Skip Horack

"What is the first animal that comes to your mind when I say the words ‘climate change’?”

Falls the Shadow (Warmer collection)
by Skip Horack

My review:

This was a selection I made because 1) I sometimes enjoy short stories and 2) it was about climate change and 3) the cover art is exquisite!

So this review will be short. I just couldn't get involved in his story. Not because the subject is not vitally important. And not because the writing is not good.

To be honest I had no idea what was going on most of the time. This does not often happen to me with short stories but this one was baffling. The main character is retired military who at one point shot a commercial. Now, he is at some sort of climate workshop, if you can call it that, but the point seems to be that there is alot of "wag the dog" going on. Not that Climate change is not real. That isn't it. But it was all about false advertising and just...not what I expected.

Understand: It was very confusing to me. There was barely any actual dialog and when there was, I could not follow that either.

I think I just chose wrong.

I was let down because I expected something so utterly different than what I got. I understand this is part of a series and I usually do not do series either.

I love the title, subject matter and even Joe was an interesting man. But I wish it had been a tad easier to follow. Very complex for such a short story.… (lisätietoja)

I tried listening to the audio version of this story multiple times. I just can't do it.

The narrator seems rushed....reads way to fast and runs his words together. I have partial hearing loss. His voice and reading style made it impossible for me to understand what he was saying.

The story rambles. Long sentences. Takes forever to make a point. Just......wanders too much.

The audio is relatively short. 38 minutes. Even with rambling weird style and a bad narrator I should have been able to handle trying to listen for 38 minutes....but nope. I lasted about 10 minutes....multiple times...and gave up.

DNF. Yuck. Not for me. Moving on......

So far the Warmer Collection from Audible/Amazon originals has been a disappointment. I haven't really liked any of the selections yet. Falls the Shadow is the 5th short story/novella in the collection. Each selection is a variant on the concept of climate change....but the stories seem more about current social climate than environmental climate. But it's like they are maybe trying too hard? So far, the collection is falling flat for me. And, looking at the reviews....I'm not the only one who doesn't like these stories.

The Warmer Collection has seven stories in total. So I have two left. Maybe those two will be great. I hope so!… (lisätietoja)

Every so often I need to take a step back from my usual genres and pick up something completely different. Skip Horack's new book, The Other Joseph, offered up a great opportunity to do just that.

Roy Joseph has lost most of his life - his beloved older brother Tommy died in the Gulf War, his parents are both dead and he lives within the narrow confines of a life constricted by a felony conviction. He's chosen to live in a remote area with only a dog for company and he works an isolated job on the oil rigs. Roy has exiled himself from life.

When a young woman contacts him and say that his brother Tommy was her father, he sees a chance - a chance to reconnect with life again, to redeem himself, to perhaps be happy.

Roy's journey physically takes him from Louisiana to San Francisco. He visits locales from their childhood and calls on those who knew his brother along the way. Broken and wounded characters litter the road between Louisiana and San Francisco.

Horack's prose are rich and powerful. They are stark and spare, underlining Roy's solitude. I was overwhelmed by Roy's life - his broken, isolated existence. It was just so very, very sad. I wasn't able to read the book straight through - I simply had to read in small doses. I wanted so badly for the the trip to be Roy's redemption. And of course you're asking - was it? It's hard to say - the ending is not what I wanted at all - Horack did surprise me. I'll have to go with an ambiguous yes and no answer.

The Other Joseph was a moving, eloquent read - one that will leave echoes with you after the last page is turned… (lisätietoja)