The Book Plank

Best Short Fiction of 2015 Short Fiction. Perhaps even more trickier than writing a full length book. One of the most obvious limiting factors is the page/word count. Some stories just fail utterly because they want to show to much or show to little and would have been better if turned in a novel. The stories below are the ones that just wowed me. Short, to the point and they pack a punch. First there is The Builder  which is published by the new Tor.com imprint. Daniel Polansky is no stranger for me. His books have always left a mark on my but The Builders has definitely left a strong one. Daniel is master of the creativity. Today I am Paul  is by far the most emotional story that I read this year. Martin L. Shoemaker created a emotional rollercoaster of a story. Powerful and heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. Paul Cornell who i know best for his Shadow Police series. Find a Way Home  is something completely different. It's part a boisterous adventure of a...

Find a Way Home by Paul Cornell [no synopsis provided] I know Paul Cornell best from his Shadow Police series, an dark urban fantasy story and his contribution to the Wild Cards universe of George R.R. Martin. So when I came across a completely different story of what I am used to from him, a middle-grade story I definitely needed to check it out. It was quite a surprise for me. Find a Way Home  is a great adventure story for everyone not just kids, coming to think of it, it does has some ties to that other alien that wanted to go home. Find a Way Home  start off with Alan Thompson who is currently up in an RAF control tower looking on the radar that covers part of Britain. All of a sudden he sees an erratic pattern on his radar, a pattern that he cannot link with an known airplane, bird or any other thing he knows. When he shows his superior about it, he is kindly remembered that he has a wife and kinds and Alan would do well to forget about what he saw. Actually th...

The Severed Streets by Paul Cornell, Shadow Police #2 Detective Inspector James Quill and his wily squad of supernatural crime-busters are coming to terms with their new-found second sight. They have a handle on the ghosts and ghouls, but the rest of London's supernatural underworld is still unknown. When a seemingly invisible murderer kills a top cabinet minister in unusual circumstances, the team knows this is a case for them.   Attempts to learn more about this mysterious figure are hampered when their chief detective goes missing, and a core member of their team becomes more focussed on bringing her father back to life than finding their missing detective. Soon the team seems to be falling apart as each member pursues their own interests. Throw in an ancient and vengeful spirit and a Rat King, and their mission soon becomes a trip to Hell - literally. Last year around this time as well I was firstly introduced to the writing of Paul Cornell and he first in the...

London Falling by Paul Cornell, London Falling #1 The dark is rising . . . Detective Inspector James Quill is about to complete the drugs bust of his career. Then his prize suspect Rob Toshack is murdered in custody. Furious, Quill pursues the investigation, co-opting intelligence analyst Lisa Ross and undercover cops Costain and Sefton.  But nothing about Toshack’s murder is normal. Toshack had struck a bargain with a vindictive entity, whose occult powers kept Toshack one step ahead of the law – until his luck ran out. Now, the team must find a 'suspect' who can bend space and time and alter memory itself. And they will kill again. As the group starts to see London’s sinister magic for themselves, they have two choices: panic or use their new abilities.  Then they must hunt a terrifying supernatural force the only way they know how: using police methods, equipment and tactics. But they must all learn the rules of this new game - and quickly. More than...