So what exactly is 'Speculative Fiction'?A lot of readers find this term confusing, and I can see why. The word 'speculate' suggests conjecture, supposition - trying to understand something from incomplete information. It also hints at predicting the future and in terms of fiction (to me anyway) 'speculative' calls to mind straight-down-the-middle sci-fi, the Arthur C. Clarke kind built around ideas which, though invented, are realistic enough that they could easily come true. In other words, it...

Collection of spec fic from Finnish authors. Most of the tales rate at least an 'interesting' or 'good', two in particular (Those Were the Days and Elegy For a Young Elk) I found to be fantastic. Definitely worth a read.

The splendid weirdness of the first story and the swords-and-sorcery chops of the second bode well, suggesting that It Came from the North is a collection of stories with real variety and promise.Read the full ebook Sample Reader review here.

What a fun book! I loved reading various takes on speculative realities, some of which included Finnish culture, history, and mythology. There were some visionary stories here.

Really not for me. Although there was a good story here and there too many of them were simply too weird, even for me. The reading experience of this anthology was a real struggle, sadly.

It is hard to give a good star rating on an anthology. Like most anthologies, some of the stories were 5 stars and some were 2.

Very intelligent Refreshingly original and intelligent collection. I hope there will be more! It shows what a well educated nation is able for.

While this collection maintained a good quality throughout and introduced me to several intriguing authors that I intend to explore further, I found Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen's "Those Were The Days" to be the kind of beautiful, lasting story that sticks with you for a lifetime. Incredibly well worth the read.

Overall a decent collection. Some of the stories were fairly weak or long-winded but the overall quality is definitely worth a look! Rating anthologies is always difficult because there are always going to be some stories that work and some that don't, but I feel like this collection does provide a very interesting introduction to speculative Finnish literature

Some good, some not so good stories.

A mixed bagMost of the stories In this anthology are worth reading - all of them really, but some are of the sort that don't appeal to me personally - extracts from novels, for instance. It was enjoyable getting to know something of the Finnish SF scene - plenty of variety and inventiveness! The opening and closing stories were for me the best - taking off beat ideas and developing them in unexpected directions - a hair ball that comes to life, and a flood of time respectively.

Very good. 3/4 of the stories were excellent. Not a bad one on the bunch.Really unusual concepts and conceits. The last story, "Delina" really packed an emotional punch. I shouldn't have finished it in public, because I was commenting out loud. >.< The reader doesn't have to be familiar with Finnish culture to enjoy the books, but there are a few stories where it helps to know a bit about folk culture, the Kalevala and the vagaries of the Finnish temperament.

This anthology is inconsistent. The stories, in quality, range from brilliant to ok. The brilliant ones I never wanted to end, and I was sad when they did.

A couple of eerie or trippy selections with lots of padding. For safe shipping, I guess.

I wanted to check this anthology out as there is a lot of rich culture and mythology in the Nordic regions that doesn’t get the time in the spotlight it deserves. I have a couple other anthologies coming around and behind this so I can get a broader exposure to what is available right now. Also, since WorldCon is going to be in Helsinki in 2017, I figured now would be a good time to explore.A lot of the stories in this collection are intensely weird, and not at all what I expected. I didn’t have...

Interesting collection of stories from Finnish sff authors. After having recently read Johanna Sinisalo's Birdbrain, I was perhaps primed to notice how strong a role that nature plays in many of these stories. Landscapes, geology, animals, organic growth, ecology - use of these elements seemed to be more prevalent than in collection that tend to be more focused on American and occasionally British writers. Very much worth reading.

It's rather rare for an anthology to have a completely stellar collection - but this one is an exception by far. I was particularly enthralled by Those Were the Days where the author manages to easily convey a shocking story despite an insanely convoluted timeline within a temporally messed up world. This story should have been impossible, but the author delivered anyway. Must read.

It's hard to give an accurate rating for this book, because it's very inconsistent. I really liked A Heart Clothed in Black (Leena Krohn) and a few of the others were pretty good, but then there were ones like Hairball (Carita Forsgren) or The Garden (Jyrki Vainonen) that I didn't care for at all. The majority of the stories were OK, nothing special, but they were at least all fairly interesting in their premises and settings. I wouldn't necessarily recommend the book on its own merits, but if y...

Nothing new jumped out at me but not bad overall.1.“Hairball” by Carita Forsgren (trans. by Anna Volmari and J. Robert Tupasela) - good2.“The Horseshoe Nail” By Mari Saario (trans. by Liisa Rantalaiho)3.Not Before Sundown (excerpt) By Johanna Sinisalo (trans. by Herbert Lomas) - very good4.“Elegy for a Young Elk” by Hannu Rajaniemi - excellent5.“White Threads” by Anne Leinonen (trans. byLiisa Rantalaiho)- ok6.“The Laughing Doll” by Marko Hautala (trans. by Jyri Luoma) - dull7.“Delina” by Maarit

If you're specifically after an introduction to Finnish Weird, this is a good starter pack; if you're just looking for Weird, there are many much better collections (I'm always happy to recommend 👍🏻)