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capellan's review
4.0
Some years ago, Peter remarked to me that "Endings are the hardest part of writing". I mention this both to disclose that I know the author of this collection personally, and because I think it's especially relevant when you're talking about short stories, where obviously you have a lot more endings to deal with.
What Peter presents here is a collection of stories with fascinating premises, but of course that doesn't matter all that much if he can't stick the endings. I'm pleased to say that, at least from a tonal and thematic perspective, he *does* stick them. I might not have ended many of the stories the same way, myself, but the generally melancholic-but-very-rarely-a-ray-of-sunshine kind of feel of this collection is certainly coherent and comes through strongly.
My personal favourite tale is probably "Dying Young", which rounds out the tome in a very satisfying way, though I will definitely also revisit the quantum kaiju story as well.
(NB for those to whom it is important: I paid for my copy of the book; it was not comped.)
What Peter presents here is a collection of stories with fascinating premises, but of course that doesn't matter all that much if he can't stick the endings. I'm pleased to say that, at least from a tonal and thematic perspective, he *does* stick them. I might not have ended many of the stories the same way, myself, but the generally melancholic-but-very-rarely-a-ray-of-sunshine kind of feel of this collection is certainly coherent and comes through strongly.
My personal favourite tale is probably "Dying Young", which rounds out the tome in a very satisfying way, though I will definitely also revisit the quantum kaiju story as well.
(NB for those to whom it is important: I paid for my copy of the book; it was not comped.)
daveversace's review
5.0
Peter M Ball has produced another exceptional collection of speculative fiction, much of it lying at the intersection of the everyday with the absurd or alien. That said, my favourite story of the lot, "Dying Young" is a mad mashup of psychic powers, cyborgs and dragons meeting in a classic revenge-fuelled Western, all wrapped around a very human story of power versus pragmatism in the service of community.
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