by James Hutchings
The New Death & Others is an e-book which collects forty-four stories and nineteen poems by James Hutchings. It’s what Hutchings himself describes as "dark fantasy" but containing "no sparkly vampires.” While there are a few vampires mentioned in the book, perhaps they do not qualify as “sparkly”. What New Death does contain is dozens of short (some very short) satirical tales, fairy tale parodies, creation stories, humorous legends and fantastic fables. There are also poems about cats, the moon and various Gods. Interesting, if not completely captivating and entertaining, if not enthrallingly so, The New Death seems like it was probably a lot of fun to create and possesess a certain charming sense of humor. I can't help but to wonder, however, if perhaps this collection wouldn't be better served as an illustrated book in printed form that could occupy a permanent space on a shelf or a table and be periodically returned to for a quick fix of fantasy, maybe with a cup of tea on a dark and gloomy day. One gets to wondering when one reads this sort of thing at any rate—Chris Auman
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