It was published in the U.K. by Pan Macmillan on 30 July 2015,[1] and in the U.S. by Del Rey Books on 4 August 2015.

In addition, the stories "Three Moments of an Explosion", "The Crawl", and "Four Final Orpheuses" were first published on the author's blog Rejectamentalist Manifesto.

Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review, saying Miéville "moves effortlessly among realism, fantasy, and surrealism in this dark, sometimes horrific short story collection" and that the stories' characters are "invariably well drawn and compelling".

The review concludes by stating that "what the stories have in common is a sense that the world is not just strange, but stranger than we can ever really comprehend.

The review summarized Miéville's style as "Bradbury meets Borges, with Lovecraft gibbering tumultuously just out of hearing.