Based on the dream journals
of Kyle J. Knapp, David Cranmer has crafted a book of love dedicated to his
nephew with The Lizard’s Ardent Uniform & Other Stories: Veridical Dreams Vol.
1. Using a handful of lines from those journals as inspiration, David
sent each one off to a few select writers along with some insight into Kyle. As
David Cranmer explains in the very moving introduction, the 23 year old Kyle
would have liked these stories as they contain a twist or two. To say these
stories have a twist is to put it mildly.
The book opens with “The
Lizard's Ardent Uniform” by Chris F. Holm. Kyle Williams was forced to leave
Boston and move to Santa Fe, New Mexico when his dad got a job at Ardent Industries.
It wasn’t what he wanted to do, but at least he got a cool telescope out of the
move. The third grader has been putting it to good use and seeing things in the
skies above that he never would have been able to see in the old neighborhood
on Beacon Hill in Boston. He's never seen a bright light beaming in from space
to light up somebody or something out in the yard at 3:17 am before now either.
It may have been nearly 40
years since she has been back to Granny's farm in “Dust to Dust” by Terrie
Farley Moran. The past was just too painful to revisit and it still seems like
just yesterday. The road might be paved
now and the nearby barns and silos might have been replaced by malls and tract housing,
but the legacy is still present. She just doesn't know how deep it runs.
Author Patti Abbott appears
in quite a lot of anthologies and her work is always good. Such is the case
here with “Twin Talk.” Wendy comes home from work to find her twin daughters
doing that cat’s cradle thing with a skein of yarn again. What seemed weird and
pointless at age 8 seems even more so at 13. Then there is their obsession with
tying fancy knots. That isn't all that bothers mom about her daughters who
renamed themselves some time back, Judith and Lilith.
Seeing things is just part
of the problem in “The Malignant Reality” by Evan V. Corder. At first he
thought the flashes were some sort of after effect from the old days when he
used LSD now and then. Instead, it is something far more sinister in this
strange tale set in upstate New York that has nothing at all to do with fiddles
or Georgia.
Steve Weddle is up next with
his “Ghosts in the Fog.” In the wake of an incident Mr. Danny Crawford
discovers that his cousin Brent is in another wing of the hospitable undergoing
surgery. Danny and Brent managed to get themselves in a mess and trying to explain
what they did and why they did it isn't easy.
It begins with a hitchhiker
that has bloody blistered feet in “The Debt” by Hilary Davidson. A car is
pulling up and he has things to do.
A story titled “The Zygma Gambit”
by Garnett Elliot brings the stories in the book to a close. Having the dream
in his room, instead of the Precog bays means the dream is very powerful and
will come true. Kyler Knightly has to get to work in April 2223 A. D. and
protect human history.
Author bios and a poem by Kyle
Knapp bring this well done book to a close.
Reviewing a collection or an
anthology can be very tough if the book features complicated stories as one has
to work to make sure one does not reveal a spoiler. Such is the case here as
the seven tales presented are all good ones that push the boundaries in small
and big ways. If you like considering the idea that there is far more going on
than meets the eye this book is for you. A crime is present in many of the
tales, but the tale itself might be fantasy, fiction or something else. The
Lizard’s Ardent Uniform & Other Stories: Veridical Dreams Vol. 1.
is one of those rare deals where each story is incredible good making the read simply
fantastic from start to finish.
The Lizard’s Ardent Uniform &
Other Stories: Veridical Dreams Vol. 1.
Edited By David Cranmer
Beat To A Pulp
June 2014
ISBN# 978-0991203994
E-book (also available in print)
130 Pages
$6.05
E-book version supplied by
the editor in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2014
Thanks for taking the time to review, Kevin. Deeply appreciated.
ReplyDeleteExcellent book and glad to say so. thank you for this read and many others.
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