A review by lazygal
Crackpot Palace by Jeffrey Ford

2.0

This series of short stories that have (mostly) appeared elsewhere all have some element of odd twist (think "Twilight Zone" or Bradbury's Illustrated Man). The problem for me was that they felt forced, as though the author was given a task - say, a vampire tale (as in "Sit the Dead") - and wrote to fit that task rather than writing a story that just happened to have some twist. By twist, I mean something a little off: a sermon with heavier overtones, a trip to a magic show that goes awry, etc.. After a while, it was difficult to care about how the story would end or be changed from the norm for that genre; the author's notes at the end of each selection were very interesting, illuminating his thought process (see, his defense of "Dr. Lash Remembers" as being steampunk).

ARC provided by publisher.