Review: An Excellent Collection
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 2, 2013
An anthology of short stories ranging in length from a few pages to novelette, What Happened to Jory and Other Dark Departures by Gary R. Henry is a fun and well-written read.The titular story is jam-packed with backwoods creepiness and more than delivers on author Henry's promise of "dark departures." Roth's Machine is a dread-infused work of sci-fi that chronicles a rogue scientist's journey to "the other side" and is a true nail-biter.All of the shorts are enjoyable but I have to say my favorite is A Barbarian in Rome, the novelette-length work of historical fiction at the end of the collection. Here, the author takes us back to Imperial Rome where Cugirtha, a captured barbarian warrior turned slave/gladiator, must use his wits and unmatched combat skills to survive in the brutal world of ancient Rome. The author promises Cugirtha's adventures will continue in a full-length novel and I'm going to hold him to that as the writing is superb.My only complaint about the collection is the drab and uninteresting cover. I think a re-do is called for in this instance as the cover does not reflect the high quality of the stories contained within. Don't let this deter you from giving it a read, though, as What Happened to Jory and Other Dark Departures is highly recommended.