Kangaroos, Jane Does, killer canines, and an ice storm

Four more short stories read in celebration of Short Story Month:

"The Kangaroo Communique," by Haruki Murakami  (from The Elephant Vanishes) - A bizarre and frightening response to a customer service complaint.

"Alphinland," by Margaret Atwood (from Stone Mattress: Nine Tales) - A sad tale of mourning and escapist fantasy.

"Unlicensed Surgery," by Richard McGowan (Available from the author upon request) - A dark fantasy with an interesting take on a creature from folklore.

"The Steel Valentine," by Joe R. Lansdale (FREE at Amazon) - A bloody noir tale of revenge and revenge.

Monstrocity by Jeffrey Thomas

This book had a lot of elements that I like: a vast, nasty SF city populated with alien and human monsters, general sleaziness and grime, an investigation into the occult, sex, violence, and gore. But I was bored to tears for the last 40% of it and couldn't wait to be finished so that I could move on to something else.

The vast conspiracy seemed pretty nebulous, and I found it hard to care about how things would turn out. I wasn't impressed with the world-building either. One of the major alien races seemed to have been constructed based on the George Lucas alien creation method wherein you must use exaggerated and bigoted cultural caricatures.

I'll give Mr. Thomas another go, but I'll likely skip his other Punktown stories.

Read this book!

Cruelty (Episodes 1-5) by Edward Lorn

Full Disclosure: You might think this review is biased because Edward Lorn and I are friends who help each other out with beta reading/editing/proofreading and the like. However, you must also keep in mind that I wouldn't offer to read early drafts of some creepy Internet stranger's work unless I really and truly enjoyed something else I'd read by that person. Early drafts are often pretty shitty. Lorn's aren't. But most are. And I didn't read this book as an early draft. I bought it fair and square from Amazon, and I'm under no obligation to review this book, and Edward Lorn's under no obligation to review any of my work.

Of all the works I've read thus far by Edward Lorn, this is my favorite.

I must also point out that the next installment of this serial was due out in September, and I don't have episode six of Cruelty on my Kindle yet.

My calendar must be broken.

Read this book!

Read Jeffrey Ford!

Jeffrey Ford's my favorite author. Sadly, he's not as widely read as he should be, despite the fact that just about everything he's ever written has won some award or another. He writes science fiction, fantasy, mystery and a little bit of horror. But nothing he's ever written falls neatly into any of those categories. Really, he just writes Jeffrey Ford stories, and that's what makes him great.

Here's a list of his books. The nice thing about Ford is that he's equally adept with the short story as he is with the novel. So, if you like one form over the other, he's got you covered.

Well-Built City trilogy (Fantasy/SF)

The Physiognomy (World Fantasy Award)
Memoranda
The Beyond

Novels

Vanitas (Fantasy/SF)
The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque (Mystery)
The Girl in the Glass (Mystery) (Edgar Allen Poe Award)
The Shadow Year (Literary/Mainstream/Fantasy) (World Fantasy Award)

Collections

The Fantasy Writer's Assistant (World Fantasy Award)
The Empire of Ice Cream
The Drowned Life (World Fantasy Award)
Crackpot Palace: Stories

Wolf Hunt by Jeff Strand

Jeff Strand's Wolf Hunt was a fine bit of breezy, gory horror. I like humor mixed with my horror, and Mr. Strand is quickly becoming a go-to guy for me when I'm in the mood for something smart, snappy, and soaked with blood.

For a while now, I've been searching for a good take on the werewolf story, and, while this story doesn't bring much new to the werewolf myth, it served as a pleasant enough distraction. However, I did find the two protagonists virtually interchangeable, and the plot was too simplistic. Don't get me wrong, I think a simple plot is a good idea for a humorous piece like this. Complicated plots can get in the way of the laughs. But, in this case, at the very least, a more sharply delineated three act structure would have helped a great deal. As is, I felt the story grew a bit repetitious and flat, and there never really was a grand twist or awesome reveal that propelled this book out of the merely really darn good territory.

Oh, and the ending seemed rushed.

Read this book!

National Short Story Month Recap

It looks like I read 67 short stories for National Short Story Month. I read a number of individually packaged shorts and four collections: Harmlessly Insane, A Modest Collection of Slightly Shocking Fairy Tales, Seeker, and What the Dark Brings.

Below you'll find the complete list of stories I read in May, presented in roughly the order in which I read them. If the story is currently available as a free download, I've added a link to the source page for your convenience.

