Scott Overton, No Walls Publishing, 2018.
371 pp.
Reviewed by Robert Runté (Reprinted from Neo-Opsis #30, Fall, 2019.)
Until one becomes a household name, getting a collection published is almost impossible, so it's no surprise when authors end up self-publishing their own short stories. The lack of a publisher's endorsement, though, makes it harder for readers to guess whether the collection is worth buying, or yet another exercise in vanity self-publication.
Happily, Scott Overton is the real deal. A third of the stories included in this volume have been previously published by respectable venues like NeoOpsis and On Spec and none of the stories are less than professional quality. That leaves the somewhat tougher question of whether they will be stories the reader will enjoy.
As one might suspect from the inclusion of "technology" in the subtitle, Overton is an 'ideas' man, where the majority of his stories are based on, and written around, cutting edge concepts from various sciences. It's obvious that Scott has done his research, and some of the science is pretty intriguing, but these are not character-driven stories. Indeed, the characters sometimes appear as intrusions into what should remain a purely idea-driven story. It occasionally feels like Scott is trying to up the characterization by giving us unnecessary and distracting backstory. On the desert world of "Marathon of the Devil", for example, I don't really care about the character's inappropriate feelings for his too-hot boss, or that another boss died of cancer. The man-against-desert theme and Scott's ideas would have been sufficient, without artificially inserting redundant inter-personal conflicts.
Which is not to say Scott can't do character. "A Taste of Time" is my favorite story in the collection, and it's at the opposite end of that spectrum: a character study which paints a time and a place, and perhaps makes a philosophical point…but no technology, no science. My second favorite story is a sociologically-themed account of an investigative reporter poking around a suspect democracy. That story's only short-coming was an early line that telegraphed the 'surprise' ending, but even seeing that cliché-ending coming, it was a charming commentary on contemporary politics.
Some of the stories are refreshingly original, some a bit 'seen-it-before'. There were no really outstanding stories that make the book a must-buy, but neither were there any stinkers. (Well, there is one outrageous pun for which Scott needs to be slapped with a dead mackerel, but it's remotely possible I even laughed a tiny bit at that one.)
This volume is an omnibus print edition of stories previously released as a series of ebooks. At 377 pages, Scott’s kept the price a reasonable $20.65, but I’d recommend buying one of the $2.99 ebooks first, to get a sense of Scott’s style, and more importantly, because Scott’s stories are perfect read-on-your-phone material while standing in line or sitting through a commute. Hopefully, Scott will bring out an ebook edition of the omnibus too, but even if you have to buy them all at $2.99 a time, worthwhile phone-reading.
[I am reprinting some old reviews here so that I can link to them on my list of reviews. Other of my reviews which originally appeared in Neo-Opsis can be found here.]
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