Similar Monsters

Rating:
Summary: Different Monsters
Review: Fifteen short stories and a lengthy afterword. I picked this one up on the strength of great reviews in Realms of Fantasy and Cemetery Dance a while back, having never come across any of Savile's previous offerings. It is always a calculated risk checking out a new author, but sometimes the gamble pays off. My own twelve dollars paid off in spades this time around. From the very first story where we are treated to a kind of love story that doesn't happen every day, and live with a man who can't seem to say goodbye for all of the guilt he carries with him, to the last story where Savile steps into the guise of a very disturbing high school teacher, wonders and miracles abound. In places Savile's writing is raw an hard hitting, in places it is lyrical and poetic, all the way through it is thoughtful and moving, taking us to places inside ourselves many of us would rather not go. Similar Monsters is anything but the same old same old, the blurbs on the rear of the book compare this young writer to Jonathan Carroll, Italo Calvino and Isaac Bashavis Singer, which in itself is lofty praise indeed, especially when it comes from writers like Ed Gorman, Charles de Lint and Tom Piccirilli. Do yourself a favour, next time you are thinking of a McDonalds, save the money and feed your soul instead. Read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Prose disappoints
Review: I read a lot of fantasy and horror. I've read it since I was a kid, so I know what's good. This isn't good. The prose is choppy and the storyline is tired. I think in a few years, if he works on his style, he'll be a decent writer. But right now, there are only glimmers of this. I cannot recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: A Darkly Delicious Collection
Review: The variety of subjects tackled in this collection of short stories is breathtaking. Savile's prose is delicious. Not for everyone though, your average Eddings/Fiest fan is going to struggle with the lack of elves and trolls in this "fantasy" collection - and it is fantasy in that it subverts the everyday and makes us look at life in a new way. No longer can we take the mundane for granted, as everything comes alive in a whole new way.

Savile's take on Angels is beautiful - as are some of the new stories in the book, Angels in The Snow and The Fragrance of You.

I repeat this isn't standard genre fodder - this is the literature of subversion.

Enjoy!