Merrill, The Final Act (2012)

F.R. Merrill, The Final Act: From Woodstock to Broadway. From Death to Eternity. Red Fox Publishing, 2012. Pp. 266. ISBN 978-1466214941. $12.95 print/$9.99 Kindle.

Reviewed by Jessica Nelson

Faith Straton has just gotten her big break. She had always loved the Native American stories her grandmother used to tell her. After her dreams of dancing on Broadway fell to the wayside, Faith became a dance instructor. Over time, she decided to merge her passions, so Faith created her own theatrical production, melding the stories her grandmother used to tell with dance. Now, her play is set to show on Broadway, bringing back echoes of former dreams. But when Faith and her daughter, Amanda, move to New York City, Faith gets more trouble than she bargained for.

Hughes, The Truth Spinner (2012)

Rhys Hughes, The Truth Spinner: The Complete Adventures of Castor Jenkins. Wild Side Press, 2012. Pp. 260. ISBN 978-1-4344-4107-2. $14.99.

Reviewed by Jessica Nelson

The Truth Spinner: The Complete Adventures of Castor Jenkins is the latest short story collection from Welsh author and essayist Rhys Hughes. Previous works by Hughes include The Coanda Effect and The Postmodern Mariner, both of which tie into The Truth Spinner, as well. The stories in this collection are all related, being stories Castor Jenkins tells his closest friends, Paddy Deluxe and Frothing Harris. Most of the stories involve Castor’s friends buying him beer or whiskey, either to keep him going, to shut him up, or just because people don’t know what else to do.

Fitzsimmons, Halcyon (2012)

Catherine Fitzsimmons, Halcyon. Brain Lag, 2012. Pp. 218. ISBN 9780986649356. $12.99/$2.99.

Reviewed by Jessica Nelson

Catherine Fitzsimmons produced the cyberpunk novel Halcyon during NaNoWriMo. This alone was enough to pique my interest in the book. Reading a self-published book is always a little daunting in the beginning, as the reader can never be sure about what they’re getting; many self-published novels are fantastic and could have easily been picked up by a big publishing house. Others… not so much. Halcyon falls somewhere between these two extremes. It has a few issues that could be tweaked here and there, but overall it’s a pleasing read, with breakneck pace throughout and cynical political undertones.

Hughes, Coanda Effect (2010)

Rhys Hughes, The Coanda Effect. A Corto Maltese Adventure. Ex Occidente Press, 2010. Pp. 125. $55.00.

Reviewed by Jessica Nelson

The Coanda Effect is a novel by Welsh writer Rhys Hughes, author of numerous novellas, novels and short fiction works, including the Fanny Fables series and The Crystal Cosmos. This attractive limited edition hardcover novel, a homage to the Corto Maltese stories of Hugo Pratt, is a story about journalist Lloyd Griffiths and the man he comes to idolize, gentleman adventurer Corto Maltese. We first meet our protagonists when they first meet each other, at an air show in Italy. Corto Maltese has such a vast impact on Lloyd that the journo begins to change the patterns of his own life, on a quest for adventure. In time, the two meet again and set out on a joint venture to stop the evil plot of a madman set on taking advantage of the second Balkan War.

Burrell, Red Leaves and the Living Token (2012)

Benjamin David Burrell, Red Leaves and the Living Token. Red Earth Press, 2012. Pp. 306. ISBN 978-0615618524. $9.99 paperback/$2.99 e-book.

Reviewed by Jessica Nelson

Red Leaves and the Living Token is a book about a young Zoen named Emret. Emret’s binding is failing, as is that of the world around him, and doctors have said he doesn’t have much longer to live. Emret’s Botann nurse, Moslin, has been reading to him from a book about the Reds, a divine species that once lived in their world. Emret’s father, Raj, has asked Moslin repeatedly not to read the stories of the Reds to Emret, but she persists. When Emret decides the only way to save his own life is to find a real, living Red, Moslin takes him to find one, and Raj must overcome obstacles to find and retrieve his son.

Edwards, Dome City Blues (2011)

Jeff Edwards, Dome City Blues. Stealth Books, 2011. Pp. 316. ISBN 978-0983008569. $12.99.

