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Alcatraz Crime FictionYes, truly fiction. In some ways a bit weird but all fictional. However, one might say otherwise to think some of these stories have a ring of truth-somewhere.
Well, that was fun. And original.I wouldn't have expected this out of an anthology about Alcatraz. These are prison stories, sure but none of them are directly about being in prison. Alcatraz is much more of a state of mind than I would've expected it to be. And it was a pleasant surprise. I loved Glen Gray's opening story of a man with a special condition treating Alcatraz as a puzzle to solve, Amber Sparks' beautiful short that does against what prison stories usually are, Joshua Chaplinsky's
These sentences were hard. Wish they would have warned me somehow.
Broken River Books is one of the most exciting publishers out there, with great taste and a knack for finding interesting material. This is one of their latest releases, a collection of short fiction inspired by the country's most infamous penitentiary, from a group of great writers: folks like Jedidiah Ayres, Les Edgerton, Nik Korpon, Johnny Shaw, and Gabino Iglesias, all with different styles, ranging from Iglesias's bizarre shadow terror to the Cronenberg-sequel body horror style of Glenn Gra...
Another great release, from in my opinion one of the strongest indie publishers out there, Broken River Books. This, obviously, is an Alcatraz themed anthology that happens to be stacked with some of the tightest writers of contemporary noir. All of the stories, while centered around the infamous Alcatraz, are original and creative in their own ways. Some are just good stories with Alcatraz in the backdrop while others delve inside the prison and reminded me of why I loved shows like OZ. I never...
Some real good stories in here, especially liked Iglesias, Sparks, Shaw, and Rory Costello's.
* Disclaimer * I am the author of one of the stories in this collection.The editors took a great idea and let the authors run with it in some really unusual, cool, and imaginative directions. As is typically the case with anthologies, I can't say that all of them were home runs for me, but a lot of them were. I was most impressed by the entries from Max Booth III (who wrote about Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz) and Glenn Gray (whose stock in trade, gruesome medical oddities, worked beaut...
I'll have a full length review coming very soon, but in the meantime, I just wanted to say the contributor list should give you an idea of what you're getting when you come to Alcatraz. This thing is sublime from cover to cover, featuring some of the best authors in the business and edited by two masters of the form. Story for story, there's not a bad apple in the bunch and you're likely to find yourself devouring this collection in a sitting or two. Amazing book!
This is a pretty solid collection of stories based around Alcatraz and I guess the reason it's ended up with a three star rating is due to the monotony in tone that's carried throughout the stories. They're all as hard and tough as the prison itself was and there just weren't enough stories that truly grabbed me.The opening story "Break" by Glenn Gray is excellent and sets us up with what you'd expect from an Alcatraz collection with an ingenius escape plan. There are a few more of these types o...