No One Will Come Back For Us: And Other Stories

Mohamed (The Void Ascendant) brings eldritch horrors from beyond space and time to the world’s oceans, down lonely back roads, and into the trees beyond the backyard. As she frightens listeners with unknowable intelligences, she demonstrates the breadth of her skill at horror by dressing it in fantasy and science fiction. Several stories approach war or environmental disaster through a speculative-fiction lens. Narrator Soneela Nankani deftly employs different accents and tones, giving each story its own life and making each character a distinct individual. Though Nankani is the sole narrator, the audio often feels like a full-cast production in its own right. There are no one-note stories in the collection; nearly all are tense and unnerving, and they pair with a host of emotions ranging from tragic to wondrous. Among these 17 stories are a proud altruist paired with a cannibal cult, childhood wonder communing with an uncanny hive, and a jaded military man tempted toward deadly mercy.