Reviewed by Jessica Nelson

The year is 2063. Rampant disease has wiped out a third of the human population, and most of the other two thirds have been driven to living in dome cities for protection from pollution and harmful UV rays. This is where former detective David “Sarge” Stalin thinks he’s going to live out his retirement as a metal sculptor; that is, until he’s approached at a bar by a beautiful woman who needs his help. Suddenly, Detective Stalin finds himself perched on the edge of a war between man and machines as he tries to solve a string of serial killings that the police have already closed the books on... twice.

Astruc, Clockworld (2010)

RJ Astruc, Clockworld. Originally Wilde Oats, 2010/2011. Amazon Digital Services Reprint 2012. 85 pages. $1.99.

Reviewed by Jessica Nelson

There aren’t a lot of things Josie Cooper wants from his father, but his presence and approval are two of them. His father disapproves of the boy he’s in love with, not because he’s a boy, but because he has ‘problems’... big problems. In Clockworld, Festival of Skeletons-author RJ Astruc introduces us to these two boys and some of their closest friends, and together we delve into a world where reality is twisted, and drugs and friendship are the only escapes from a world gone mad.

All those things we, as a society, don’t like to talk about, don’t go away just because we don’t talk about them. In fact, they tend to balloon, instead, becoming entities of their own accord, instead of minor issues that would resolve if only we had the courage to address them. Do you talk plainly to your kids (or parents) about drugs? Do your kids (or parents) know you love them, no matter who they are and who they love? Have you even really spoken to your kids (or parents) today? About anything that really matters, I mean?

Galaxies away from Earth is a planet called Clockworld. Clockworld is mostly used for agricultural purposes, but there’s also a school there for children of Earth. The school is called Blackhall. The kids who attend range between the ages of 11 and 19, roughly post-elementary through college prep years. Most of the kids who attend Blackhall are the children of wealthy parents, or any parents who can afford it and don’t want to be bothered raising their own kids. In fact, they rarely even speak to their kids, being allowed only an hour of time to talk each month, and that one hour being rarely used up. The school and the agricultural settlements are isolated pod communities scattered across Clockworld’s only continent; in-between and everywhere else, the native flora of the planet grows wild and thick—and all of it can be used as some sort of drug or another. Whether inhaled raw, smoked, or eaten, the flora of Clockworld is a drug-dealer’s dream... and this is where people send their kids to school.

Being in such an isolated place does have its high points, though; the students of Blackhall spend all their time together, and get to know each other well. This creates a generally accepting environment for students of all sexual orientations, and it seems that each one is as common as any other there. Gay, bisexual, pansexual, heterosexual, confused... friends accept each other for who they are, because on Clockworld, your friends are your only lifeline to sanity, and everyone knows it. I mean, when your own parents have shipped you off to be raised by teachers and shrinks, who else do you have? But then, who do you have to turn to when you have a falling out with your friends, and teachers and shrinks are still just teachers and shrinks?

RJ Astruc has authored many novels and short stories, including one of my favorites, Harmonica & Gig. In Clockworld, a whole new voice emerges in the narrative; the voice of some unknown and uninvolved student telling the story of what happened to Jocelyn ‘Josie’ Cooper, Aubrey Partington-Hale, War Vladistov, and Xiaoping Hathaway. “What happened”... sounds ominous, doesn’t it? Well, it sort of is, in a Lord of the Flies or Stand by Me sort of way.

Clockworld is not a long book, by any means, but Astruc manages to squeeze in more social, moral and ethical points than I could have ever imagined. LGBT issues, nationality and race stereotyping, parenting issues, drug use and abuse, mental health, kids who need help and slip through the cracks with dire consequences; all of these are addressed—plainly, bluntly, with no illusions. The reader who comes to the story with no illusions, either, will see the reality of this fantastical story... how it takes what’s happening in our real world and gives it a good twist of exaggeration.

There’s not much to do on Clockworld but play sports, and drugs are everywhere. Without parents around to encourage hobbies and special interests and—gasp!—talk to their kids about life in general, most of the kids’ free time is spent getting high, making out, and talking about life. Yes, parents, even the jocks. Believe it or not, sports don’t keep your kids off drugs. Kids aren’t dumb: they recognize all the ways you try to keep them ‘busy’ while you’re off living your own life. It’s pretty normal for most kids to do a little dabbling, a little experimenting, but when they’re around drugs far more often than they’ve ever been around you, what do you think is going to win out? When they can’t talk to you about their problems, but drugs are there to help them forget them, which do you think they’ll turn to?

