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Oli Jacobs – Filmic Cuts II: Luchador Monkey Crisis | Review

Title: Filmic Cuts II: Luchador Monkey Crisis

Author: Oli Jacobs

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 152

Rating 3.5/5

I think I went into this one with my hopes artificially high because of how good Filmic Cuts I was (it made my top books of the quarter). In that collection, every story was a hit for me, whereas in this one there were a couple of misses. But that’s normal for a collection of short stories.

What I did like was the way that this one built on the first collection by continuing to play with styles and to experiment with genres. Jacobs mixed some things together that I’d never even thought of, and for the most part, I thought they worked pretty well. So while this wasn’t quite as good as the first Filmic Cuts book, it was still pretty good.

Click here to buy Filmic Cuts II: Luchador Monkey Crisis.

Stephen King – Roadwork | Review

Title: Roadwork

Author: Stephen King

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 264

Rating: 4/5

This is one of those stories that took a while to grow on, but which once I was invested, I really enjoyed. My only real criticism that I’d have for it is that I think it might have worked better if it had been called “Demolition”, but that’s just a matter of personal taste.

I think what King does well here is that he manages to create a sort of antihero that we’re all secretly rooting for because he symbolises the fight between us as individuals and the big companies that dominate our modern lives. It’s arguably more relevant now than it was when it was first published in the 1970s.

I did read this one a little slower than the other stories in the bound up edition of The Bachman Books that I have, and I think this one and Rage are slightly weaker than The Long Walk and The Running Man, the other two. Either way, though, I’d definitely say that it’s worth checking out.

It’s also interesting because Bachman and King have two different writing styles, despite the fact that the two of them are the same person. It’s interesting how King used his alter ego to explore a different style of writing and I think that the Bachman books as a whole are definitely worth reading whether you’re a King fan or not. Roadwork isn’t the best of them, but it is still a damn good entry into King’s epic bibliography.