The Unconventional Genius Of Alexander Zelenyj's Beware Us Flowers Of The Annihilator

The Unconventional Genius of Alexander Zelenyj’s Beware us Flowers of the Annihilator

With hundreds of genre-bending short stories already published,
Alexander Zelenyj repeatedly raises the bar to even greater heights

Alexander Zelenyj – Beware us Flowers of the Annihilator — Beware us Flowers of the Annihilator

How many short stories has Canada’s Alexander Zelenyj written? That is a very good question and I’m not sure anybody knows the answer, even Alexander might struggle to give us a definite figure! I have been a fan for several years now and have enjoyed a fair bit of his prolific output and am always delighted to uncover further gems which might be lurking in the obscurer corners of the internet, anthologies or magazines.

His stuff might not always be the easiest to find, but he is well worth the extra effort, as there are very few more striking and original short story specialists working anywhere today.

Such is his strange pull on my damaged psyche, after I had finished his latest collection Beware us Flowers of the Annihilator I immediately backtracked to Songs for the Lost (2014) an earlier collection I had previously been periodically dipping into. In actual fact, over the last few years I have frequently found myself having a Zelenyj kicking around on my literary radar and am very happy to keep the tradition alive.

Some of his latest collection have been previously published in Helion Science Fiction,

Animals of the Exodus, Shallow Waters, Midnight Street Anthology, Night Light and Polar Starlight. Across his three decade long career Zelenyj has appeared in many other magazines, including Hellfire Crossroads, Sex and Murder, Front and Centre Magazine, Scum Magazine, Structo, Rotten Leaves and Ghost Highways. His collections are usually published by Eibonvale Press and Fourth Horseman Press, who, between them, have been responsible for a sizable percentage of his work.

I would wager Zelenyj to be a significantly bigger name if his fiction were easier to categorise. But it is not. In fact, it is impossible to pigeonhole, and I imagine the author likes it this way, happy to prowl the literary shadows rather than steal the limelight.

If he were to write more ‘traditional’ horror stories then he would undoubtedly feature in the esteemed annual anthologies put out by the likes of Ellen Datlow, but his tales are just too offbeat and unconventional to fit comfortably within those anthologies. Zelenyj’s fiction is best described as ‘slipstream’ which is a style of fantastic or non-realistic fiction that crosses conventional genre boundaries between science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction. This type of literature is fairly uncommercial which drops under the radar and Zelenyj is an absolute master craftsman at this style of writing.

In 2023 Zelenyj published the career defining These Long Teeth of the Night: the Best Short Stories 1999-2019

And this latest offering shows his writing is still full of both vigour, surprises and originality. Will he ever run out of ideas? Unlikely. Beware us Flowers of the Annihilator is not a 150-page collection of ten carefully curated stories, far from it, instead he delivers a monster 450-page blockbuster bubbling over with weirdness, strange snapshots, the uncanny, science fiction, body horror, historical settings, war, monsters and stories which refuse to play by traditional literary conventions.

A collection so large can be overwhelming, so I advise taking your time, read slowly and immerse yourself in his beguiling, often hypnotic and unconventional world. I’m going to briefly drop in on a few of the stories, which illustrate the sheer range and versatility of Zelenyj. Young, But Tomorrow sees Chuck sitting in his lonely apartment, thinking of doing some cleaning, until he notices a skull floating outside his window, and that is only the first step into an unsettling hallucinogenic situation.

In Little Boys Zelenyj is in dreamy science fiction mood, set in the bomber flying to Japan to drop one of the Second World War ending nuclear bombs.

The Unconventional Genius of Alexander Zelenyj's Beware us Flowers of the Annihilator — Beware us Flowers of the Annihilator

Only in this story the plane encounters something unearthly along the way. The Threat From Earth is a quieter, playful coming of age piece, harking back to science fiction from the fifties, best friends Brent Riley and Patrick Ellis enjoy firing their rifles at the wildlife, but perhaps there is something else out there. The Electric Voice of Summer has a similar teen theme, two lonely girls become friends during a summer camp, bond, but have their own secrets.

In Zelenyj Love Goggles 1966 is in a playful mood, a salesman offers to sell Stanley a strange pair of glasses, as when he wears them he sees the actress Mila Kunis. And Mila is much easier on the eye than his aging wife! Wild Animals at Play was a short and quirky favourite, featuring a bunch of teenage delinquents messing around with the wrong down-and-out dude who is happy to dish out his own brand of retribution.

Rat-Eaters in Lucifer’s Land is a trench war story with a difference.

Where rat stew is a delicacy, and the German enemy have machinery and weaponry which straddles nightmares and beyond. A Savage Path was a shocking and abrupt little beauty, where a disturbed woman brutally takes things into her own hands. Cry For Mother was one of the strangest, yet oddly moving tales, built around a young couple who go on the run and stop for pizza, only for their past to bizarrely catch up with them.

Considering Zelenyj is one of the most prolific story writers of the modern era, in an earlier interview with Ink Heist we discussed his ‘process’ once a story was completed and what took priority, seeking publication in a magazine or concentrating on the next collection. This is what he had to say:

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“I don’t really follow any set process once I’ve finished a story, just like I don’t follow a certain process in the writing of the stories themselves. I used to be more consistent in submitting my work to different places but in the last few years I do tend to focus more on the next collection. Or at least that idea is percolating at the back of my mind.
I find that that side of the process—of getting my stuff out, much like duties to social media—pulls me out of the mode I like and need to be in for writing effectively. In terms of processes, they’re different worlds entirely, and I find it mentally jarring having to constantly move back and forth between them. But the reward of seeing your work in print, especially alongside great writers in magazines and anthologies, never gets old. So yes, I do sometimes answer calls for anthologies and magazines, and yes, I have been fortunate enough to have been invited to submit for certain publications, which is always a huge honour because it shows that the editors enjoy and believe in your work, enough so that they feel confident in asking you to be a part of their project.”

If you are looking to open a door into another time zone, world, universe or time period then Alexander Zelenyj will undoubtedly have a story to tick the box. Or if you’re seeking offbeat romance, monsters, sympathetic creatures, quiet apocalypses or the world ending with a bang then Alexander is your man. If your boat is rocked by paranoia, isolation, secrets or a little ripple in the nature of life he has that base nailed down too. Far from conventional, and totally original, Alexander Zelenyj is a shooting star in the world of weird fiction.

Tony Jones

Alexander Zelenyj’s Beware us Flowers of the Annihilator

“There are few short story specialists as prolific, endlessly entertaining, creative, and simply batshit crazy as Alexander Zelenyj. His natural ability to effortlessly flow between genres is a rare gift and few do it better.  He refuses to play by any literary rulebook, except his own. This is all part of Alexander Zelenyj's unique charm.” - Tony Jones, Horror DNA 

A bullied boy's worst shame turns out to be his strongest ally in the never-ending schoolyard war...Saxon warriors hunt down the beleaguered remnants of a Danish army but, don't count on the little warrior among them. The one with the strange shimmering armour...Chuck thought things couldn't get any worse than the giant floating skull always waiting outside his apartment window, but then a knock came on his door...

A military cop and his faithful dog seek out an ancient evil in the Iraqi desert, but soon discover it's all so much worse than that...The crew of the Enola Gay was en route to Japan, toting the first atomic bomb. Then the pilot noticed the giant black flower clinging to the bulkhead...A Roman emperor and his adviser unravel the mystery of a series of strange marble sculptures, only to discover sorcery at work... These are just a sample of the 26 short stories compiled in this single, grand collection.

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The Unconventional Genius of Alexander Zelenyj’s Beware us Flowers of the Annihilator