Today I am pleased to announce a guest reviewer. The book we are reviewing is Alien Legends by Gill Shutte. According to Gill, Alien Legends is for ages 13 and up. It’s a fantasy book of short stories. Our guest reviewer for today is Shari Sanford from Paperback Exchange in Belmar, NJ. When in Belmar, please visit Shari! If you love Sci Fi, check out Alien Legends!
Book Review
ALIEN LEGENDS: a selection from the REPOSITORY OF IMAGINATION
Gill Shutt
Greyhart Press, 2012
This compendium of short stories and two novellas immersed me in an alien universe from the title page. Collected by a traveler of the universe, each one brings to life a new world populated by beings that share their tales in their own unique voice. In every story, the world, its people and its culture are clarified as much by the names Shutt bestows upon her creatures and their habitat as through the story itself. Whether the tales are framed as poetry, song or prose Shutt gives life to their being with a prodigious gift for choosing remarkably evocative names.
I am not usually a short story fan but found this collection absorbing. My only complaint is that I would have preferred the Rites of Passage and the Endings pair (both novellas) kept together rather than split into parts with stories interspersed between them. In fact, I would like to see both expanded to full length novels – they grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. Like all truly good writing, these stories (and the concept itself) is still percolating through my mind and likely will be for some time to come.
Shari Sanford
The Paperback Exchange
Belmar, NJ
August, 2013