Clockworld is a good, fast read, not only touching on myriad social issues, but slapping the reader in the face with their consequences. I would recommend it to any mature reader who liked Lord of the Flies, Stand by Me, The Catcher in the Rye, or even The Grapes of Wrath. And if you, Reader, have kids... please take its lessons to heart. If you, Reader, are a kid, or young adult... don’t be afraid to demand the attention you deserve from your parents, or grandparents, or someone who’s been around the block and come through it okay. If you can’t go to your parents, that’s something only you can decide, but find someone. If you’re here, reading this, I have faith in you; faith in your desire and ability to do this. Because sometimes, the world feels like a lonely place, and fictional characters can be family, too, and books a healthier, more imaginative escape than any drug could ever be.

Buy this item from Amazon.com
Buy this item from Amazon.co.uk

Alexandre/Loepp, Nuncio and the Gypsy Girl (2012)

Kristen Kuhn Alexandre & Thomas Loepp, Nuncio and the Gypsy Girl in the Gilded Age. Runnymede Press, 2012. Pp. 80. ISBN 978-0977668724. $14.00.

Reviewed by Jessica Nelson

Nuncio and the Gypsy Girl in the Gilded Age is a romantic graphic novel that takes place in the early twentieth century. Populated by all manner of innovators of the era, the story centers around a Gypsy girl named Neci Stans and her love, composer Ezra Muster. Ezra is taken with Neci and her people, but is torn by her young age and his desire to succeed. When Ezra meets Marlene, a beautiful woman with connections that can help him, the two soon become engaged, completing the classic love triangle. But in this tangle of hearts, something more sinister lurks; something that could destroy them all.

Thomas Loepp’s beautiful illustrations bring the story to life. In the beginning, the very basic, scratchy artwork can make telling people apart a little difficult, but as the story moves along, it’s easy enough to sort out who’s who. This is far from a drawback; the artwork brings a simple elegance and tone that adds so much to the romantic feeling of the book, I can’t imagine it being illustrated any other way.

Jahns, Kodachrome (2011)

Jason Jahns, Kodachrome. North Star Books, 2011. Pp. 352. ISBN 978-0984749102. $12.99.

Reviewed by Jessica Nelson

A global revolution against capitalism... definitely good subject matter for the times. Kodachrome is a story of just such a revolution, its key players, and how all of their lives intertwine, even though most of them never meet. It is a story of human relations and love found in unexpected places.

Kodachrome opens with one of the main characters, a Chinese man named Zhuli Cai, playing a video game called This Life, which bears passing resemblance to the real online game Second Life. In This Life, players start out playing as who they really are in real life; their identities, avatars, and positions are equitable with their real lives. From there, they are introduced to other people and fall into storylines in which they may become whatever they want to be. It is a place where players are encouraged to follow their dreams, unhindered by the ties that tend to bind so many of us in our real daily lives.

Astruc, Harmonica & Gig (2011)

RJ Astruc, Harmonica & Gig. Dragonfall Press, 2011. Pp. 371. ISBN 978-0-9806341-4-3. $2.99 AUD (+ suggested $2 contribution).

Reviewed by Jessica Nelson

“Arnold Lee is found in a pool of his own blood with seventeen silver-steel knives sticking out of his body. Door unlocked, no signs of a struggle, naked except for a neurocap and bodysuit. Best case scenario the forensics can come up with is that Lee did it to himself. He’s sat there in his swank Wellington apartment and calmly inserted seventeen implements into his torso, one after the other, twisting them savagely now and then so the blood comes faster. Steak knives, bread knives, butter knives—he’s raided his kitchen for the tools. You’d think a man intent on committing suicide would find a more pleasant way to go.”

In RJ Astruc’s Harmonica & Gig, corporate matriarch Viger Singer seems to think so, too; but in a time when reality, virtual reality, and even altered reality are so intermingled that you can’t always tell them apart, nothing is ever what it seems.

When hacks Regina ‘Harmonica’ Carter, Felix ‘Gig’ McGuiggen and Lloyd ‘Talobos’ Hong are summoned to INTROMET headquarters on the premise of a job interview, all are taken aback to learn they are, in fact, being blackmailed into solving the mysterious death; but with the whole world watching and bodies piling up, it only becomes harder to tell who is really pulling the strings, and why.

