ePulp Sampler Vol 1 by John Picha
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a small collection of five New Pulp stories offered as a sampler pack for readers. Obviously, the hope is that upon reading these short stories you will want to no more about the characters and/or follow the authors. As such this collection is a mixed bag.
The first story, Rurik of the Demonwatch: Arena of Death by Russ Bopp,has a promising title character but as one reads it becomes more and more disappointing. While the story moves along quickly and is interesting enough if overly formulaic. It is obvious that the author was in desperate need of an editor for this story as there are numerous typos and grammatical errors. As second draft of this story might have been a winner but this unpolished work seems ill fit in a sampler volume designed to draw readers.
Dead Reckoner by Matthew J. Davies is the story of a Zulu cursed soldier named Axamander and is better written than the first story with few issues with grammar or spelling. The author does an excellent job setting the mood and his description of war in the trenches of World War I rings true. The dialogue moves the story along nicely.
N.R. Grabe's Wild Marjoram: The Pill is an interesting Noir tinted story with several twists that make it difficult to talk about in detail without giving too much away. Suffice it to say that this story is the gem of the collection.
The final two stories; Pandora Driver: Blind Luck and Skyracos: Set Adrift, both by John Picha, were both decent stories and did not suffer from the problems of the first.
Overall this is definitely worth a look. Most collections or samplers are uneven in quality and this one is no exception. I recommend that folks give this FREE sampler a try - if you like pulp you are bound to enjoy one or more of the stories.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment