A friend recommended Di Filippo to me as one of the craziest writers she has read and she was right. Not being a huge science fiction fan, he was unknown to me, so there may be plenty of people who know of Di Filippo and don't think him that odd. I, however, think he is amazingly and delightfully weird, as this short story collection proved. You can read my entire discussion here.

Review snippet: "“Queen of the Pixies, King of the Imps” is so fucking insane you really just need to read it. Hoo boy, is Di Filippo a brave writer because there is no way he is not revealing a deep lust for Pia Zadora. There are too many petite actresses he could have used in her stead that would make more sense to a modern audience for this to be anything other than a story of deep celebrity crush. Anyway, a dude is raised by a teeny tiny woman (his name is Walter de la Mare) and he finds out he is the King of the Imps, forced by hormones and surgery to grow tall so he can be hidden in plain sight because his life was in danger. He lives a lonely life because he can only get it up for teeny, tiny women (perfectly formed women, not dwarves). He meets Pia Zadora (Pia Zamora in the story), realizes his destiny, etc. Also there is a guest appearance by Danny Devito as the challenging Imp. High weirdness abounds, buy the collection for this seriously demented story." ( )

Smart writing by one of the unsung talents of contemporary SF. A solid writer, technically sound, blessed with an imagination most scribblers would sell a kidney for. ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2021/07/review-of-fractal-paisleys-by-paul-di.h... ( )