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Leaving the Sea

Ben Marcus

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Book

A bold new short story collection from one of the most exhilarating and innovative writers of our...

Cockfosters

Helen Simpson

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Cockfosters is a funny, frank and forceful story collection dealing with ageing, ambition and the...

Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated His Mercenary (Mercenary In Love, #1) in Books

Jan 12, 2021

His Mercenary (Mercenary In Love, #1)

Vanessa Sims | 2014 | Erotica, Fiction & Poetry, LGBTQ+

4.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Well I might like my short stories but I should be wary if freebies--many of them or good, but some I just don't like/can't get into--and that was the case with this one.

It didn't hold enough romance for me. I get lust and that seemed what this was but the fact that they'd known each other three days and had sex all of those three days and suddenly wanted to be together...it just didn't ring true to me. Added in that erotica isn't my favourite genre and the spelling of "come" as "cum" pees me off, I wasn't exactly enjoying it that much.

The crime side of the story didn't hold my attention either, and I felt the ending was rather sudden.

Not for me.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated The Private Life of Elder Things in Books

Aug 18, 2019 (Updated Aug 18, 2019)

Short story collection consisting of various riffs on elements from HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos; you probably have to be fairly familiar with Lovecraft and his acolytes to get the full effect, as this does almost turn into a game of Spot-the-Yithian in places. All the usual suspects appear, along with excursions into more obscure areas (there's some excellent Hastur-related wordplay in the story featuring that part of the mythos).

Of the three authors, Tchaikovsky is probably the best stylist, McDonald manages to find some humanity and depth in fairly unlikely places, while Gauntlett is the pulpiest. None of them attempt to actually copy Lovecraft's idiosyncratic prose style, which is probably a blessing. None of the stories are genuinely inspired, but they're usually very readable even if they sometimes get a touch bizarre.