I found it difficult to connect with the writing and understand what was going on. As much as the writing itself appeared noteworthy, the disjointedness of the overall theme caused much confusion and I unfortunately couldn’t continue to the end. It seems there are others who have really enjoyed this, so I would encourage each to interpret their own journeys.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy.

I was super excited to get an ARC of Black Brain by Michael Cisco. I’ve heard so much about how wonderfully weird his writing is, and yep… it absolutely is. This was my first time reading Cisco, and it was a ride.
The book follows a man lying in a bed of pain, escaping his physical torment by drifting into his memories and big thoughts about life and reality.
It’s strange, it’s layered, and it’s the kind of story that feels like it’s happening in a dream you can’t quite shake. The writing has that stream-of-consciousness, dream-like feel, so you’re never entirely sure what’s real or imagined. I’ll be honest, I had to reread parts because I didn’t want to miss anything. It’s not a straightforward book; you have to go with the flow and let it pull you along.

Since I’m still pretty new to weird horror, this might have been a bit of a deep dive for me, and I’m not sure I caught everything. But I still enjoyed the experience, and I can see why people love Cisco’s work. It promised to be weird, and it delivered on that.

If you like non-linear, surreal stories where you feel lost (in a good way), this is right up your alley. For me, it was an interesting read, even if I’m still figuring out how to get my head around this style. I’m glad I gave it a go, and I’m curious to try more weird lit and see where it takes me.

Thank you, NetGalley and Clash Books, for supplying me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I have been wanting to get into Weird Lit a bit more, so I was excited to try out a Cisco book. I am not sure if I picked the best one to start with though. This book is well written, but I honestly have no idea what happened in this story. Is that a feature though? I don't know. I did find most of the characters interesting and would have loved to know more about them.

Sometimes authors really try to push the weirdness of their work artificially and it just doesn't land. That is not the case for Black Brane -- it's authentically bizarre, from the characters to the plot to the style and language. I feel like I was watching the story through a pinprick camera and yet I was deeply invested in every one of the characters. Conclusion: black holes are terrifying.

Thank you NetGalley and CLASH books for providing this eARC of Black Brane in exchange for this honest review!

Black Brane by Michael Cisco is a mind altering drug in book form. On one page I was giggling at its Kafkaesque absurdity, its colorful assortment of characters and their silly pseudoscience enterprises. On the next I was met with sublime prose that left me (ok not literally, but figuratively) slack-jawed by emotional truths that prove difficult articulating, as evidenced by this review.

I considered not even bothering with the story’s premise because it hardly seems the point but it all begins with our bedridden protagonist who has a vague, pulsating pain in his foot. He begins a fractured account of a research center at which he once worked - its eccentric leader, his zany scientist coworkers,the secretive research involving black holes and quantum mechanics, and a woman he appears to love for reasons that are not always clear. As Black Brane progresses things become more distorted, not less as the narrative disintegrates into a mad, nonlinear stew of science fiction and psychological horror.

I don’t read much stream-of-consciousness these days so this really worked out (my remaining) cognitive muscles that have waned. I could feel the synapses firing again and while I didn’t always understand what in god’s name was happening or what conclusions - if any - could be gleamed, Cisco’s novella is - if nothing else amid some of its infuriatingly ambiguous narrative - entertaining. And it's at least woven together with themes relating to trauma and existential dread.

Black Brane certainly is not for everyone and I get it. I didn’t love it, but I was consistently engaged by it and every so often, Cisco would write with a flurry that blew me away. There is a mind at work here that I respect enough to want to engage back with it. And those willing to work with his hypnotic prose and hallucinatory narrative will be rewarded with something unique, something that may prove confounding, but compelling enough to investigate or revisit.

I unfortunately had a difficult time connecting with the protagonist of this one and found the writing style hard to follow. I thought the premise was tight, existential and creatively explored, and I'm sure many folks will like this one, but it unfortunately did not do much for me in the end. 2.5 stars rounded up~

Thank you to Netgalley for the e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

To be honest I finished this book a while ago and it has been stirring in ny brain (brane?) for since and I'm still not entirely sure what I read. Half of this story is made up of flashbacks into the past as our protagonist lies in pain and were never quite sure whether hes experiencing something outside of himself or whether we're being sucked down into a swirl of memories - either from him or something from beyond him.

I've read other reviews that said the formatting was off in the book - and I didn't even notice them because any errors in punctuation I assumed were from things being twisted and distorted by the black hole. And since I also highlighted half of the beautiful prose I cant say that any errors really pulled me out of the story.

