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Country of the Blind and Other Selected Stories

H.G. Wells

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Herbert George Wells was perhaps best known as the author of such classic works of science fiction...

Cream Buns and Crime

Robin Stevens

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A collection of short stories for budding Detective Society members. Daisy and Hazel invite you to...

Subtly Worded and Other Stories

Robert Chandler, Anne Marie Jackson, Nadezhda Teffi and Clare Kitson

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A selection of the finest stories by this female Chekhov Teffi's genius with the short form made her...

Ross (3284 KP) rated Sword of Destiny in Books

Jul 26, 2018

This is a largely well-written set of Witcher short stories, which start to piece together some of the stories in the Last Wish with the main books (which I have yet to read!).
While this time there is no over-arching story linking them together this is to the book's credit. I got annoyed with the Last Wish/Season of Storms's clumsy attempt to sew together a number of different stories - like those old episodes of a sitcom that was just a hashing together of different flashbacks. Though it does mean you could struggle with the chronology, but I think assuming the stories are after the Season of Storms is a safe bet.
All of the stories are reasonably exciting, but Sapkowski does have a tendency to start these stories with the Witcher's triumph over another creature, and focus on the aftermath - sometimes you long for the thrill of the preceding hunt.
The final story, which I feel is the main link into the first book, includes a number of sections where the Witcher is hallucinating. The segue between these isn't always clear, and while this adds to the atmosphere and feel of the Witcher being drugged, it does leave you a little confused at times (though this passes briefly).
A good set of stories and a decent translation with few clunky parts.
I would recommend these are read after the main books (i.e. in published order) - while I haven't read those, I have probably taken some characters/stories for granted and not appreciated how they feed in to the overall canon of Witcher works (without googling for spoilers).

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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2163 KP) rated Three Strikes – You're Dead! in Books

Jun 28, 2024

Give This Collection a Sporting Chance

This is a collection of 14 crime fiction short stories with a sports theme. And there are plenty of unique sports here. The collection starts out with one of three baseball stories as the hero of a playoff game winds up dead moments after scoring the winning run. We’ve got a bounty hunter who is trying to bring in an ultimate Frisbee player. A college swimming coach is found dead at practice one morning. A woman plans to avenge her brother’s death in the bull riding ring. A biathlete is kidnapped. And a tennis coach finds himself in grave danger.

With all the stories, this is definitely long enough to be a full-length book, so you are getting your money's worth. The twists on a couple of the stories didn't quite work for me, but most of the stories held together very well. Likewise, the characters are all real. Considering the shorter space that the writers had to work with, I am always impressed when they can pull both of those things off. I'm not the biggest sports fan in the world, but I still found myself being pulled into these stories. Whether you are a diehard sports fanatic or have a casual interest at best, you'll enjoy this collection.

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Louise (64 KP) rated Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories in Books

Jul 2, 2018

I picked this up around Halloween time wanting some scary reads to get me in the mood. When I saw they were by Roald Dahl himself, I thought I was in for a treat. I was sadly disappointed, reading the introduction I found that this was not the case, however I continued on as I thought it would be interesting to read some different authors.

The book consisted of 14 short stories, some longer than others and some quiet spooky whilst the others were just a bit dark.

Here is a list of the stories in the book:

    W.S by L.P.Hartley
    Harry by Rosemary Timperley
    The Corner shop by Cynthia Asquith
    In the Tube by E.F.Benson
    Christmas meeting by Rosemary Timperley
    Elias and the Draug by Jonas Lie
    Playmates by A.M. Burrage
    Ringing the changes by Robert Aickman
    The Telephone by Mary Treadgold
    The Ghost of a Hand by J.Sheridan Le Fanu
    The Sweeper by A.M Burrage
    On the Brighton Road by Richard Middleton
    Afterward by Edith Warton
    The Upper Berth by Marion Crawford

The scariest one for me was the Ghost of a hand, that could be because I was reading it at 1am in the morning with everyone asleep, the sounds of the house creaking and the wind outside added to the spookiness.

My top three are The Ghost of a Hand, Harry and Ringing the Changes,however they weren't great. I felt really let down by this selection of short stories, they didn't seem to have very satisfying ends and they were somewhat predictable.

Also there is an introduction from Roald Dahl himself stating that he read over 700 short stories trying to find the best, I seriously can't believe these were the best ones he found and then he was rambling on about women being better at writing ghost stories and men being better at general fiction which I felt was irrelevant but I suppose he had a certain amount of words to fulfil.

Maybe I am being a little harsh, seeing as the book is 30 years old and the stories are even older than that.

Let me know if you have read this book, and what you thought.

Overall I gave this 3 out of 5 stars