“What lurks behind that locked door? What do they keep in that biscuit tin? Why would two beautiful women really want to date the office sleaze? Are false teeth capable of jealousy?
A. S. Chambers provides answers to these questions and many more in this collection of short horror stories concerning such themes as vampires, cowboys, confectionery and dentistry.
Have a quick taste and see just what lurks in the shadows...”
 
At 96 pages, this is one of the shortest short story collections I’ve come across, but Chambers crams in nine tales of varying terrors in between the pages. For anyone after gallons of blood splat might find themselves disappointed, as this collection is more old school, Tales of the Unexpected type lore. Chambers writes well, keeping things light, with a wry, sophisticated humour, but maintaining a definite underlying sinister seam, which isn’t so mature as to alienate younger readers. Whilst I enjoyed each tale for different reasons, I felt Chambers undersells a few of the stories, than there was more to be said. But the author’s notes reveal that there is more to be said in subsequent and future stories.
My favourite tale by far, is the opening High Moon, which condenses a much more epic western horror tale into fourteen pages, whilst 53, Bell Court comes a close second, as a paper boy fears something that DEFINATELY lurks behind the door of his least favourite delivery.
If a more subdued, light hearted horror affair is your cup of tea, then you won’t go wrong with Oh Taste and See.

 

As comedy it’s the best book I've read with great events including Pete dying of a masturbation accident and comic views on life like how many shakes to do at urinal. The world is well described with minor charters and historical points like why the pub is called The Fox With Two Dicks (It used to be three dicks but during riot of 2010 someone nicked one). There are various pop culture references but there’s a running joke that they can’t use the official names for fear of copyright like breast breakers instead of chest breakers. The main highlight of the book is the method in which it is wrote as an unreliable narrator. He is tied up in a strait jacket explaining to the doctor how he isn’t crazy yet goes off on tangents like when he tells story of how his mum told him how many shakes he can do before it’s masturbation. At times he’s very exact on some details like 88mph to drive the car back to the future.  The contradicting elements and gaps in story (he has a habit for saying and then there were dinosaurs) also show that the author has put maximum effort into making the narrator unbelievable.
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However when you look past the amusing dialogue and set up there are several flaws. Firstly everyone seems sarcastic so hard to make people menacing. Secondly the plot is thin at points for instance how did shagging Thatcher cause dinosaurs to exist? Repetition of jokes like it's not Inception grate after a while. The book drags occasionally as there is so much dialogue and so little action with them attempting to fight the dinosaurs just once. Lastly the ending I felt was a bit of an anti-climax as makes of the story that he told seemed irrelevant and it was a bit predictable.

Overall at face value the book is amusing but a disappointment due to thin plot, repetition and too much dialogue. However when you add in the unreliable narrator element which is wrote really well the book is more interesting as there is a question of if you believe the bloke or not.

Grief effects us all in a variety of different ways. Some accept it and move on. Others are force to wallow in a dark mire that consumes them fully. The Grieving Stones concerns a group of some such individuals, as they head off to an isolated cottage in the middle of nowhere with a counsellor, in an attempt to come to terms with what they’ve all lost.

Mahon sets the characters up, gradually revealing little pieces of each individual’s grief, all the while setting the scene of the isolated cottage and the surrounding landscape, imbuing a sense of creeping dread that the characters find hard to wash off. The main character of Alice begins to wonder if the ghostly goings on are really going on, or worse; inside her sorrow wracked mind.

Combining the very real sense of loss we all feel at some point and the something more supernatural, Mahon has weaved a tasty little tale that strikes deep into the heart of the reader. We all lose somebody during our lifetime, the question is asked, just how much do we lose of ourselves, when we lose a loved one?

As usual, narrator Chris Barnes is on point with his reading, creating a definite voice for the cast of characters, making this less a reading, but more of a one man theatre. His voice work is fluid and I look forward to his next performance. If it was him reading the phone book, I’d listen.
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If you’re after an engaging, atmospheric novella, I suggest you pay a visit to The Grieving Stones.

“It's the year 2044, and the real world has become an ugly place. We're out of oil. We've wrecked the climate. Famine, poverty, and disease are widespread.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes this depressing reality by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia where you can be anything you want to be, where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. And like most of humanity, Wade is obsessed by the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this alternate reality: OASIS founder James Halliday, who dies with no heir, has promised that control of the OASIS - and his massive fortune - will go to the person who can solve the riddles he has left scattered throughout his creation.”
 
I’m a bit late logging on to the Ready Player One bandwagon, but I wanted to get in there before the film comes out. So here it goes.

Imagine if The Matrix was a done as homage to all things 80’s. That’s Ready Player One. Set in a not so bright future, where any right-minded person spends every waking hour logged into the OASIS; a multi player, interconnected, open universe game built on a foundation of geeky 80’s lore, from where the users create their own worlds and characters, completing quests to achieve XP and earn credits. Sounds easy, right.

But disaster afoot, the creator of the OASIS, James Halliday, dies and leaves instructions in his will that the ownership of the OASIS be transferred to whoever finds his Easter Egg, which of course he’s hidden within the virtual world. As expected, the majority of planet set off a virtual quest to snag the keys to the Halliday kingdom. But the quests are never easy. In fact, they’re insane.
 
Part Matrix, part Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with enough 80’s references sprinkled throughout to appease the geekiest of geeks, I loved this with every gigabyte of my being. I’m a child of the 80’s and I didn’t get half of the references in this, but it didn’t matter (although, I am old enough to own a Commodore 64). I became caught up in the sheer enthusiasm for the source material. Clines, clearly has done his research and has the knowledge to hand in which to connect the dots and creating a labyrinth like plot that draws the reader in with it’s pure giddiness. Thoroughly recommended to fans of anything and everything, there’s something for everybody in this.

I have to mention Will Wheaton’s fantastic delivery with his narration. Absolutely faultless, and you can really tell that he cares about the source material, his boundless enthusiasm adds another dimension to proceedings, helping bring this tale to life. This isn’t just a story about geeks and gamers, it’s for geeks and gamer, and anyone else that likes a bloody good thriller, with definite messages about friendship, love, and what state we’re leaving the planet in for the next generation. It struck another chord with me about online friendships. The vast majority of humans I consider friends live away from me. In this digital world, it’s easier to make friends online than it is in the real world. Many prefer this as we can pick and choose what we reveal to others. Some say that the online us isn’t the real us at all, others say it’s more than the real us, as often it’s pure personality when we’re online, nothing but soul, and the fake one is who we force ourselves to be. There’s a lot of truth in that.

If you only read one cyberpunk thriller with hard drive full of heart, I implore to have a go on Ready Player One.

5/5