A review by ppkfs
Knight Stalker: A Short Story in Three Parts by A.C. Rodríguez

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
But, I am atop you, sucking up from yourflesh-blade all your maleness and genetic seed into my matrix-binary-coded wombwhich gives birth in the ether-collective-mind; my mad sex convulses out your very souljust for a moment toward my angel-star

Satan, for that's precisely who she is, harrumphs

The Devil farts

I....can see what the author is going for. It's meant to be a supernatural reflection on the sins of a killer. It's meant to combine that jarring, theological, literary prose with mysterious, short expositions of dialogue. You don't know these people (or beings I guess) and you are never told, but you are transported to this other plane where the words don't matter or make sense individually but you realise you've gotten through 3 pages of dense prose off nothing but vibes.

It just does not land at all. Not even slightly. It rushes into the obvious (oh you're some sort of god/devil/angel/being) and then all the cards are immediately put onto the table and there is no break before it jumps into the vaguery. Could this be done well in a short story? Probably. But the prose...it's almost painful. I would call it bad edgy fanfiction.

It reminds me of Gerald's Game by Stephen King, where the entire novel (sure, in that there are 400 pages) is a reflection of a singular person with a back and forth...but even if I really didn't like Gerald's Game, King has the ability to write those rambling paragraphs of prose that don't mean anything but you are absolutely absorbed. Unfortunately this book does not.

Sorry.


Expand filter menu Content Warnings