Thursday, February 10, 2011

The Voice / William L.K.

Genre: Sci-Fi /Horror/Suspense

Approximate word count:

The Voice (Novelette) 7,500-8000 words.

Two bonus short stories are 900 and 2,200 words.

Availability Kindle: YES            Nook: NO              DTB: NO

Author:

During the week, William L.K. writes science fiction and fantasy. On the weekend, he works as a professional musician where, among other things, you could find him working a piano bar. Just don’t ask him to play a Duran Duran song. He doesn’t know any. He’s written and produced several successful plays and musicals. In addition to this novelette, he has two novels, The Eye of the Storm and Barok’s Exodus, the first books in his Stritonoly Chronicles series available for your Kindle. None of his books are currently available for the Nook. William L. K. lives with his wife and two children in the suburbs of New York City.

Description:

A man finds himself floating offshore looking back at a destroyed city. How did he get here and who is he?

Note: The Voice is a novelette. A new, special edition containing two bonus short stories is now being sold in the Amazon store. (For the curious, Wikipedia defines a novelette as between 7,500 and 17,499 words with a novella being 17,500-40,000 words. This definition is the one used by The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America for classification in awarding their Nebula awards. Some definitions vary.)

Appraisal:

The Voice sets the scene in the prologue with, as the description says, a man floating offshore with his mind a blank. The main portion of the book takes us back three days to the events leading up to the prologue and continues with what happens afterward. As we see events through the eyes of the narrator, what happens and what it means are gradually revealed to both him and us. The story is fast moving, yet satisfying in that it keeps you in suspense and guessing, trying to unravel what has happened. Saying much more will only turn this review into a spoiler. A short, yet still very satisfying read.

The bonus short stories are horror rather than sci-fi. The first, Shotgun, is short, but with a wicked twist. Both are fun reads.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** 4 Stars

2 comments:

Kippoe said...

I enjoyed it.

William L.K. said...

Thank You, Kippoe!
I'm glad you enjoyed it!