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 sounds just like one sub-division of science fiction. The way it's actually used, though, is pretty much the opposite: as an umbrella term for all fantastic literature, within which the whole of sci-fi is itself just one sub-division. Confused? Me too, but we seem to be stuck with it and if you want a better idea of the sort of thing it includes you could do a lot worse than to read It Came From The North.
   I picked this book up as part of a book-bundle promotion - and was left wondering what it was doing among the others, which ranged from boring to dreadful (3-, 2- and even 1-star ratings). ICFTN stood out a mile though; unusually for an anthology, I liked every story and several of them just left me spellbound. The best recommendation I can give it is that, never having read any Finnish authors before, I still thoroughly enjoyed it despite probably missing references to Finnish culture and mythology left, right and centre!
   Here are just a few of them to give you some idea:

- "Hairball": bizarro (yuk! I defy you not to laugh and retch at the same time!)
- "The Horseshoe Nail": a gentle fantasy in which two worlds come face to face.
- "Not Before Sundown": ever wondered what trolls (the Scandinavian kind, not the Goodreads variety) are really like? Well here you get a full zoological description.
- "White Threads": pure sci-fi (or psy-fi); what if your mind could manipulate reality at the quantum level?
- "Chronicles Of A State": disaster at a fusion plant threatens to engulf a totalitarian dystopia.
- "Watcher": the most surreal of the fifteen - and my favourite.
- "The Garden": genuinely creepy horticultural horror.
- "Those Were The Days": the human aftermath of an accident at the Time Research Institute. ( )

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 ( )

Nothing new jumped out at me but not bad overall.

1.“Hairball” by Carita Forsgren (trans. by Anna Volmari and J. Robert Tupasela) - good
2.“The Horseshoe Nail” By Mari Saario (trans. by Liisa Rantalaiho)
3.Not Before Sundown (excerpt) By Johanna Sinisalo (trans. by Herbert Lomas) - very good
4.“Elegy for a Young Elk” by Hannu Rajaniemi - excellent
5.“White Threads” by Anne Leinonen (trans. byLiisa Rantalaiho)- ok
6.“The Laughing Doll” by Marko Hautala (trans. by Jyri Luoma) - dull
7.“Delina” by Maarit Verronen (trans. by Hildi Hawkins)- ok
8.“Chronicles of a State” by Olli Jalonen (trans. by David Hackston) - started off OK but just rambled on interminably - didn't finish it
9.“Watcher” by Leena Likitalo - very good
10.“The Border Incident” by Tuomas Kilpi - strange, interesting, but seems unfinished somehow
11.“Ospreys” by Tiina Raevaara (trans. by David Hackston) - good
12.“The Garden” by Jyrki Vainonen (trans. by Anna Volmari and J. Robert Tupasela) - unmemorable
13.“The Gift Boy” by Sari Peltoniemi (trans. by Liisa Rantalaiho)- quite good
14.“A Heart Clothed in Black” an excerpt from Pereat Mundus: A Novel, Sort Of by Leena Krohn (trans. by Hildi Hawkins)- dull
15.“Those Were the Days” by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen (trans. by Liisa Rantalaiho) - interesting, enjoyable, but went on a bit too long ( )