Review: Hitching to Aurora By Jay Lake

Jay Lake's humorous short story Hitching to Aurora chronicles (very briefly) Ross Weil's attempts to leave the drug-dealing business and the perils and possible benefits of picking up midget hitch-hikers. Fast-paced and well-plotted, this story is short enough for a coffee break without feeling rushed or sparse.

Jay Lake is most well known for his science-fiction, fantasy and horror novels, many of which have been recognised with nominations and awards, and this short story ably blends sci-fi with humour and true-history elements. While Ross is the central focus, his red-neck pursuers and the aliens he encounters are all convincingly described through quick character sketches.

At under 5000 words for 99 cents you may think that you are better off buying a longer novel for the same price but this short story by an experienced author is, in my opinion, worth the cost and will allow you to consider whether Lake's fast-paced, graphic style is for you.    

Stats
Title: Hitching to Aurora
Author: Jay Lake
Style: Sci-Fi/ Humour
Price: $0.99
Date of publication: February 21, 2011
Length: < 5000
Can be found at:
Smashwords (Kindle, ePub, PDF, RTF, LRF, PDB, Plain Text & Online)
Amazon (Kindle)

Review: Crime Always Pays: A Screwball Noir by Declan Burke

Crime Always Pays: A Screwball Noir is a fun, yet complex novel, which definitely falls under the heading of screwball, but not always 'noir'. There are many of the characters you would expect of that genre though, including cops and robbers, some crooked and some with hearts of gold, there are mysterious dames and shady lawyers, and a crazed wolf thrown in for good measure.


Burke's novel starts some time after a confrontation between many of the main characters, leaving some injured and all feeling like they are owed something, usually money, by one or more of the others. The large cast of characters each get their turn in the spotlight, with the narration jumping from one to another, often in the middle of an event. While this does create tension and interest, until I had a clear grasp of the characters and their relationships I found it confusing and at times frustrating.


Burke does an excellent job of quickly outlining each character and then slowly revealing further details about their past, their motives and giving hints at important aspects of their personalities which come to bear in future. The dialogue is humorous and generally realistic but becomes over the top at some points, much like many of Guy Richie's films, which seems to be a common and accurate comparison. Even though many of the characters are amoral, violent, or just greedy, and each has reason to hate one or more of the others, they are all easily likeable and by the end of the novel you want all of them to get what they want, even when that seems impossible.


There were many aspects of Crime Always Pays which I greatly enjoyed and only a few things which I found distracted me from the story and characters. If this is your 'go-to' genre than you may find the jumps between characters, the complex web of relationships, and the over the top gangster slang easier to get past than I did. Once I overcame these very minor irritations I became engrossed in the events of the novel, the characters, and the questions posed by many of the characters regarding morality. The unique mixture of a fun cops and robbers caper and the complex plot and character relationships makes this novel highly enjoyable and worth a read, or even a re-read.


Stats
Title: Crime Always Pays: A Screwball Noir
Author: Declan Burke
Style: Humour / Crime / Road Trip
Price: $1.99
Date of publication: March 30, 2010
Length: 80,000+
Can be found at:
Smashwords (Kindle, ePub, PDF, RTF, LRF, PDB, Plain Text & Online)