THE NEW DEATH AND OTHERS BY JAMES HUTCHINGS

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Death gets a roommate... 

An electronic Pope faces a difficult theological question... 

A wicked vizier makes a terrible bargain... 

44 stories. 19 poems. No whiny vampires. There's a thin line between genius and insanity, and James Hutchings has just crossed it - but from which direction?


This book is a kind of Anthology of short tales and poetry. I had a mixed reaction to the book, not being what I call a "Poetry Person" I didn't expect to like those parts of the book and it turned out that in some cases I loved the poetry the most! I really loved the Poem about "Weary Love", I also enjoyed the "Under The Pyramids" Poem. 
The short tales contained quite a bit of irony within them that I found different and yet enjoyed. I found the short tales to be like a cross between Aesop's Fables and Roald Dahl's Tales Of The Unexpected.
I specifically enjoyed "The Moon Said Sadly Through The Sky"
I don't want to give much away regarding all the individual tales but will talk about one in particular called "Monsters" which is basically all the monsters we tend to read about or see in movies such as, vampires, werewolves and witches etc, they are all gathered complaining that people don't seem to be as scared of them any more when a voice pops up saying people always seem scared of me. So the person who the voice belongs to is asked what/who he is and he replies simply "a foreigner" which i found quite ironic and humorous too. 
There is also another "Foreigner" type based tale called "The Enemy Within" 
It is a book you can pick up and read a little tale then put down until later, then pick up and read another tale. 
As I have said I did enjoy some of the tales and most of the Poetry, though some of the tales just didn't appeal to me at all, or seemed a bit too drawn out for me.
I loved the funny skeleton couple on the cover.


Available Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk £0.86 on kindle (a bargain!)