e-books

On this page I will review those books you can’t get in any physical form, only on-line, as a PDF download, to view on your laptop or for your e-reader. I don’t have an e-reader, I don’t want to print out pages and pages of a book – too expensive, so I usually read on-line. Not as pleasant as sitting on the sofa but it works and the pleasure I get from it is more  or less the same.

I only recently started buying e-books, a twitter friend who is an young, budding author pointed me towards them by publishing some stories on-line and offered them as a collection to buy. Which I did. I knew the stories already – said author is running a short story club, where as a member you receive for free a monthly story in your e-mail. But I like the idea of having them in a collection, with artwork and some extra bits.

The collection is called From Dark Places and the author is Emma Newman.

As the title suggest we are dealing with stories of dark places, very often the dark corner of your mind. There are men, brought to despair by their wives, so much they become killers, little girls with magical talents that are turned against her, frogs that are no princes and never will be, minds in whose corners madness is lurking, Mr.Darcy (yes, that one) breaking up marriages, we learn the truth behind the great people like Jesus, why they are born on this world,meet  the woman who dies frequently, and read about many other strange and often slightly warped happenings. These are short stories that make you wish they’d be novels – you want more, you need to know how and from where and why.

If that small review makes you want more:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/9193?ref=heikeM - that’s were you can buy the book

http://www.enewman.co.uk/ – that’s where you can meet the author

*

My next e-read was Chinese Whisperings by 10 different writers, one of whom is above Emma Newman.Chinese Whisperings are 10 stories about 10 different people. The twist in this collection is that each new story takes a minor character from the story before and makes him or her into the main character. The whole thing works extremely well. It is not a novel in chapters, and therefore slightly disconcerting when you meet the person or persons from the story before in a completely different setting. But it works wonderfully and is nearly as warped as the first book reviewed here. There is sanity at stake everywhere you look.Miranda is reaping what she has sown. Mitchell understands there is no resisting fate. Clint dreams of forging a violent destiny. Elizabeth is about to make a discovery. Robin hides a terrible secret. Simon hasn’t slept in ten days. Sam is pursued by nightmares. Susie has lost everything. David has just been found. Jake is atoning for past evils. And they all make your spine tingle. It’s a fantastic little offering, great fun to read and you get to know 10 writers a tiny little bit. And again, it makes you want more – and that, at least in my books, is a sign for quality

http://chinesewhisperings.com/

*

Not really a book but nevertheless a lot of fun is The Devil In Chains by Adam Christopher. Journalist  Jackson Clarke is sent to the Isle of Man to investigate tales of ghosts and talking animals .There he captured and charged with treason by the military – don’t want to say to much because it is a very short little novella and I don’t want to spoil it. It is a mystery steampunk tale, dark and gloomy, well told, you can nearly smell the hot oil of the fantastical machines – and you definitely want more. So why not rush over to

http://www.zetaminor.com/roobarb/The%20Devil%20in%20Chains%20-%20Adam%20Christopher.pdf

and read for yourself?

*

The Unpopular Opinion of Reverend Tobias Thackery is another short story gem by Adam Christopher. The narrator tells the story of a discovery he made after the reverend of the title invites him to learn the truth about the species we descend from  - Thackery has proof that we originate from dogs, not apes. Trying to involve Charles Darwin failed and the reaction of the “founder” of evolution intrigues our hero even more. What happens during the visit and after is a fantastical tale, deliciously evil and leads us deep into the dark caves not just of the cliffs in Cornwall but of the human heart. Well written this is a brilliant little insight into Christophers mind and I sincerely hope we’ll get a lot more from him.

At the time of writing this review the link to the site where this story is published was broken, but as soon as its back up I will let you know. Or you could try for yourself, it’s  http://www.hubfiction.com