Review: Writer's Retweet by Piers Anthony

by MK French

Writer's Retweet is a collection of five stories. The first three stories are joined together to form the story "Experiment," about Paula and Bigelow. They're caught up in a field of illusions, and help each other to see through them. They try to figure out who is causing them to see such vivid illusions, and ultimately wind up not only helping the ones that caused the illusions but trapping the enemy.

"Dull Street Incident" involves a reporter, who is trying to find an interesting hook about a rumor on Dull Street. He stumbles across an incident that was rumored to occur, but as he digs into it, he decides that publishing the story would do more harm than good. Interestingly enough, none of the characters in this story have a given name.

"Strange Fruit" begins with an odd fruit that Edith finds in the apartment she moves into. When it sprouts, she plants it and discovers that the blossoms emit a vapor that gives her magic powers when she inhales it. This allows her to explore the world of Lusion, and try to determine which world she belongs to, and where she would serve a purpose.

Piers Anthony is extremely prolific and has written in many genres, mostly science fiction and fantasy. He has a great grasp of language, a wicked sense of humor in his writing, and makes the ordinary out to be extremely likable.

He has moved to Dreaming Big Publications in order to exert more control over his writing, as he explains in the forward to this book. In addition, the title refers to the fact that the stories in this collection were all originally published as tweets online. They were collected here with only minor polishing and editing to allow for the usual story format and speech. Perhaps this is why some of the language is far more stilted than his usual work, and it's even more difficult for me to feel a connection with the characters.

It's great to see how Piers can use a new medium to tell his stories, and you see the outline for a great story in some of them. I think the stories would be even better if they had been fleshed out into longer or more detailed stories, but these were still a lot of fun to read. "Strange Fruit" is probably the best one of the stories, perhaps because it's a little more self-contained and doesn't feel like it's missing characterization or being rushed to the ending.

Buy Writer's Retweet at Amazon

MK French, reviewer. Born and raised in New York City, M.K. started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband, three young children, and golden retriever.

Book info:

available formats: ebook and print (94 pages)

published: August 2016 by Dream Big Publications

ISBN13: 9781535513319

genre: fantasy, short stories

source: publisher

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