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Back to the Indies: here are my thoughts on Altered Egos 4/15/2014 2:50:06 PM
This is a short story collection that turned out to be much better than I thought it would be. As with most short story collections, unless the author is an acknowledged and well-loved master of the genre, the stories in Altered Egos are hit and miss. While none of the stories are terrible, a couple are pretty average, while some others are very good indeed.
The stories run the gamut from sweetly humourous, to grimly serious. The range of subjects and styles ensures that the reader won’t get mired in something that isn't to his or her taste.
The first two stories, The Creative Process and After the Crash, left me feeling flat. The writing was fair, although not much more than that, and at times a bit rough around the edges. I felt quite discouraged after reading those two, but decided to keep going, and was very happy that I did. The third story, Monkeying Around, is a fun rethinking of Kafka’s Metamorphosis that had me smiling through-out. It was followed by Corruption, a dystopic vision of the future which isn't overly original, yet does a great job of creating a sense of paranoia and isolation in a world that is crippled by the fear of terrorism. Next was Happy New Year, Dragon, a clever and funny cautionary tale about a greedy boy who, unfortunately for him, gets exactly what he asked for. Then there was Staying True, which is more a slice of life than actual story. It paints a sad picture of a Korean university student who is torn between the modern, more-permissive age and his very conservative upbringing.
The last story is Writers Blocked, which revisits the main character from The Creative Process, a failed young writer who spends more time drinking than writing. I don’t know if this story was better written or the character just grew on me, but I found myself enjoying it more than the first, even though they follow virtually the same narrative, with only a small change in the setting.
There are seven stories in all, and I liked five of them, which makes for a pretty good batting average. There are the very occasional typos and a few awkward sentences, but not enough to make me feel that any of the stories had to be torn up and begun over again. Maybe other readers will enjoy the first two stories more than I did. But if, like me, they don’t, they should keep on reading because there is still some very good story-telling in this collection. At the end of the day, I’m giving this collection a higher recommendation than I expected to.
