Review: Great Short Stories
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 22, 2011
Women and Monsters by Bernard Schaffer was an intriguing read of short stories. His eclectic mix of stories range from scifi, historical, paranormal, and rare twists on reality. The writing overall is unpredictable and clever. Some of the stories are more to my taste than others, but I would recommend this author to those who love short stories.The Reluctant Death:From the very first page, I was drawn in by beautiful prose that read more like poetry, rich with symbolism and a sense of Irish/French history. Excellent. It is in italics. He weaves a tale to make the reader ask, Who is that pale faced man?! Compelling the reader to continue. Dialogue rang true. Some scenes were harsh, like reality; a certain raw intensity. I thought this story was very clever.Codename Omega:1918. 1943. A mix of War, Nazis with a twist . This story was not as enjoyable for me as the former (because I am not big on military/war stories), but the writing was good. To the point and always with an interesting twist.Room Service:This grabbed my from the first line. Told in first person, we learn the character's opinions of vampires. The writing was humorous with a flare for fun. Reading about the human-vampire dynamic in the room was hilarious and I enjoyed this story.Cold Comforts:It was interesting. Unexpected. Though-provoking. I thought the writing was clever, but I did not like the story as much. Mostly about a man-woman relationship gone cold with some serious issues. Overall, the writing has a real unpredictable quality which I like. But this particular story was not for me.Nazareth:Scifi, when aliens come to Earth they give us more than we could imagine. The author weaves scifi with religious undertones. I was a bit lost a times with all the science fiction jargon, but overall the story was original and I could appreciate that.Digestif:Seems to be sort of a bio.I hope to see more stories by this author, and hope he will turn some of these ideas into full length novels!Reviewed by Ami Blackwelder, author of The Shifters of 2040