I was asked to review both these collections of short stories by the same author, Alex South so I thought I’d put both there reviews into one blog post.
Seven Stories High:
There were seven shorts in this collection (hence the name) and I munched through the first collection of short stories without stopping and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. Most had a slightly chilling factor to them although they can’t all be classed in exactly the same genre.
There was a good variety of different characters and several had me guessing as to how they would turn out. So all in all very entertaining.
I think copy and paste was my favourite, although it’s not easy to choose between them. I’d love to see some longer works by this author to allow him to go into some more in depth character development and plots.
Dolphins and Bananas:
(since beginning my read of this book I’ve been informed there is another version that this has been updated to so my review may be slightly out of date)
There are only four shorts in this collection compared to the seven above but I found the same relaxed easy to read style of writing, with the authors slightly quirky, amusing way of story telling as the first collection. The stories were a similar type too with maybe a little extra emphasis on the main character and the feeling of each in these four.
My favourite by far was Dolphining. I loved the way the dolphins thought and acted and the main characters reasons for seeing them.
This collection did leave me feeling wanting a little, however. I don’t know if the new update would have helped with that but I just wasn’t quite as captivated with these as I was the first seven. They were still enjoyable though and would be great to fill those odds minutes waiting around in queues etc.
Both collections were well worth my time and I really hope Alex South does something longer or even more of these. He’s definitely got a new fan.