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Shards
Like a box of lost and found, Shards is a dive into fiction and all its wonderful edges. Tales of life and of death; war and poetry; monsters with fangs and creatures with claws; the weird and the woeful; the realism and the obscure. It is a journey into the back of a brain, deep in the tunnels of imagination, where the most unusual and brilliant and terrible ideas are born.
An anthology of twenty brand-new works of short-fiction: Science-fiction, Weird, Abstract, Fantasy, Dystopian, Contemporary, Horror, War & More. A love-letter to the written word.
"Superb, really makes you think" - Gareth Wiles (Author of The Comic-Con Killer)
An anthology of twenty brand-new works of short-fiction: Science-fiction, Weird, Abstract, Fantasy, Dystopian, Contemporary, Horror, War & More. A love-letter to the written word.
"Superb, really makes you think" - Gareth Wiles (Author of The Comic-Con Killer)
214 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2015
32 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 21, 2015
I received this book from the author for an honest review. I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. Not being someone who reads them often it was great to flit between different genres which I felt kept my interest. My favourite story in the collection is Varg the unfortunate which I definitely feel would make a very interesting novel should the author ever turn it in to one I would definitely pick it up. I find the short story medium a difficult one in general preferring novels but this is a solid read and one I would recommend to anyone who is interesting in a collection containing an eclectic mix of genres and some beautifully at times poetic language.
September 28, 2015
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is a short story anthology that crosses several genres, full of vivid glimpses of worlds that are rich in both character and detail.
As I do not often read short stories I did not know what to expect going into this and found myself pleasantly surprised as I turned each page. Not all of the genres appealed to me, but I was still able to appreciate the stories for their writing and the way they were brought to life, while others captured my attention from start to finish.
This lead to times where I wished the stories would go on longer; as soon as I grew to understand the characters the stories came to an end. Others, however, ended on a perfect note. My favourites in particular, to name a few, were Varg the Unfortunate, Saturday Night Movie Massacre and Waking Moment. Also, there is a very peculiar door knob contained within this book that everyone should take the time to meet!
I have always appreciated great titles and there were certainly a few apt ones dished out that left me curious to find out more. Overall, it was a great read, and Chris is definitely a writer to keep an eye out for.
A more detailed review will be up on my channel soon!
This is a short story anthology that crosses several genres, full of vivid glimpses of worlds that are rich in both character and detail.
As I do not often read short stories I did not know what to expect going into this and found myself pleasantly surprised as I turned each page. Not all of the genres appealed to me, but I was still able to appreciate the stories for their writing and the way they were brought to life, while others captured my attention from start to finish.
This lead to times where I wished the stories would go on longer; as soon as I grew to understand the characters the stories came to an end. Others, however, ended on a perfect note. My favourites in particular, to name a few, were Varg the Unfortunate, Saturday Night Movie Massacre and Waking Moment. Also, there is a very peculiar door knob contained within this book that everyone should take the time to meet!
I have always appreciated great titles and there were certainly a few apt ones dished out that left me curious to find out more. Overall, it was a great read, and Chris is definitely a writer to keep an eye out for.
A more detailed review will be up on my channel soon!
September 20, 2015
First of all – how amazing is the cover – shards of glass intertwined. I love it!
You may be wondering why the anthology is called Shards and to put it simply, each short story is a Shard where the author, C J Cummings, lists the key themes for that shard. There are a number of different themes throughout and the stories span the genres including science fiction, dystopian and contemporary.
The first story is actually one of my favourites – The Light – as it tells the story of a father and son fishing trip where everything changes. I found this a great example of the authors writing and ability to weave an interesting tale.
Another tale he told, Soil In The Eye, actually focused on a major fear of mine – being buried alive – and it is a credit to the authors writing that I actually started to feel a little panicky and almost as if my breath was restricted. The story was written so vividly – you could almost imagine that it was you stuck there yourself.
My favourite shard overall had to be This One House. Fantastical and totally unique in its concept, I loved how the story was told over the time by the narrator, a narrator that you probably wouldn’t expect. They say you don’t ever see what goes on behind closed doors – but what if part of the door itself does? This was written so beautifully and I loved the ending of this story in particular, I felt it was very fitting.
