Thursday, May 09, 2013

Micro Weird: (Excellent) Tiny Tales of the Strange, by Charles Allen Gramlich

I posted this review on Amazon, but I thought that it wouldn’t hurt posting it here too with the hope it might reach a few more people. I really loved this book! I had acquired it earlier, when I only had Kindle for PC, but it was the first book I read now on my not-even-a-week-old Kindle Paperwhite. Too bad Kindle doesn’t show the colours. I love the cover art, by the very talented Lana Gramlich. In colour or in black and white, this photo gives me an eerie feeling that’s perfect for the stories.


Here goes:

In this aptly titled collection, Charles Gramlich has gathered fifteen very short stories. In them, there are ghosts, aliens, planets, spaceships, or just human beings whose bizarre behaviour or circumstances warrant them a place in this anthology of the weird.

Out of the fifteen stories, some are lyrical, some are humorous, some are tinged with sadness, most are disturbing, one was downright scary, and all of them have a delightful twist in the end. As a bonus, in the end we get a bit of history about the author’s early literary influences and a bit of history about each piece – this is a part I enjoyed just as much as reading the stories themselves

Flash fiction is not easy to write, but Mr. Gramlich is a master storyteller and I very highly recommend this collection.

Visit Charles at Razored Zen.

13 comments:

laughingwolf said...

yay, charles... well said, v :)

the walking man said...

I have this one sitting on my Kindle waiting for me to take a vacation so I can read it, of curse I have about thirty ahead of it, so let's hope it's a long vacation. they tell me they will have a bed open soon, too bad it's in a locked ward though, but then i have read quite a bit of Charles work (not anywhere near all of it) and it is probably best read in a locked ward in case he infects the reader with his own form of "nuts"

Truthfully though Charles writing is entertaining and he doesn't ask an arm and half a leg for it either.

Out of Sight L said...

I can't read books with short stories, how silly but I will buy a book that has 2,000 pages on the same story...to each his own, I've always been a prolific reader, but my concentration is not to good lately...still I hope it comes back soon...in the mean time I look at magazines and very short explanations lol

Charles Gramlich said...

Very glad you liked it. Thanks for kind words! And Mark is right about the possible infection. :)

BernardL said...

Very Good! I will get it forthwith. :)

TALON said...

Sounds completely entertaining! Thank you for the review.

Brian Miller said...

very cool....microfiction is def not easy to write, but it is a lot of fun to read...will check this out...have a great weekend...

Optimistic Existentialist said...

Sounds quite intriguing. I am normally not a short-story person but I may give this one a go :)

Anonymous said...

I'll have to check this out. I'm not a big fan of short stories but this does sound like an intriguing collection. I love the cover too.

Congrats Charles!

Woohoo..you've got a Kindle Paperwhite! I still love mine and use it all the time. One of the reps. at Amazon told me that Kindle Fire will probably be avail. in Canada in the near future, that would mean color. I'd like that feature too. :<)

Hugs, G

laughingwolf said...

hope your mothers' day went well, v :)

SzélsőFa said...

i acknowledged this latest publication of Charles over his site and i love flash fictions.
i bet the collection is great!
but this "a bit of history about each piece" makes me even more enthusiastic about it.

Vesper said...

Everybody, thank you for reading this review and sharing your thoughts!

LW, glad you liked my review! :-) Mother’s Day was great! I got a Nexus 7 tablet! Yay!!!

Mark, I like the Kindle for its convenience, but at the same time I find it’s too easy to get swamped in too many books that you might never read. A physical book at least occupies space on your shelf or on your nightstand and that makes it more difficult to ignore. But some books now are only available in electronic format so… As for becoming infected… I’m not worried… I’m already carrying the “disease”… LOL

I know what you mean, Lorraine. I used to prefer novels to short stories, but I like both forms now. They each have their own advantages, their own appeal… :-)

Charles, my pleasure! Both reading it and writing a few thoughts about it. See my response to Mark about the infection… LOL

I hope you’ll like it, Bernard. :-)

TALON, thanks for reading the review and commenting! If you like the weird then it really is entertaining. :-)

Brian, it is fun to read, and, in this age when everybody is in a hurry, flash-fiction’s popularity can only increase. I hope you had a great weekend! :-)

Optimistic Existentialist, you never know… :-) Thanks for reading!

Geraldine, yes, I gave in… I bought a Kindle… I like the screen and how pleasant it is for the eyes to read on it in all kinds of lighting. It’s a bit of a hassle though every time I need wi-fi to download the new books (I buy them on the PC) – it never works directly. I don’t do it that often though, so it’s bearable… but I know that many people are complaining about that. Does Kindle Fire have the same type of screen? If not, then won’t you be better off with an iPad or an Android tablet? You can get Kindle on both and with colours…
xoxoxo

SzélsőFa, I know you love flash fiction! :-) Yeah, that bit of history about each piece is very addictive… :-)

TALON said...

Oh, the monkey introduces a whole other level here, Vesper. Loved this. Insomnia is just like this.