Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Mini Book Review

So I finished reading Marko's short fiction collection, Oddments.

I'd read the two pieces set in the Frontlines universe, "Measures of Absolution" and "Lucky 13", as well as the other piece that had been made into a Love, Death, + Robots short, "On the Use of Shape-Shifters in Warfare". I'd also read "Ink & Blood", "Cake Whores From Mars", and his Wild Cards novella, "How to Move Spheres and Influence People". I didn't mind re-reading any of them, especially since it had been years since I'd first encountered some of those tales.

The three other Wild Cards stories, two featuring the half-man, half-tiger mob bodyguard, Khan, and one featuring a dude who's a superhero working for the Royal Navy who can EMP any electronic gizmo he can see, were all new to me. I loved the Falklands War setting for the latter, and Khan is a fun fictional character. I'll eagerly seek out his future appearances.

The new story in the Ink & Blood universe really makes me hope he spins that up into the series it deserves to be.

The zombie fiction short, "Rottertown", is a frickin' knockout. A real gut punch in a genre that tends to be full of trope-heavy fluff. If they do another Love, Death, + Robots season, it should be in there.

I don't regret dropping the coin on the Kindle version at all.

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