Overall, this is a great collection of short stories or ‘shards’. With something for everyone, it is easy to get lost within the writing and vividly imagine that you are there within the story yourself. The stories were beautifully written and even if you aren’t normally a short story reader, I would urge you to give this a go. Absolutely fantastic.
You may be wondering why the anthology is called Shards and to put it simply, each short story is a Shard where the author, C J Cummings, lists the key themes for that shard. There are a number of different themes throughout and the stories span the genres including science fiction, dystopian and contemporary.
The first story is actually one of my favourites – The Light – as it tells the story of a father and son fishing trip where everything changes. I found this a great example of the authors writing and ability to weave an interesting tale.
Another tale he told, Soil In The Eye, actually focused on a major fear of mine – being buried alive – and it is a credit to the authors writing that I actually started to feel a little panicky and almost as if my breath was restricted. The story was written so vividly – you could almost imagine that it was you stuck there yourself.
My favourite shard overall had to be This One House. Fantastical and totally unique in its concept, I loved how the story was told over the time by the narrator, a narrator that you probably wouldn’t expect. They say you don’t ever see what goes on behind closed doors – but what if part of the door itself does? This was written so beautifully and I loved the ending of this story in particular, I felt it was very fitting.
Overall, this is a great collection of short stories or ‘shards’. With something for everyone, it is easy to get lost within the writing and vividly imagine that you are there within the story yourself. The stories were beautifully written and even if you aren’t normally a short story reader, I would urge you to give this a go. Absolutely fantastic.
September 14, 2015
Okay, so this might seem a little egotistical and odd, but let me explain. I have total faith in this book and I put months of work and effort into creating a collection of short stories that explored a variety of genres in the world of fiction. I tried my hand at things I had never tried my hand at before, and I worked on stories that were part of areas I have previously written in. This is a passionate and heart-on-sleeve piece of work that I am proud of and hope people will check out. I have to give it five stars, because if I don't believe in my work then why should I expect anyone else to?
Please check out Shards and if you do, let me know, I'd love to know your thoughts.
Please check out Shards and if you do, let me know, I'd love to know your thoughts.
October 14, 2015
Gah some of these stories are real stunners. The anthology is total mix of different stories and contexts. The first few are very subtle stories There are subject matters than appear once or twice, especially the writing of intense emotion. ‘A busy doorway’ is a beautiful tale of two people who are saying goodbye at an airport the emotion that the author manages to get into the tale and the use of words to give the characters description despite it being a very short tale is skilfully done.
The ending was very endearing and difficult to read but it just summed it all up without tying it up in a really finished bow. Delightful. ‘Just Right,’ was another romantic tale that just fell into the readers hands; the author has a definite way of writing to really tell a tale with the characters without needing long descriptions or lots of backstory. It’s a very sweet tale and one I really enjoyed. The two characters continually meet at different coincidental opportunities and although maybe a little twee I thought it was beautiful.
Some of the stories also take on a darker turn especially ‘Soil in the eye,’ is a very dark tale, it tells of a person being buried alive but the emotion driven into the story makes you feel as if you’re there with quaking in the box, feeling the oxygen slowly slip away. More subtle stories including ‘Facing the right’ and ‘The Light’ tend to be more soft stories revolving around the telling of the tale rather than telling a story. Due to them being so short they do have an abstract feel but for me I thought it just added to the authors ability to weave such delicate stories. This is shown most in the tale ‘The Still Bridge,’ it’s so atmospheric and different to the earlier tales I thought it was beautifully done.
My favourite of the tales I think was ‘The Aching Vengeance’ one of the stories towards the start of the anthology. The tale shows an old cowboy who has been searching for his daughter for many many years and after wandering into a bar it all starts to get a bit messy. The story shows Cumming’s ability to string together a powerful tale in only a couple of pages and the story really stayed with me. It’s a very dark tale but one I thought was really intriguing.
There were a couple of stories that did fall short, ‘Sunday Night Movie Massacre,’ felt a little rushed and didn’t fully explore enough into the monster to make me believe in such a tale, and the story before ‘The Town Built on tragedy’ didn’t give enough to end the tale and make a lot of sense to the reader. I think it was a really interesting start but there wasn’t quite enough to make me feel that, oh wow feeling. There are a few near misses but most of spot on.