"Whatever Possessed You?" by Evans Light
"Gertrude" by Evans Light
"Aboreatum" by Evans Light
"Nose Hears" by Evans Light
"The Mole People Beneath the City" by Evans Light
"Cry Baby" by Evans Light
"Pay Back" by Evans Light
"Curtains for Love" by Evans Light
"Candie Apple" by Evans Light
"The Package" by Evans Light
"Black Door" by Evans Light
"The Sisters Who Gave the Devil His Due" by Richard McGowan
"How to Get Ahead by Kissing Frogs" by Richard McGowan
"The Awful Wages of Unbridled Lesbianism" by Richard McGowan
"Two Little Girls with Runaway Imaginations" by Richard McGowan
"The Little Princess Who Wanted Children" by Richard McGowan
"Taken" by Adam Light
"Way Out of Here" by Adam Light
"No Such Thing" by Edward Lorn
"The Mortician's Temptation" (Not yet published) by Sarah Roberts
"Gone"  by Adam Light
"Serving Spirits" by Adam Light
"Vengence by the Foot" by Adam Light
"The Continuance Agency" by Adam Light
"Peeler" by Gord Rollo (FREE on Amazon!)
"Seeker" by Ade Grant
"Three Ghosts" by Ade Grant
"The Abortionist" by Ade Grant
"Sausages" by Ade Grant
"The Secret Junction" by Ade Grant
"The Couch" by Ade Grant
"The Outlaw Women" (Not yet published) by Amber Foxx
"Chuggie and the Fish Freaks of Farheath" by Brent Michael Kelley
"Literary Sweets" by Edward Lorn
"A Friendly Reminder" by Edward Lorn
"The Monitor" by Edward Lorn
"The Southbound Triple-Six" by Edward Lorn
"Up on the Rooftop" by Edward Lorn
"A Purchase of Titanic Proportions" by Edward Lorn
"The Land of Her" by Edward Lorn
"What the Dark Brings" by Edward Lorn
"That Thing about a Picture and a Thousand Words" by Edward Lorn
"Smitten" by Edward Lorn
"Machinations" by Edward Lorn
"He Who Laughs Last" by Edward Lorn
"The Attraction" by Edward Lorn
"He's Got Issues" by Edward Lorn
"Sissy" by Edward Lorn
"Holes" by Edward Lorn
"The Kissing Booth" by Edward Lorn
"Come to Jesus Meeting" by Edward Lorn
"An Affair to Remember" by Edward Lorn
"Snuggles" by Edward Lorn
"World's Greatest Dad" by Edward Lorn (FREE at Goodreads)
"Offline" by Kealan Patrick Burke
"Tomorrow" (Not yet published) by Sarah Roberts
"Microchip Murder" by Martyn V. Halm (FREE on Amazon!)
"To Read or Not to Read" by Vincent Hobbes (FREE on Amazon!)
"Bobo" by Richard Schiver (FREE on Amazon!)
"Music of the Gods" by Richard Schiver (FREE on Amazon!)
"Wicked Smart Carnie" by Mark Matthews (FREE on Amazon!)
"Zombie Dash" by Mark Matthews (FREE on Amazon!)
"The Damage Done" by Mark Matthews (FREE on Amazon!)
"Concrete Gods" by Harry Shannon and Kealan Patrick Burke
"Faces in Revolving Souls" by Caitlin R. Kiernan (FREE at Lightspeed Magazine)
"When We Were Heroes" by Daniel Abraham (FREE at Tor.com)
"In the House of the Worm" by George R.R. Martin

Story titles appearing in 'bold' above are the standouts.

Hang Wire by Adam Christopher

The first third of this book read like a textbook example of how to get the hooks into your reader. Every scene, from the very first, slides a new hook under the skin and you've just gotta keep reading to find out 'what's really going on.' Unfortunately, for me, once I found out what was really going on, I was less than thrilled about it.

But I want to be clear about this. You see, at about the halfway mark, I found out that supernatural entities that I personally don't enjoy reading about are major players, and I was pretty let down. You might like stories involving this particular type of supernatural entity, many people do. If so, you might really go for what Mr. Christopher has delivered here.

But my supernatural entity bias isn't really the only problem I had with this book. There were two more major things that detracted from my overall enjoyment:

1) The magic rules in this world weren't clearly defined, and it came off as characters could just 'magic' themselves out of tough situations.

2) All of the characters but one seemed to have zero agency Intentional? Sure. Just look at the cover. But, still. And the one character who did have control over his own fate adopted a surfer dude persona that I didn't find cute, ironic, or funny.

I wanted to like this book more than I did (and to be clear, I didn't hate it by any stretch). It does contain a lot of things that I do like in a story: a circus/carnival, entertaining villains, interesting imagery, cool set pieces, and, best of all, solid writing.

After reading Hang Wire, I think Adam Christopher is more than capable of producing a book that I'll really enjoy. Unfortunately, this was probably just not the right entry point into his writing--for me.

Read this book!