Shards - a review

Jeff Ritchie of ScaryMinds has posted an excellent review of "Shards: Short Sharp Tales".

Here are a couple of excerpts:

"Cummings is coming at you with splintered tales of the macabre that will reverberate with you long after you have finished the book."

"Shane Jiraiya Cummings with Shards shows he is not only a master of the flash fiction style of writing but has pretty much written the definitive statement on how it should work. The collection is a strong statement on the validity of an internet driven writing style and is a must have for any collector of Australian Dark Fiction. If you love dark fiction or have ever wondered what flash fiction is about then Shards should speak to you in language that you will understand."

"McKiernan draws in black and white, always an advantage if wanting to hit stark themes without overly cluttering the visual with colour, and clearly has a grasp on what Shane Jiraiya Cummings is after in Shards. It might be just me but I took a sort of 1930s film noir art deco feeling away from McKiernan's work in the book. Hey I'm not an art critic but McKiernan's stylings were working for me here."

Thanks, Jeff, for the absolutely wonderful write-up!

You can read the full review at: http://www.scaryminds.com/reviews/book11.php 

Author Personal Views versus Fiction Output

It is a shame when one of my favourite authors says something so ridiculous, abhorrent, and ignorant that you have no choice but to never, ever buy or read any of their work EVER again.

Via ellen_datlow's LJ today, I found out about this post (More Diversity and More Perversity in the Future!) by author John C. Wright.

His statements about 'Natural Law' and homosexuality just make me sick!

Now, I agree, no story (tv, film or book) should ever feel the need to bend to pressure from an outside source just to include their point-of-view. Such things only serve to undermine the strength of story-telling. But, his views are just so wrong - just so ignorant of the scientific facts surrounding homosexuality in the animal kingdom (humans included) - that I can never offer that man another cent of royalties from my own pocket.

A big shame, because I loved his Golden Age trilogy (possibly the best Science Fiction series written in the few decades), really ate up his Everness duology, and (mostly) enjoyed his Chronicles of Chaos. But, not another cent from me! Ever!