Charity Heller Hogge

This is an anthology of 20 stories of speculative fiction on the theme of rock-and-roll. As a collection, they have a fairly literary feel. Half of the stories were first person, which is pretty unusual. I'd say most of the stories were in the horror genre. To be honest, even though I love speculative fiction, I'm not big on rock-and-roll. I have a lot more classical in my music collection. I've been to operas, ballets and classical concerts--and no rock concerts. So that might have affected my reaction to many a story saturated with drugs, sex and rock-and-roll. On the other hand, I also have a reason that biases me for this collection. One of the stories, "Power Chord," is by my good friend Gerri Leen and I was a first reader ("beta") for that story. And yes, I love it. Let's just say it's a riff on the theme, Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company. And it's humor--which I think there isn't enough of in speculative fiction. It's no accident one of my other favorites was the other humor piece in the collection. To be honest, there were a few stories I did hate here. One story grated against my moral sensibilities, seeming to endorse the idea it's alright to decide to steal life from the "unworthy." Another story played into a stereotype I really hate, and another struck me as paranoid and politically correct. But yes, there were some stories I really liked here--and some I loved. Besides my friend's story, these were the five stories that stood out most to me, in the order they appeared:

Harold Gross, "The Wriggling Death" - it did stand out, it is memorable, yet in the end I'm not sure I do like it. It's so deeply weird, creepy and even squicky. Yet I'm listing it because it is one story I expect will linger in my mind.

Rhonda Eudaly, "Burnin' Love" - Bio-engineered sentient dinosaurs singing karaoke to Elvis tracks! Yes, this was the other humor piece, and very fun.

Lyn C. A. Gardner, "Paying Tribute" - In the end a rather upbeat story about a man fighting for his identity.

Gillian Palmer, "Subterranean Blues" - This was one of those first person pieces, and I liked the voice, the protagonist, and the way she handled the time warp premise.

Steve Libbey, "Interstellar Overdrive" - Absolutely loved this one. It's the longest piece in the book, the one novella at over 60 pages--but worth the space in the book and the read. It's a bit slow in the first half, though held me with its sense of time and place (London of 1968--John Lennon even has a cameo.) It picks up considerably in the next half though and left me with a big smile. A winner.… (plus d'informations)