This one is definitely for fan's of the weird and I enjoyed it - although maybe it wasnt wise of me to pick this as my first read from this author!

4 Stars.

My sincere thanks to CLASH books and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of Michael Cisco's Black Brane. Unfortunately, I cannot provide an honest review nor rating in exchange, as I found the formatting so poor I could not continue reading. It may have been an error in the conversion to Kindle, but as this title has now been archived on NetGalley, I'm forced to DNF.

There might well be a good story here, and I'd encourage anyone whose interest was piqued by the blurb to give it a go once it's been published and (assumedly) polished; the consensus seems positive.

This was not for me I am sad to say. I'm sure there are readers that this speaks to, but this story needed a roadmap to parse. Or perhaps the frequent and chronic exhaustion that comes with becoming a new parent does not pair well with meandering excursions on string theory-related weird fiction and connected sundries.

Thank you to CLASH Books and NetGalley for this digital ARC in return for an honest review.

a dark, twisted, gorey and emotional story of a man who while lying in pain escapes his torture by fleeing into his own memories, speculating his life and the moments leading up to the beginning
a disturbing speculation on the horror of social and quantum entanglement,

The problem I have with Cisco is that his ideas are so groundbreaking, but his writing style never fails to alienate me. We all know he knows big words, and sometimes I just wish he’d make his writing more accessible to the leisure of reading

Overall the premise is interesting, definitely one for the science and weird fiction fans. Unfortunately the kindle copy I received was badly formatted, with an excessive amount of words missing. This made it difficult to follow along and immersive myself in the story.

Thank you CLASH Books & NetGalley for the ARC!

What a wild ride, and unfortunately, not one for me. What starts out as a stream of consciousness rant about phantom pain, turns into a story that follows no normal progression whatsoever. As we're entirely focused on black holes (branes), we hit a lot of really interesting existential notes that I really enjoyed, and somewhere in the middle there I thought I had a SLIGHT idea of what was going on, but boy was I wrong. The last 20 pages were a mystery to me. Is this a book i'm simply just not smart enough for?

Cisco never fails to deliver properly weird fiction that genuinely makes me feel unsettled and disoriented. If I can describe my experience with this book, it was like moving back-and-forth between wakefulness and that space where you're almost asleep but not quite, and reality starts to feel strange and uncanny. You start to notice things in the corner of your eye and can't be sure if they're really there or if you're actually asleep. For me, this is the goal of weird fiction and Cisco nails it.

There are overt existentialist themes here, like the dissolution/instability of identity, fragmented narratives that suggest there is no one correct "reality" or "truth" of experience, etc. This also reminded me of the Southern Reach trilogy quite a bit in that the book explores how human bureaucratic institutions attempt to monitor and contain (super)natural forces and ultimately cannot, leading to this feeling of cosmic horror. Part of the horror lies in the utter inability of human attempts to control and monitor that which exceeds and resists human systems of understanding.

As much as I appreciate the general vibe of this and the author's ability to convey tone, plot-wise this was often (probably intentionally) hard to follow and my attention wandered a lot. I think I will probably return to this when I am in a better headspace to absorb the intricacies of this, but for this first reading, it was a 3-star experience.

Thanks for the ARC!

This book was well written, albeit confusing at times. I felt much like I was being challenged as I read it which both appealed and disillusioned me from continuing.

I think the author's writing is fantastic. The imagination practically jumps off the page and the story really is very good. As my first foray into experimental./weird fiction I think it was a fantastic introduction as the quality of the writing is very much there.

I feel it's important to be aware of what you're delving into with this book in order to ensure you are pleasantly surprised rather than the alternative, and perhaps it was my mistake that I started reading without full knowledge of the genre.

Overall, I do have friends I will be recommending this too but, due to no fault of the writing, the genre is an acquired taste and perhaps not for the mainstream reader.

Michael Cisco's "Black Brane" is undeniably a work of intense originality and intellectual ambition, pushing the boundaries of Weird Fiction in ways few authors attempt. Reading it involves immersion in a dense, often hallucinatory prose style and a narrative that deliberately eschews convention, looping and fracturing perception. It's clear, I think, that Cisco aims to challenge the reader fundamentally and explore complex philosophical territory regarding consciousness and reality through this unconventional approach.

For me, the central question during the reading experience became whether this intense experimentalism consistently felt effective in serving the novel's overall impact. While I deeply appreciated the unique vision and the moments of profound, unsettling insight the book undoubtedly generated, there were also stretches where I felt the deliberate obscurity or the sheer density of the surreal imagery perhaps became less impactful, bordering on feeling somewhat excessive or like it might be 'trying too hard' solely to maintain its extreme weirdness. At those points, it occasionally lessened my engagement rather than deepening my connection to the core ideas.

