Location: United States
Member Since: Oct. 17, 2010
Tim Knier
Books
This member has not published any books.Smashwords book reviews by Tim Knier
- The New Death and others
on Jan. 23, 2012
This compendium reads more like a writer’s sketchbook or workbook than a publishable portfolio. There is no central focus or thematic organization to this collection. The prose pieces are admirable by themselves, and they would create a charming—or chilling—world if assembled with more reason. The major flaw lies in the alternating poems that distract from any enjoyable flow. Presented in some peculiar typesetting, the prose pieces are parables wherein characters such as Fame, Fortune, Destiny, Famine, or Death discourse with considerable humor and struggle with moribund morals. Hutchings’ invented persons and places, such as the Mayajat, Telelee, or the Owls of Yib, smack of Douglas Adams’ wit and result in Rod Serling’s thaumaturgy. Humor within these pieces runs a gamut from risible malaprops to slangy puns to outright groaners. Simple jokes can lie in converting names (H.P.) Lovecraft to Hatecraft, or punishing Death with a life sentence, or detailing altruistic Sir Benjamin Envolent on the subject of benevolence. Footnotes are mere devices to insert additional or extended punnery. Humor can be tenuous and most comedy applied here reeks of locker-room chortles rather than consistent and polished routine. The verse constructions interrupting the prose waft more as doggerel than Dionysian craft. They seem student attempts and imitation than studied craft. The meters are inconsistent although considerable attention had been given to end-rhyme patterns. Still, the poetry is more loony than lyrical. Nevertheless and if the above-articulated points are ignored, Hutchings’ offerings could rise beyond being a mere pastiche of prosody. For the next two months, read one item while strumming a lute and pretend you are Scheherazade.
- Aesop Revisited- Book 1
on Feb. 02, 2012
This short compendium features a dozen fables attributed to Aesop plus two of the author’s original pieces. The tales are wrapped within a snarky Foreword and Afterword assigned to Aesop. The twelve fables, presented in slightly edited versions, are accompanied by parodies to each. The edited and/or expanded fables don’t introduce the topics; rather they serve as seminal spoofs for political barbs. Chapter 12’s “Frogs Asking for a King,” for instance, changes Aesop’s notion about being careful about requests into a Republican paean about reducing government. There are inconsistent attempts at humor throughout this novella. Chapter 3’s burlesque on “The “Bear and The Two Travelers”—advice about misfortune testing the dynamics of affection—changes into a couple stale renderings of jokes poking fun at religion as well as politics. Necessity is the mother of invention in Chapter 4’s “The Crow and The Pitcher,” but that changes into a weak gag about stupor us air travel. Erway’s two original tales smack more of political diatribe than moral guidance. The overall impression here is that the author is either prepping for a stand-up routine or working out a monologue for a political roast. The ebook’s title suggests some type of reworking old morals into modern versions of ethics. What we get are socio-political lampoons. Considering that there are a couple hundred fables attributed to Aesop, the author has a tremendous volume to mine and he has not even scratched the surface. Either he rushed to get his preliminary pieces into print or—like the tale of “The Old Woman and Her Maids”—he exhausted his own cunning. The positive impact of this short publication should inspire the reader to revisit and savor Aesop’s tales in their original forms.