Overall this is a really brilliant complation of different tales with different contexts, characters and stories. Some of the stories I felt had too much content to be tied up too quickly and lacked a little more information but I thought the experimentation with style and genre was really exciting. I’ve just seen the author has another book and I might just have to give that a good. If you like short stories or want to read some really superb ones, this is a compilation for you.
The ending was very endearing and difficult to read but it just summed it all up without tying it up in a really finished bow. Delightful. ‘Just Right,’ was another romantic tale that just fell into the readers hands; the author has a definite way of writing to really tell a tale with the characters without needing long descriptions or lots of backstory. It’s a very sweet tale and one I really enjoyed. The two characters continually meet at different coincidental opportunities and although maybe a little twee I thought it was beautiful.
Some of the stories also take on a darker turn especially ‘Soil in the eye,’ is a very dark tale, it tells of a person being buried alive but the emotion driven into the story makes you feel as if you’re there with quaking in the box, feeling the oxygen slowly slip away. More subtle stories including ‘Facing the right’ and ‘The Light’ tend to be more soft stories revolving around the telling of the tale rather than telling a story. Due to them being so short they do have an abstract feel but for me I thought it just added to the authors ability to weave such delicate stories. This is shown most in the tale ‘The Still Bridge,’ it’s so atmospheric and different to the earlier tales I thought it was beautifully done.
My favourite of the tales I think was ‘The Aching Vengeance’ one of the stories towards the start of the anthology. The tale shows an old cowboy who has been searching for his daughter for many many years and after wandering into a bar it all starts to get a bit messy. The story shows Cumming’s ability to string together a powerful tale in only a couple of pages and the story really stayed with me. It’s a very dark tale but one I thought was really intriguing.
There were a couple of stories that did fall short, ‘Sunday Night Movie Massacre,’ felt a little rushed and didn’t fully explore enough into the monster to make me believe in such a tale, and the story before ‘The Town Built on tragedy’ didn’t give enough to end the tale and make a lot of sense to the reader. I think it was a really interesting start but there wasn’t quite enough to make me feel that, oh wow feeling. There are a few near misses but most of spot on.
Overall this is a really brilliant complation of different tales with different contexts, characters and stories. Some of the stories I felt had too much content to be tied up too quickly and lacked a little more information but I thought the experimentation with style and genre was really exciting. I’ve just seen the author has another book and I might just have to give that a good. If you like short stories or want to read some really superb ones, this is a compilation for you.
October 2, 2015
I received this book in exchange for an honest review. I think the author has a great talent for writing. It felt very poetic, fluid and easy to follow. However, some of the stories in this book felt incomplete, like they lacked closure to the story almost like they were the first chapter of a book. Even though they are short stories they still need to have some closure in my opinion. There were others that felt more like poetry, and had this been a book of poetry they would have fit very well.
There were several of the stories that I enjoyed as well. Stories such as Just Right, The Aching Vengeance, Soil in the Eye, Saturday Night Movie Massacre, Pieces and This One House. Those felt a lot more complete to me and were quite entertaining. Some even had a creepy element to them that I also enjoyed. Because of the poetic writing style, the fluidity and those few stories that I did enjoy, I am giving this 3.5 stars.
There were several of the stories that I enjoyed as well. Stories such as Just Right, The Aching Vengeance, Soil in the Eye, Saturday Night Movie Massacre, Pieces and This One House. Those felt a lot more complete to me and were quite entertaining. Some even had a creepy element to them that I also enjoyed. Because of the poetic writing style, the fluidity and those few stories that I did enjoy, I am giving this 3.5 stars.
November 24, 2015
There is no denying that C.J Cummings is an absolutely amazing writer. The way he tells a story is beautiful. Going into this books I knew there were going to be stories I would enjoy more than others, it's only natural with a short story anthology. That being said, even the ones I didn't enjoy as much were still beautifully written and that alone deserves credit. My absolute favorite story of the bunch is definitely "This one house". One of the most beautiful things I've ever read. With the variations in genres I think there is something here everyone is bound to fall in love with.
September 3, 2015
Chris gave me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. It's a collection of short stories, some weird fiction, some bizarro, some abstract etc. It's an interesting collection and some of the stories were really great. Some of the stories could have used more polish and maybe character development, but in others Cummings really played to his strengths and created haunting settings and played with them. I think if he keeps working he could write some really great short stories in the future. I liked Birdsnatch, his novella collaboration more, but this work is good as well.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews