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A review by jodicleghorn
Next by Robert Porteous, Simon Petrie
3.0
A solid three and a half stars. Like most anthologies there were stories that resonated strongly and others that were a complete miss with me. Many I felt were let down by simplistic premises (stories without some kind of consequence for what was happening) or weak endings. Overall, there was much beautiful writing to be enjoyed, even in the stories with weaker narratives.
The anthology got off on the wrong foot with me, in placing Claire McKenna and Dave Versace's stories side by side as opening stories and I found myself irritated to the point of giving up on the anthology half way through with the editor's placement of the stories.
Coming back to the stories after many months break, the second half read far better in the curation of the ToC.
Favourite stories:
Claire McKenna's 'The Ninety Nine'
Dave Versace's 'Imported Goods-Aisle Nine'
Suzanne J Willis's 'Of Starfish Tides'
Tracie McBride's 'Wooden Heart'
Gillian Pollock's 'Someone's Daughter'
Helen Stubb's 'Casino Five'
Rik Legarto's 'The Wild Hunt'
Alan Baxter's 'Quantum Echo'
Richard Harland's 'Here's Glory For You'
And my favourite of them all... Elizabeth Fitzgerald's 'Phoenix Down'
The anthology got off on the wrong foot with me, in placing Claire McKenna and Dave Versace's stories side by side as opening stories and I found myself irritated to the point of giving up on the anthology half way through with the editor's placement of the stories.
Coming back to the stories after many months break, the second half read far better in the curation of the ToC.
Favourite stories:
Claire McKenna's 'The Ninety Nine'
Dave Versace's 'Imported Goods-Aisle Nine'
Suzanne J Willis's 'Of Starfish Tides'
Tracie McBride's 'Wooden Heart'
Gillian Pollock's 'Someone's Daughter'
Helen Stubb's 'Casino Five'
Rik Legarto's 'The Wild Hunt'
Alan Baxter's 'Quantum Echo'
Richard Harland's 'Here's Glory For You'
And my favourite of them all... Elizabeth Fitzgerald's 'Phoenix Down'