Genre: Science Fiction, Horror
Rating: 5 stars
Usually when I do reviews, I summarize the plot. But how do you do that for an anthology of short stories? The Space Whiskey Death Chronicles are a collection of 14 very different stories: The Dangers of Field Work, On The Rocks, Bodily Harm, Smalley's Smirk, Urban Decay, Hell of a View, The Boneyard, The Thing In The Tunnel, The King Lives, Jack the Ripper Savior of Humanity, I Voyager, Janitors of the Cosmos and Best Friends Forever - Whether You Like It Or Not. Many of these stories have very sad endings. Some of them are hilarious. Some of them are just really fun and scary. I've picked out a few of my favorites to summarize:
The Dangers of Field Work Sisters working in a field, looking for food, are suddenly attacked for no good reason. Can one of them stop the attack?
Hell of a View A food vendor is waiting for the late-night crowd to come out of the club when suddenly the streets are filled with creatures killing everyone and an apocalypse begins. Can he get back to his family in time to save them?
Urban Decay A bloody murder causes a NYC detective to look for the person behind the attack, but he may not be ready for what he discovers.
Jack the Ripper, Savior of Humanity What if Jack the Ripper wasn't just a mindless killer? What if the purpose of the killings was to save humanity?
The Thing In The Tunnel Something lives in the tunnels underneath NYC. And it's not nice...it's hungry. So hungry.
At first I thought the stories were all science fiction, and some of them are, but then they started to take a turn to the horror side of things. And that's when a light bulb went off in my head. The stories reminded me of the movies Gremlins, Creepshow and Tales from the Darkside. I absolutely loved those movies when I was a kid! And I've missed them! They just don't make movies like that anymore. But here was this book that was reminding me of how much I missed and loved this genre. And then the gargoyle story, Urban Decay, was next and OMG there's a gargoyle story! I loved the gargoyle story in Tales from the Darkside and now there was another. Not sure what my obsession with gargoyles is, but I love them.
Anyway, I generally don't like short stories (they're too short) so I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. And I really did. It's so well written. The stories just flow effortlessly. However, I will never look at ants the same, though, that I promise you.
So, to anyone who enjoys Science Fiction, Horror, the movies I referred to above and good writing, pick it up. It's worth the read.
I don't usually like short stories either, for the exact same reason as you. Too short. I like spending a lot of time with characters I fall in love with.
ReplyDeleteBut they can be fun, and great for those times I don't want to be weighed down with a whole book. I'll definitely be picking this one up!!! I love stuff like this. And yeah...there's something inherently cool about gargoyles, isn't there?
Some of these characters were in more than one story, so that was nice, but yeah, I usually like spending time with them and getting their full story.
DeleteGargoyles are the best! They aren't utilized nearly enough as they should be.
I'm glad you're picking this one up. You'll enjoy it - the stories are really good.