A collection tinged with variety

Disconnect is an anthology comprised of 20 short stories, edited by Aadiyat Ahmad, Kazi Akib Bin Asad, Rumman R Kalam, and Zoheb Mashiur. It is anthologies like Disconnect that create scopes for the emerging writers to have breakthrough.  With the unfading vision of encouraging the young writers to express their creative way with words, the collection will hopefully draw an audience upon its launch in the coming weeks.

The various short fiction genres ranging from sci-fi to mystery to memoir blended with light humour, happiness, and sadness are as eloquent as they are mind boggling. The stories were threaded with out of the box intricacies that had me racking my brain. There were stories like 'password 123' which made me all excited to make it to the ending where the curtains of the mysteries were unveiled. From the mystery walking up to the character to the shocking conclusion, I followed every trail blended with thrilling progressions as I anticipated for the final revelation. There were stories like 'Flagstaff' and 'Glaciers in the Sky' which made me think about the fictional companions creating their own dimensions, detaching one person from the rest of the world for a while. And there were some stories (particularly 'Nearsight') that made me feel for friendship, family, and time. 

As for 'Nearsight', I could relate to the looming presence of writer's block and the raw helplessness of detaching oneself from friends and family to put something on paper out of a blocked gaze. It was the balance between investing time in relationships according to one's comfort while being under pressure that stood as the strength of this story.

Also, there were sci-fi stories like 'They Want to See the World Burn' and 'The Helios Archives' that glorified emancipation and fair treatment. As for 'The Helios Archives', it was a story I liked because of how with its literary devices, it emphasised on the risks of artificial intelligence taking over freedom of speech, revealing the well built character and humanity's fate as the story progressed, and this is where the hammer of the story strikes.  

After devouring the stories here, it dawned on me that multi authored anthologies act as an omnibus filled to the brim with diverse ideas, morals, genres, and insights sprawled before one. All in all, this is going to be my go-to book for existing in different storylines of different genres with an invisible eye.

To know more about the anthology, visit their Facebook page 

fb.com/disconnect.fiction