.0 out of 5 stars If you like Bradbury, the Twilight Zone, and weird, beautiful fiction, this collection is for you
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2020
Verified Purchase
If you (like me) love Ray Bradbury and the stranger, somewhat surreal side of fantasy, horror, and science fiction, then this short story collection by E. Catherine Tobler is most definitely for you. For years, Tobler has been writing an amazing assortment of short stories (and a novella!) set in her weird, wonderful, unsettling, and sometimes rather terrifying, Circus world. In this collection, you will enter that Circus world, and meet characters who, while they seem strange on the surface, are probably far, far stranger beneath the skin.
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lisaleo (Lisa Yount)
4.0 out of 5 stars good stories about a magical circus
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2021
Verified Purchase
If you (like me) like stories about magical circuses and carnivals, where the “freaks” in the sideshows are really strange, this is a good batch. For openers, who could resist a show called “Jackson’s Unreal Circus and Mobile Marmalade”?

This is a series of connected short stories rather than a novel. The first third of them are about denizens of the circus, beings you’d see in that freak show, and how they got there. Some of the later tales are about the beings who, in some sense, run it, including the maker of the “mobile marmalade” and even the train that carries the circus from place to place (and time to time). Two stories, “Blow the Moon Out” and “Every Season,” are about people who merely visit the circus—but are profoundly changed by it. I found the latter to be the most moving.

The book is good, but not quite as good as I hoped it might be. The writing is excellent. However, the “freak” stories were a little too much alike; I felt like I was reading essentially the same story several times. The stories about the circus’s foundations, though certainly intriguing, felt somewhat unclear and incomplete. Most notably, there was no story about Jackson, the circus’s enigmatic “owner”; for that, apparently, one has to buy a separate prequel novella, The Kraken Sea. I will probably do so, to satisfy my curiosity.
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Kayla Frederick
5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting and Dreamy
Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2020
From the very first page, I was hooked. I’m always a sucker for circus stories. This book contained nine short stories filled with mystery and intrigue. A few times I thought of American Horror Story: Freak Show. It had the same kind of vibes in places with ringmasters, bearded ladies, and a whole host of strangeness.

Each story had it’s own strengths, but a common theme in all of them was the importance of relationships—both family and otherwise. The characters all grew on me, and I was sad to come to the end of this book. The author writes in almost a dreamy style, kind of poetic. The dark tinges to each story made them all the more enthralling.

As the train of Jackson’s Unreal Circus moves along the tracks, we come across just about everything you could hope to find in a story: love, loss, friendship, comfort, drama, and sorrow.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Quirky
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2020
I love all things circus, so I was drawn to this collection like... well like a dreamer to the circus. I did dream of running away with circus when I was younger, and older, though my role changed and I won't get into that. Much like you might imagine a circus, this collection had an eclectic mix of stories spanning a long history, but all connected by one theme, one particular circus, Jackson's Unreal Circus and Mobile Marmalade.

Characters wind through the tales, growing on you as they do each other, some like flowers others like weeds, all in the same moving garden, rolling across the landscape. The style is poetic and dreamy, surreal and yet also real. There is a dark side to the dream, alluring and cruel, raw and beautiful.

Every Season gets my biggest step right up, with this mix I'm sure everyone with a taste for the magic of the circus will find their own main attraction.
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Mia
4.0 out of 5 stars For circus fans
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2020
Yes, I am the first to review this book, it is a distinct privilege. But here’s the thing…if you just told me to read a dreamily poetic set of stories of strange beings with feminist/queer angle and now reviews anywhere, it wouldn’t be an instant sell. But throw in a circus theme and I’m so here. So yes, this one had me at circus. I love all things to do with circuses. So I downloaded and read this one almost immediately upon discovering it on Netgalley. And ended up liking it very much. In fact the language in all its dreamy poetry actually worked really well here, the stories didn’t just draw you in, they enveloped you like strange but irresistible dreams. A steam train is coming through…decades, states, cities. It brings a show unlike any other. Jackson’s Unreal Circus and Mobile Marmalade features miracles, oddities and magic. It also sells a dessert confection that brings back your loveliest memories. Who wouldn’t want to take that tour? This collection features stories of individuals who end up inextricably connected to the circus, either as performers or guests or sometimes even both. Written over a span of time and united by one theme (or under one giant tent) these stories can be somewhat uneven, but mostly uniformly a delight to read. My favorite might have been the third one. It’s difficult to say, the entire thing was a collective experience, more like a novel of varied chapters. The genre ranges from magic realism to something more akin to adult fairy tales, but there’s so much inbetween the two. Tragedy, drama, coming of age stories, love, darkness, loneliness, adventure and always, as a constant backbone throughout, a theme of finding oneself, because that’s what a circus offers, after all. A place to be different. There’s some sort of life metaphor there, I’m sure, but it isn’t needed. Suffice it to say the book succeeds in its mission, it takes you on a grand tour indeed. It’s lovely and magical and makes for a very enjoyable read, especially so for circus fans. Recommended.
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