Beyond the story itself, Harmonica & Gig is a cautionary tale. At its root are the dangers of openness on the internet, and the power wielded by massive corporations that quietly gather personal information without users’ consent. As the usefulness and importance of having an online life, and the number of news stories of information-gathering by companies such as Facebook, Google and various smartphone app developers increases, so too does the importance of the lessons in Harmonica & Gig. At one time, the internet was an anonymous place to while away the leisure hours, a form of escape, sans responsibility and accountability. Yet as more people discover the usefulness of the internet as a networking tool, our online and real lives become more and more intertwined, causing us to continually define and redefine our personas, our relationships, even our intentions... and in real life, we haven’t even started using neurochips or implantable brain computer interface devices... yet. Did you know those exist?

While the general public quietly goes about the business of living daily life, corporations quietly go about the business of recording it. While they do, they also quietly grow. And grow. And then, just for fun, they grow some more. This is how a capitalist world works. And while everyone is honest, it works well. The thing is, in a dog-eat-dog business world, how many people stay honest? As Harmonica’s son says he read on the internet, “Most CEOs of major companies demonstrate pathological behaviours in order to maintain their position and hold of the market.” It feels pretty good to be on top, so who wants to stand idly by and watch it all go away because someone else had a better idea, or a better marketing plan? What kind of information have you given to a psychopath today?

As Harmonica hacks into Viger Singer’s personal INTROMET area in the qverse, she is outright embarrassed by what she sees, and she wonders, “What was it about the qverse that made people so open? That made people so willing to wear their neurosis on their sleeves?” It’s a good question. For all the false security afforded by relative anonymity, we cannot help but seek out real connections with people, often saying and doing things we wouldn’t in face-to-face situations. These days, most people are using their real names for much of their online activity, but still we have that same feeling of anonymity. We’ve taken computer screens and digital code, and manufactured psychological shields out of them. But when’s the last time a good psychological shield protected you from a car accident? We feel safe, secure. That doesn’t mean we are.

Along with the lurking darkness of corporate greed and corruption, the author also uses Harmonica & Gig to question what effects mankind’s partnership with science have in more personal areas. “These impossible designer children resting uneasily in their designer genes...” Harmonica reflects, “It was a small wonder that Gig remained ignorant of just how good-looking he was. Then again, you often got that with test-tube kids—a psychological peculiarity Malachy Memphis termed ‘appearance apathy’. They’d look in the mirror and see not a person but a construction, a laboratory technician’s fusion of catalogue DNA.”

It is undeniable that infertility can be devastating for those people who want to have a family. To date, millions of ‘test tube babies’ have been born since 1978, with the help of in vitro fertilization. Harmonica & Gig takes a look at a rarely viewed side of this genre of scientific advancement with the character of Felix ‘Gig’ McGuiggen, asking questions like, “What effects will this have on the kids?” How can they be proud of who they are, when everything, from looks to behavioral tendencies, to intelligence, was purposefully spliced into their genetic code? The engineers could make an entire populace just like them, if they wanted, so where goes the pride in those things that make a person an individual?

Astruc is successful at conveying feeling and making her characters real. Every single person introduced quickly becomes a solid, defined individual, with a strong personality; even those whose own sense of self is so precarious. We feel we know them better than they know themselves, and that makes them truer still.

The writing in Harmonica & Gig is fluid and strong, never faltering. Astruc does a great job of foreshadowing, without making it obvious and spoiling the tension, suspense and mystery. All of this together makes the book feel more like a cohesive experience than a leisure-time diversion. I would recommend it to anyone. In fact, I’ve recommended it to people already. Why this book is not a best seller, or at least an instant cult classic, I do not know.

Buy this item from Dragonfall Press
Buy this item from Amazon.com

McDonald, Automatic Safe Dog (2011)

Jet McDonald, Automatic Safe Dog. Eibonvale Press, 2011. Pp. 270. ISBN 978-1-908125-01-9. $13.75.

Reviewed by Jessica Nelson

Automatic Safe Dog is the debut novel from musician Jet McDonald. In it, we are introduced to a strange man by the assumed name of Terribly Velour... ‘Telby’ or ‘T’ for short. Working as a dog comber for Pet Furnishings, Telby meets and is instantly taken with a woman by the name of Ravenski Goldbird. When circumstances separate them soon after meeting, Telby resolves to do anything and everything he can to insert himself back into Ravenski’s life and heart, even if that means committing various crimes and completely reinventing himself.

