By Alex Ness
FYI
A few years back a law or maybe something less official, like a requirement by some sort of government agency was made to require a reviewer to make notice of who provided a review product. I have tried to be mindful of this, but since about 2010 I have not been awash in product to review. I usually buy my own works to review, and never make use creative acquisition of products I want to review but cannot afford. If it seems that I am making a point to say "I didn't buy these products" by stating where I got it, that isn't the case. In fact, while it might not have happened that I'd have crossed paths of the publisher or products, I welcome the offer, and suggest it is a good thing to consider products such as these. I also think it is juvenile to think people need to be protected from someone providing review products, whatever the source. That there is a small advantage over those who do not provide products, well, I'd think that would be self evident.
A number of works to consider in review were sent to me by Jason Peters, head guru of Abberant Literature. I tend not to read prose for review, since it takes much more of my time than comics or even music, and my tastes are my own and therefore not always relevant to another person's taste range or interests. Sharing critical thoughts regarding prose can be less than fulfilling for me as well for those being reviewed. I am not against it, mind you, just this, it is an investment in time and attention for me, and for those sending product, not only can there be less of a reward for their offering, they might be looking for a chapter by chapter account.
I am not suggesting people should never send me review books, (alexanderness63@gmail.com), just that I am aware it can be painful and less than happy for the creative person or publisher. I do think Jason Peters is kind, interesting, and talented as a person, and while I've not met him it could be suggested that I like him, and that I have a positive view towards what he does/publishes, it isn't actually that. In my past as a writer online on various popular culture review, interview, commentary sites, I did reviews of works by creative talents who I loved or loved the works of, and thereby a positive overall score was almost guaranteed. As I said, I do like Jason, but prior to this grouping of works I had not read his or his publishing imprint's creative work.
Publisher: Aberrant Literature
Editor in Chief: Jason Peters
Twitter: Jason
Twitter: Aberrant
ABERRANT TALES
Of the many types of works that give me painful cramps are collections of a subject with varying degrees of quality. Especially in the world of comics, you might like the best works a lot, but there are always works that stick out as being so uninteresting, poorly conceived or thoughtlessly included for who knows what reason. Anthologies thereby have a hurdle to overcome that falls down to the question of why did the editor include these works that do not work, and instead of at least floating, their weight causes the collection to sink a bit beneath the surface. It is a great idea, hey let us create a work that features stories about X, only when you are finished, only some are about it, and only a few end up being good enough to stand upon their own, if they had been produced for that setting.
What I found in this short fiction collection/s was that, for whatever possible reason, the editorial guidance of the works here is sublime. There were no outlaying works that sucked, no featuring of one great one and a buttload of crappers... the works seem to be equally well edited, written, paced, produced. You don't get a vampire, monster, murderer and nursery rhyme. Each of these stories featured subjects that I'd argue were all on the edge of proper, normal or socially reflective. These were stories that came from places on the outside of normal, they were ... I guess, ... aberrant. Oh that was cheesy of me, dammit.
Why I like this is for the broad swath of stories where horror fiction, weird fiction, science fiction and fantasy fiction are all comfortably stacked next to each other. The works are of similar quality, there are works good enough to point out, but, when it comes to an anthology what I think you should know is, was it wholly good. I think it was. Was it wholly great? Not really, but I think it was fun reading the different offerings, and fun has a value that is rather precious to me. I didn't go in thinking it was Edgar Allan Poe or Stephen King, I read things that were fresh and new, and that was a good thing. Whenever you read reviews of prose people talk about pacing or tone, quality of characterization or whether the archetypes were well done. My brain doesn't look at collections like that and I never enter any anthology from any publisher thinking it will be full of new Poes or Kings.
I liked reading the stories here, and I think they were all worth the time to do so. I think this collection of stories was a solid B+ ranging to A-, with some works being better than others, but all of them worthy of being read.
WHITEOUT by Ashton Macaulay is novel featuring a hunt, a chase if you will, between humans and mysterious creatures. Nick Ventner is an adventurer, an intelligent hunter of artifacts and mysteries, and someone who has encountered mysterious creatures and people in his past. Nick is alongside his apprentice James Schaefer and mountain guide Lopsang as a team devoted to discovering Shangri La, but not for any truly high minded goal, rather to perhaps score some of the lost treasures, artifacts, ancient riches, left behind. The scenario is buggered by two factors. While they are searching there enters a nasty twat (according to my friends from the UK, this rhymes with fat) named Manchester, who is the Moriarty of Nick Ventner's Sherlock Holmes. Or the French dude in Raiders of the Lost Ark to Indy. Or Joker to Batman. Or something. The second factor is the legendary Yeti making his presence felt. Events lead the team to believe that they are going to have to face and fight mythical creatures called Wargs in the defense of a small local village. The team face many dangers, all the while not knowing there is someone who isn't who they appear to be, a great beast thought to be the Yeti who is perhaps hunting the hunters, and the presence of the nemesis Manchester, who seems to promise malice, misdeeds and trouble.
Part of the joy of this work is the presence of a past, where the "hero" Nick has had prior experiences, has gained expertise in the world of cryptozoology, and has met people who still play a role in his mind. This character has a major flaw of character... he is a drinker of booze, to an extent it diminishes the character's abilities. It is not unusual to have a flaw, but the degrees to which it seems to influence his actions, or thoughts, is considerable. The pulp feel of the character, similar perhaps to a Mickey Spillane hard ass detective or PI who uses booze to help him cope with a broken world, helped create a verisimilitude wherein we the reader can place this story and characters into a real feeling world. As a reader of great pulp novels I could see, I think the ancestry of the work in question. But I think there is both more and less than that. More in that there is a lovely feel of adventure and danger in a setting that feels strange and unfamiliar. We are seeing the world through the eyes of the characters. At the same time it falls short of being "simple or serious fun". The tone of the work is at times serious and other times ludicrous or at least, far less serious or caring for the characterization or the situations than in the rest of the work. That disconnect does diminish the work for some readers. But I would like to say, as a person who has written about the Yeti/Bigfoot/Sasquatch (in Josh Howard Presents Sasquatch from Viper comics) I find the work to be perfectly positioned in the tone. We do not know if there is a Yeti or similar creatures, so, having a sense of humor and being open to finding simple joys is good., If everything is dark and serious, all of the characters might not work.
While it would be true to say that I would not have bought this book if I'd only seen it upon the retail shelf, that is due to financial resources and having a buttload of books I read for research. As a reader copy I found the work interesting, humorous on some level, and worth the time to read it. Imperfect but quite good is my score. I'd give the work a B+ if I was forced to give a grade.
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