My Promise as a Writer

I promise to entertain you to the best my twisted little mind can manage. I will take you from the light, and into darkness. I might even let you see the sunrise at the end of the journey, but that I can't promise. My stories will sweep the hair from you brow, leave your stomach in knots, and suck the air from your lungs. But no matter how far we descend, I will offer you a fragment of hope to cling to. I will treat you to dark fantasy, science fiction, horror, and anything that falls into the strange and disturbing. Will we re-emerge into the light? Well, that is the point of taking the journey. I hope you will join me on these adventures.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Review of Wild Cards Vol. 4

I took my time with George R. R. Martin's fourth instalment in the "Wild Cards" series, not because I wanted to savour the experience, but because I kept finding better things to do. Usually when this happens I put the book down, and add it to the stack waiting to be shelved. This time I pushed through. The only reason I managed to finish this volume is due to constant reminders of the size of the series, and the number of contributing writers. In a series that spans twenty plus volumes, well there are going to be stinkers included in the titles. There is no way of getting around it. I am not ready to turn my back on the "Wild Cards" series simply because the fourth volume was sloppier than uncontained diarrhoea. Besides, there were some excellent moments in this volume, and some wonderful promises--the latter mostly concerned with Senator Hartman. The excerpts from Desmond's journal held the weaker stories together. And the final third! Wow! Talk about a rally! The book finally begins to take off, to its stride, and return to the quality story arcs and story telling that made the first three such fun. Still, it was not enough to wash away the bad taste the first two thirds left in my mouth. I will read the fifth volume, but I'm not looking forward to it as much as I had with the previous instalments.

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