Telby is a classic unreliable narrator, and like him, nothing in Automatic Safe Dog is what it seems. You might assume Pet Furnishings would sell furnishings for beloved family pets, but you couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, they sell pets that have been converted into furnishings, with a few ‘quick and easy’ surgical modifications. Advertising assures customers dogs love being sat on, as it gives them that little touch of ‘extra attention’ they wouldn’t otherwise get. As Telby says, “Dogs are just furniture with pets attached,” and this seems to be the general belief of most of the population, with the exception of the Animal Liberation Liberationist group.

In the style of classic British comedy, McDonald’s character’s are all somewhat ridiculous in their own ways. Each is an exaggerated parody of the type of personality they are meant to represent. At the same time, much like the drawings of the cityscape on the cover, all of the characters are decidedly flat, lacking in dimension and... well, character. Seeing the story play out in my mind is very much like playing with paper dolls when I was a kid—a bunch of thin cardboard cut-outs that bobble to and fro as words pop from their mouths in imaginary speech bubbles. However, this is not the result of poor writing ability, but an effective and purposefully used tool to highlight how shallow the people have become.

In McDonald’s London, none of the people have any real sense of who they are or what their place in the company (and the world, since the company is their world) really is. All of them have inflated egos and low self-esteem, trying to prove to everyone else—but mostly to themselves—that they have some sort of worth, which is always being undermined; a cruel, vicious circle, yet they all keep going round and round it voluntarily, apparently blind to its existence. People are driven to move for the sake of movement; forward movement at all costs, never taking a moment for reflection or introspection. They don’t work for the love of their work, they work as a means to an end, like a horse chasing a carrot. Everyone wanting to ‘make it’ (whatever ‘it’ may be) and never taking any real joy from the lives they’re living, always looking and reaching forward for more, better, newer, trendier. In this sense, McDonald has created a wonderful treatise on progress as opposed to conscious living. In modern society, far too many people share Ravenski’s philosophy; “We’ve got to keep on moving, moving, keep on moving, don’t stop, don’t ever look back...” “Sometimes it’s easier not to understand, because then you can’t see and who needs to see as long as you get where you want to go.”

Even people are treated not so much as human beings, but as property. Sex has become something to do rather than something to share, and the corporation has taken over control of private relationships. Ibore Davidson refers to Telby as her ‘prop’ and decides he needs to change his image based on her desires during a short-lived fling between them. Telby is at one point informed, “You’re company property now,” and not only forbidden to speak to Ravenski, but physically prevented from doing so, when the boss decides fraternization is not in his best interest.

The result of all of this, of course, isn’t pretty. One of Telby’s first sane thoughts is, “It’s as if at the centre of all these occupations and leisures and restaurants and hobbies is a soullessness and we make for ourselves a whirlpool; a whirlpool around us.” A bold statement about the incessant need to always do, do, do and never just be. Living like this, it’s only logical that eventually some sort of boredom-induced insanity will appear as people will do anything to cut loose and go crazy to release these pent up feelings of anxiety and rage. Substance abuse is the norm rather than the exception, and decadence reigns supreme. It gets to the point where we even understand Telby’s newfound masochism, because as Three Days Grace sings, “I’d rather feel pain than nothing at all.”

The money men and ‘big dogs’ on top know you need to keep people down to keep people down. People are so concerned with their pocketbooks and looking out for their bank accounts that they’re willing to overlook and even accept the wrongs perpetrated by those with more, those in charge of moving the money and supplying the jobs. “But it’s our jobs... we need the money. We can’t afford a revolution.” Eventually, though, in life and in fiction, people get tired of being numb. They get tired of being bored. They get tired of being controlled. They get tired of never attaining because they can’t define what they really want, and then they get tired of being tired. So the real money question becomes, what does it take to start a revolution?

After all of this—the skillful writing, the carefully crafted characters, the ridiculous humor—I really want to like this book, but I just can’t bring myself to. I may be wrong, and McDonald may be a mad genius in his approach, but for someone like myself, an animal lover whose dog is like one of my children, someone who does what I do for the joy of it, my biggest response overall was a sort of sickness. It took me a lot longer than usual to read this book, because I dreaded picking it up. Descriptions of the ways the dogs were treated and designed bothered me more than I can say.

And this is the crux of the problem. I have to wonder if, using this approach, McDonald didn’t shoot himself in the foot, so to speak. I fear that the people who read and enjoy this book may be the very people it seeks to make fun of, and its points will be lost on them. I fear those who would read it and understand all the things he tried so hard to say (and I only touched on just a few) will be put off by the same things that made me want to stop reading after just one chapter. My hope, however, is that after reading this, those last people will know more than I did what to expect, and perhaps be better prepared, so that they can pick this book up and read it for the salient points I started out with. If someone had written this review before, or if the forward had said something like this, I might have known better what to expect, and I think that would have made it more of the experience it was intended to be.

Buy this item from Eibonvale Press
Buy this item from Amazon.com
Buy this item from Amazon.co.uk

Bergen, Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat (2011)

Andrez Bergen, Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat. Another Sky Press, 2011. Pp. 236. ISBN 9780984559701. $4.74.

Reviewed by Jessica Nelson

Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat follows a man named Floyd through his daily life in the last city left on earth, Melbourne, Australia. Sure, other cities still exist, but you wouldn’t find anything alive in them. Every single living being left on the planet after a catastrophic viral outbreak has been walled into one supremely urban area. So, how does a government keep such a place from becoming dangerously over-populated and chaotic? Well, they don’t, really, but they attempt to control it with rampant streams of propaganda and fear-mongering.

The dim and gritty atmosphere is expertly set, using a massive amount of references to film noir and pop culture, courtesy of our narrator’s nostalgic love for film and all things reminiscent of simpler times. This made me a tad nervous at first; I worried about missing too many subtle cues and allusions. Luckily, the book does include a few appendices, including a handy list of recommended movies, so I watched as many as possible beforehand. ‘As many as possible’ turned out to be only four, but it was good enough, and the first, The Third Man, was really the key reference. As the story progressed, I realized the worry was groundless, although a familiarity with the movies certainly does add to the mystique. If you’re a movie buff, you’ll enjoy the abundance of nods to great movies and literature, but if you’re not, you’re likely to leave this book wanting to become one. The author even makes a few amusing references to his own record label, If? Records, where he records under the pseudonym Little Nobody.

The first pages of Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat are a bit confusing as Floyd tells about a recurring dream that plagues him; once you sort out what’s dream and what’s real, though, the flow picks up the perfect tempo for the tale. Floyd’s common decency and inarguable sense make him an appealing character that’s easy to identify with. He’s the perfect narrator for this story; the perennial underdog, an average guy forced to make his way through difficult circumstances. He often feels he can’t do anything about his position in life and is at times suicidal, but he struggles through as best he can, bullied into being a hired-henchman for a government which has done nothing but take away the people and things he loves.

This book does a fabulous job of highlighting the complexities and dangers of current world social, economic and political climates. As one monolithic corporation wiggles its fingers further and further into the political realm and manipulates its way into the hearts of the general public, Floyd is unwittingly pulled deep into the propaganda machine, giving us a singular behind-the-scenes view of what is quickly beginning to feel like some warped, twisted three-ring circus. As the boundaries between government and corporation become ever less defined, selling the people mouthsful of lies while convincing them it’s food, the people eat it all up. It doesn’t even matter anymore if people recognize the lies, because they’ve become so enamored of the people spouting the drivel that they actually rationalize it all and defend them. – Eat it up, little doggy, there’s more where that came from.

There isn’t much danger here of people getting too fed up and wanting to take their lives back, because they’re haunted by the fear of having their loved ones ripped away on made-up charges or for things they have no control over; all the people in charge have to do is label them Deviants, terrorists, and the little-doggy lie-eaters fly into a panic (the many government claims against WikiLeaks and Julian Assange makes for an excellent real-life example of an attempt at this) ...because of course, if they called them Revolutionaries, well... that might be too tempting a term for the public to resist. As the head of the corporation himself says, “Reality and perception are entirely different things, and let me tell you, Floyd, reality is the lesser of the two.”

This is my first review for The Future Fire, and I couldn’t have asked for a better book to begin. The only fault I can find with this book, is after such a compelling, well-written narrative with fantastic imagery and a perfectly set tone, the flow falters at the end. The entire story seems to trip over some huge boulder, like The Flying Nun doing a face-plant, and it never really recovers. The author seems to try to tie everything up so neatly it’s painful, but then you can almost pick out the exact spot where he said, “ah, screw it,” and tossed in a handful of arbitrary questions to leave open, instead. The commentary on the current socio-economic and political climate is dead on without ever being overbearing, woven perfectly into the tapestry of the story, but the author makes no real effort at a lasting solution, opting instead for a quick and easy way out. Like this. Uncomfortable, isn’t it?

Buy this book from Another Sky Press
Buy this item from Amazon.com
Buy this item from Amazon.co.uk