Conference with the Dead

Terry Lamsley favors eeriness over blood n' guts, which I prefer... generally. This is a collection of tales; about a dozen or so. Some stories were absolutely fantastic, whereas others didn't really do it for me, but that's common in collections. They can't all be winners.

There is one story, "The Break", that was fascinatingly strange and bizarre. I loved the way he described the setting and atmosphere. For example, I've never read a story where the author made a seagull seem scary! That takes talent! However, there was a turning point in the story where some characters did something that made me say out loud, "Uh oh. I think these characters are going to turn out to be vampires." It was so great up until that point. The vampire show more angle wasn't even needed. He totally torpedoed a potentially great story by unnecessarily adding in a tired cliché.

The really good stories, like "Walking the Dog", more than made up for the weak ones making the collection overall above average. Not stunning, but good. show less