Also by Marcus Sakey:
- The Desert Here and the Desert Far Away
- The Days When You Were Anything Else
- Gravity and Need
- As Breathing
- No One
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Bookmark on DeliciousPublished: July 19, 2010
Words: 36583 (approximate)
Language: English
Ebook description
From the bestselling author of THE BLADE ITSELF and GOOD PEOPLE comes an anthology of seven short stories. Featuring both award-winners and previously unpublished works, these tales of men and women pushed to--and beyond--the ragged edge demonstrate why National Public Radio declared Sakey writes "crime drama for the 21st century."Tags
thriller, horror, mystery, short stories, award winners, clive cussler, sakey, lee child, the desert here and the desert far away, gravity and need, no one, the days when you were anything else, cobalt, the time before the last, as breathing, thriller award, macavity awardAvailable ebook reading formats
Single purchase gains access to all formats. How to download ebooks to e-reading devices and apps.| Format | Full Book | Sample First 19% |
|---|---|---|
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| PDF (good for reading on PC, or for home printing) | Buy | No sample available |
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| Plain Text (download) (flexible, but lacks much formatting) | Buy | No sample available |
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Reviews
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Review by:
BJ Starr
on Oct. 08, 2010 :
As a fan of short stories, I jumped on this collection!
I've read Sakey's novel "The Amateurs" and knew I would enjoy this collection. I'd also read a couple of the stories previously in other anthologies - "Sex, Thugs, and Rock & Roll" & "Thriller 2: Stories You Just Can't Put Down!"
This collection is only available here for the Kindle, which I don't own, but I was able to download it in a PDF form here at Smashwords (thank you).
The collection includes seven stories:
The Days When You Were Anything Else - a great story about a father's love for his daughter, no matter how strained their relationship
As Breathing - good story, great ending
Gravity and Need - a tale of love, choices and consequences with some serious twist
The Time Before Last - a one sentence story (literally)
No One - another gripping tale of love lost and regret
Cobalt - Y2K and dotcom millionaires
The Desert Here and the Desert Far Away - the best story in the collection, a very fine piece about the war over there, the choices made and the choices made at home, 5 star quality
There is also a bonus section after the stories, with a brief introduction by the author for each of his other four novels and excerpts from each. A sneak peek chapter at his next novel is provided as well.
The stories have a little bit of everything - love, grief, need and cover a wide range of topics - family, friends, Y2K and the things you do to survive.
I would like to see this collection and a few new stories added in put out in print, I think it would do well!
Enjoy~
(reviewed long after purchase)
Review by:
Naomi Johnson
on Aug. 23, 2010 :
(no rating)
Truly one of the wonderful things about digital self-publishing is that an author can collect and publish those short stories of his that would otherwise be unavailable to the reader. For example: Marcus Sakey's thrillers are well-known and widely praised, but until now his short stories have not garnered as much attention as they should. What a pity, because this collection reveals, perhaps even better than his novels, what a gifted and skilled writer Sakey is. There is an emotional core, a human heart beating at the center of each of these stories, a rhythm that resonates with the reader. Sakey hollows out a space in your soul for his characters where the reader can encompass the pain, the loss, and the lost.
In The Days When You Were Anything Else, meet a father who'll give his estranged daughter anything she asks for, even when she doesn't know or perhaps care about the repercussions.
As Breathing is a story about a hit man who gives up that life for the woman he loves, and goes into the heist business. But some things just come as natural as breathing.
Gravity and Need is one of the most extraordinary short stories I've read in a long while. It's about a couple who've always been close, closer than other couples. And equals in the relationship. Neither gives or demands more than the other. Then one of them has an accident, ends up in a wheelchair for life. And suddenly the relationship, and their lives, are out of balance. This story has a marvelous kind of serene tension, and an ending worthy of Serling or Hitchcock.
In the brilliant, Macavity-nominated The Desert Here and the Desert Far Away, Sakey uses the unusual second person POV to depict the rage, the isolation and detachment of a naive young soldier newly returned from one desert war to find himself drafted into another one at home.
Other stories in this collection include No One and Cobalt. Sakey also includes a work of micro-flash fiction, The Time Before the Last. Bonus materials include excerpts from each of Sakey's first four novels as well as a sneek peak at his next book, untitled for now, due in June, 2011.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)