A Tiding Of Magpies by Peter Sutton
Sep. 24th, 2016 10:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
One for sorrow,
Two for luck; (or mirth)
Three for a wedding; (or birth)
Five for silver,
Six for gold;
Seven for a secret,
Never to be told …
This “Deliciously Dark” collection of stories written by Pete Sutton, tells tales themed on the counting magpies.
Whether it is waking up to unmentionable sounds in Not Alone, or taking a trip to the land of stories in Five For Silver, the surprising use of a robot butler in I, Butler or competition winners It Falls and An Unexpected Return, these thirty one tales, ranging from tiny flash fiction to long stories of several thousand words, always entertain and unnerve.
Pete Sutton’s debut short story collection of 31 tales based on the theme of counting magpies and encompassing the science fiction, crime, thriller, horror and fantasy genres provides far more joy than sorrow and comes with an excellent introduction from Paul Cornell. Of the stories, my favourites were the following:
- ROADKILL is a creepy story about a family on a car journey where the younger brother starts counting the road kill on the road and a sinister gift is revealed. Although the ending is slightly telegraphed, the tension is well racked up and it lingered with me.
- SAILING BENEATH THE CITY follows an unnamed narrator as he navigates his skiff around an underground city, using drugs to erase memories he find too painful. It’s a sad story that also left me quite unsettled.
- IT’S ALWAYS THE END FOR SOMEONE is about a woman having to come to terms with her father’s impending death and trying to get in touch with her brother (an astronomer living in Chile) while strange weather events.
- BRUISED starts off innocently as a story about a woman who finds an unexplained bruise on her body but the marks escalate to a satisfying pay-off.
- THE INFECTION seems to be the chronicle of a survivor of a terrible inspection but there’s a neat twist at the end that’s genuinely chilling.
I don’t think that there are any duff stories in the collection but I have to say that the flash fiction stories (NOT ALONE and WAYMARKER in particular) didn’t work for me as well as the longer stories, but this is mainly due to my not being a fan of the form rather than Sutton’s craftsmanship. Ultimately there’s a lot of skill on display here and I was surprised to discover how many of the stories had not been previously published as they are of good quality. Based on this, I’m really looking forward to reading Sutton’s debut novel as the writing here promises good things.
The Verdict:
Pete Sutton’s debut short story collection of 31 tales based on the theme of counting magpies and encompassing the science fiction, crime, thriller, horror and fantasy genres provides far more joy than sorrow and comes with an excellent introduction from Paul Cornell.
Two for luck; (or mirth)
Three for a wedding; (or birth)
Five for silver,
Six for gold;
Seven for a secret,
Never to be told …
This “Deliciously Dark” collection of stories written by Pete Sutton, tells tales themed on the counting magpies.
Whether it is waking up to unmentionable sounds in Not Alone, or taking a trip to the land of stories in Five For Silver, the surprising use of a robot butler in I, Butler or competition winners It Falls and An Unexpected Return, these thirty one tales, ranging from tiny flash fiction to long stories of several thousand words, always entertain and unnerve.
Pete Sutton’s debut short story collection of 31 tales based on the theme of counting magpies and encompassing the science fiction, crime, thriller, horror and fantasy genres provides far more joy than sorrow and comes with an excellent introduction from Paul Cornell. Of the stories, my favourites were the following:
- ROADKILL is a creepy story about a family on a car journey where the younger brother starts counting the road kill on the road and a sinister gift is revealed. Although the ending is slightly telegraphed, the tension is well racked up and it lingered with me.
- SAILING BENEATH THE CITY follows an unnamed narrator as he navigates his skiff around an underground city, using drugs to erase memories he find too painful. It’s a sad story that also left me quite unsettled.
- IT’S ALWAYS THE END FOR SOMEONE is about a woman having to come to terms with her father’s impending death and trying to get in touch with her brother (an astronomer living in Chile) while strange weather events.
- BRUISED starts off innocently as a story about a woman who finds an unexplained bruise on her body but the marks escalate to a satisfying pay-off.
- THE INFECTION seems to be the chronicle of a survivor of a terrible inspection but there’s a neat twist at the end that’s genuinely chilling.
I don’t think that there are any duff stories in the collection but I have to say that the flash fiction stories (NOT ALONE and WAYMARKER in particular) didn’t work for me as well as the longer stories, but this is mainly due to my not being a fan of the form rather than Sutton’s craftsmanship. Ultimately there’s a lot of skill on display here and I was surprised to discover how many of the stories had not been previously published as they are of good quality. Based on this, I’m really looking forward to reading Sutton’s debut novel as the writing here promises good things.
The Verdict:
Pete Sutton’s debut short story collection of 31 tales based on the theme of counting magpies and encompassing the science fiction, crime, thriller, horror and fantasy genres provides far more joy than sorrow and comes with an excellent introduction from Paul Cornell.