That's certainly not to detract from the novel's genuine moments of brilliance or its success in crafting a truly singular, thought-provoking atmosphere unlike almost anything else I've encountered.

Ultimately, "Black Brane" is a formidable piece of experimental writing that I respect immensely for its ambition and uncompromising vision. However, my personal reading experience involved grappling not just with its complex ideas (which I enjoy), but with whether its relentless challenging of conventions always translated into a fully resonant or consistently effective narrative for me.

Reading Black Brane feels like sleepwalking through a fever dream, where each page is a riddle written on smoke. It’s less a book you read than one you experience — or perhaps survive. I went in knowing I liked weird lit. I came out unsure if I liked anything anymore. And I mean that as a compliment.

At its surface (if it has one), the story follows a man once employed by an institute that investigates holes — literal and metaphysical. His boss is a homeless lottery-winner-turned-philosopher with a pencil-shaped hole in her brain. That sounds like nonsense. It is nonsense. But in the hands of Michael Cisco, it’s also the kind of nonsense that makes you think you might be the one who's out of alignment with reality.

The narrator — plagued constantly by foot pain — spirals through fragmented memories, philosophical musings, and cryptic conversations with colleagues who may or may not be figments of his decaying sanity. The story (if that word still applies) bends like gravity around the Black Brane itself: dark, dense, and inescapably strange. The deeper you read, the more every sentence seems loaded with secret meaning, though that meaning keeps slipping just out of reach.

His prose is thick with imagery that made me flinch and reread — not because I didn’t understand, but because I wanted to understand. There’s beauty buried in the grotesque here.

This book asks a lot of you. It doesn't explain itself. It doesn’t hold your hand. It offers no easy takeaways. But if you’re willing to give yourself to it — if you’re open to feeling lost and exhilarated and occasionally frustrated — Black Brane is one of the most memorable, unnerving, and strangely moving reading experiences you’ll ever have.

Not for the faint of heart. But definitely for the weird at heart.

A smart, sharp addition to the publisher's growing weird fiction catalogue. It's great to see Clash committing further to artful genre books

This book was far too confusing - I'm all for dreamlike narration but this was well beyond that. It stopped me from getting into the story.

**Review: *Black Brane* by Michael Cisco – A Fever Dream of Pain, Science, and the Unknowable**

⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆ (3/5)

Michael Cisco’s *Black Brane* is an undeniably ambitious entry into the realm of weird fiction, blending surrealism, philosophy, and experimental horror into a disorienting, hallucinatory experience. However, while its prose is often hypnotic and its ideas fascinating, the book’s lack of narrative cohesion and its often impenetrable abstractions make it a challenging read that will likely divide audiences.

At the heart of the novel is Gross, a man suffering from an agonizing foot pain that seems to exist beyond conventional explanation. His recollections pull readers into the bizarre world of the Temporary Institute for the Study of Holes, where physics, mysticism, and the unknown merge in unsettling ways. Through shifting memories and fragmented scenes, we meet a cast of eccentric scientists and occultists whose work on black branes—the cosmic phenomena linked to black holes—unravels reality itself. The result is a novel that feels like both a fever dream and a puzzle missing half its pieces.

There’s no denying Cisco’s talent for crafting immersive and unsettling prose. His descriptions of pain, time distortion, and existential dread are striking, often evoking the work of Ligotti or Burroughs. However, *Black Brane* is not a novel that offers easy rewards. Its structure is elusive, its concepts layered in dense, often cryptic passages, and its plot—if it can even be called that—refuses to conform to traditional storytelling. While this works to create an atmosphere of profound unease, it also makes for an exhausting read, one that requires patience and a willingness to accept ambiguity.

For those who enjoy challenging, experimental fiction, *Black Brane* offers a unique, mind-bending experience. However, for readers seeking a clear narrative or a satisfying emotional payoff, the book’s fragmented nature and cerebral approach may feel more frustrating than rewarding. It’s an interesting exploration of pain, perception, and scientific horror, but one that often feels like an intellectual exercise rather than a fully realized novel.

**Final Verdict:** *Black Brane* is a thought-provoking but difficult read—more of an experience than a conventional story. It will appeal to fans of the abstract and the avant-garde, but its dense, elusive nature might alienate those looking for a more structured narrative. A compelling but ultimately uneven work in the landscape of weird fiction.