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I‘m laboring through one of the Book of Throne tomes, those massive cinderblock-sized efforts that require weeks to get through. And this is a problem for someone who hosts a weekly book blog. As I’ve been thinking of just this thing (for marketing myself), I went onto Amazon and looked for free fiction, something short and sharp and clever that I could read in a setting or two, and was reviewable and enjoyable. Happily I found this in Free 5, a collection you can locate on Amazon without too much trouble. Paul Dail went after flash fiction here, very very […]

There is first-tier storytelling, which is where you tell a story that everyone knows, like about Superman or Spiderman. Then there is second-tier storytelling. In this case, it’s taking a first-tier story and expanding it in some new way. Like in The Incredibles, where we see domesticated superheroes dealing with modern life. After the Golden Age is then about 2.3, which is close to The Incredibles  but perhaps just a touch more realistic. The story is told by Celia West, a mid-twenties accountant who is somewhat estranged from her parents, who just happen to form the core members of Commerce […]

So, in a show of fair advertising, I’ll point out that this book’s sub-title, The True Story of the Iliad, is not entirely truthful. That’s why I bought this book when I found it at Slightly Foxed in London. But this isn’t about the war behind the Iliad. It’s about the Iliad. It’s nothing more than a complete breakdown of the elements of the epic, how they fit into the overall stream of storytelling, and how these elements relate to us in our modern world. There is nothing about the actual Trojan War except a map in the front and […]

I‘ve gone onto a different tack here. Originally I was trying to get a review for a full story a week. However, my Dad (a frequent contributor) passed away a while back and I’m having a hard time knocking down a book each week, especially monsters like Game of Thrones and Pillars of the Earth. With this in mind, I’ve used Dad’s eReader to search around Amazon and pull down free short fiction, a way I can honor my commitments here and not have to read every waking hour. So, this week, our first shortie – The New World , […]

Ignore that recent movie adaptation (i.e. the same way thuggish joyriders adapt your car when they are done with it). This book isn’t about sword fighting. It’s about vengeance. And not vengeance just served cold – vengeance left to itself over a decade of being locked in a cell, of simmering about the people who profited from entombing you from the living sunlit world, and what you could do if you could ever got out. Such is the sad fate of Edmond Dantes, unjustly locked up on an island fortress during the pro- and anti-Bonaparte times following the Emperor’s exile […]