I don’t do many book reviews because it sort of feels like I’m doing a high school book report but the author approached me for a review and I said, “Yes.”
The Death & Others is an eclectic mix of short stories, vignettes and poetry. A lot times with books it’s fairly easy to put them into a category. Not so much with this one. It’s kind of all over the place. In a way, it’s part of its charm. It shows the passions of the author and that there’s probably something for just about everybody in there.
Personally and rather uncharacteristic of me, I found the poetry to be the most entertaining. There are three poems that I enjoyed: Under the Pyramids (based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft), The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune (based on a story by Robert E. Howard) and The Garden of Adompha (based on a story by Clark Ashton Smith). These got my imagination going.
Unfortunately, some of the prose didn’t fit too well into my tastes. I’m just not crazy about prose written in the style of fables. Some of the vignettes seemed more like filler than anything. Some of the short bits of fiction felt flat. There were a couple pieces like the The End which were enjoyable.
Now this may sound like I’m dissing The New Death & Others. It just wasn’t quite my cup of tea. That being said, if I had purchased it I wouldn’t be angry or storming the Bastille. There may have been pieces that I didn’t particularly like but I’m sure there’s those out there who will. Just like the parts I liked others might not be all that appreciative of.
The New Death & Others is available for only 99 cents at Amazon and Smashwords.