Review: Not bad, but not particularly memorable or strong, either
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 1, 2013
After Rick Hautala's recent death, his publisher decided to pay tribute to him in perhaps the most appropriate way possible for an author: by making some of his work free for purchase. Glimpses, as its subtitle suggests, is a collection of Hautala's short fiction, and as someone who was interested in exploring Hautala's work, it seemed like a solid place to start. Unfortunately, it doesn't end up being a terribly interesting place to start, either. It's not that Glimpses is bad in any way; to the contrary, Hautala is a decent enough writer, and most of his stories start off promising enough. I love the slow build of "The Hum," for instance, as a mysterious noise starts to take its toll on human relationships. "A Good Day for Dragons" tells a story that feels like a great variation on a story that a child might tell, while "The Call" builds a nicely Lovecraftian feel at its best moments. But many of the stories end up fizzling out towards their ends, either simply coming to an abrupt and unsatisfying ending or often not even wrapping up at all. It becomes a frustrating pattern, and it's one that hurts the weaker stories even more. "Schoolhouse," for example, feels like you're still waiting for the big reveal or some great moment to happen by the time it ends, and much the same could be said for "Iron Frog," which feels like Hautala forgot to come to a point. Hautala isn't a bad author, per se, but there's not too many of these stories that really work on the whole, and a whole lot of them that either end up feeling forgettable or just don't work. I won't give up on Hautala - novels are very different from short stories, and Hautala's reputation all but demands I try again - but Glimpses didn't really make further exploration of his work feel like something I was itching to do.