Monday, July 8, 2013

"Selected Short Stories featuring New Corpse Smell" by Nicolas Wilson

Selected Short Stories
featuring New Corpse Smell
by Nicolas Wilson


Description
This collection contains fifteen short stories, in a variety of genres including crime, science fiction, and military fiction.
Shades of Cray: The story of the first transracial individual.
Leaving Lost Atlantis: A man writes his ex-wife, after discovering what happened to Atlantis.
An Iraqi Christmas Carol: A small group of soldiers and an Iraqi policeman mount a rescue for a kidnapped boy.
Quarter: A military team designed for assassinations loses control over one of its members in the middle of a mission.
Werehouse: A man trying to help his homeless cousin runs afoul of a society of murderers.
Atlas Dug Up: Two philosophical equals have a love affair that continues after death.
Blood Falls: An expedition to the Antarctic goes south, after a rock wall collapses.
Murder Your Darlings: A writer finds himself convinced one of his characters is trying to kill him, after his loved ones start getting hurt.
Mine: A doctor exacts revenge on a former-General.
Failure Cascade: A ride on a space elevator goes horribly wrong.
Euthanasia: A surgeon gets caught between his oath and his vengeful calling.
Shrink: An executive ponders the consequences of modern business.
Indian Gift: An ex-outlaw is drafted into convincing an Indian to sell his land.
Parallel: A professor familiar with inter-dimensional travel tries convincing one of his students to kill another.
New Corpse Smell: Observing decomposition.

Review
Nicolas Wilson has penned a collection of creative and disturbing stories, all of which are thought-provoking and surprising. Each story is wildly different from the last, but each of them is gripping and chilling in its own right. It's a collection impossible to read quickly and you will not be ready to move on to the next story until you've pondered the one before.
I found it extremely hard to pick just one favourite, I have at least three. 'Shades of Cray', about the first transracial procedure is gruesome in parts, and asks some very deep questions about race and identity. 'Blood Falls' contains some wonderful imagery and descriptions, eg: 'We have a unique experience to not just look at the piss seeping out of this lake's urethra, but we can stick our fingers in its guts and see what squirms out of the primordial ooze.' Careful what you wish for...
'Mine' is another brilliantly dark tale. Imagine you're a heart surgeon. Your country has been decimated by war. Your family has been torn apart. One of the perpetrators of the atrocities is on your table. What do you do? I'm willing to bet it isn't half as macabre and fitting as Nicolas Wilson dreamed up.
Fans of Stephen King will love this collection, and my only complaint is that these are short stories and not novels. I've gone straight to amazon to find more books by Nicolas Wilson - I have plenty of time to read now that I daren't switch off the bedside light...

About the Author
Nicolas Wilson is a published journalist, graphic novelist, and novelist. He lives in the rainy wastes of Portland, Oregon with his wife, two cats and a dog.
Nic has written eight novels: Whores: not intended to be a factual account of the gender war, and Dag are currently available for eReader and will soon be available in paperback; Nexus, The Necromancer's Gambit, Banksters, Homeless, The Singularity, and Lunacy are all due for publication in the next two years. Nic has also written several short story collections.
Nic's work spans a variety of genres, from political thriller to science fiction and urban fantasy.
For information on Nic's books, and behind-the-scenes looks at his writing, visit Nic's website. Sign up for his mailing list to receive a free novella, Dogs of War.

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