Review of Tales from the Gray Area

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[Following is a volunteer review of "Tales from the Gray Area" by Curtis Stephen Burdick.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Written by Curtis Stephen Burdick, Tales from the Gray Area is a collection of novellas that go over various aspects of sci-fi, fantasy, and historical fiction. The book contains seven tales, each revolving around different themes of sci-fi. As the title suggests, the tales are from the ‘gray area’, as in, events or occurrences that cannot fully be explained. It feels as if the mystery of how these particular events took place is the charm of this book.

There are seven stories in total, namely- Reincarnated, Bottom Dwellers, Vacation from Hell, Discoveries at River View, Sorceress, Alien Addiction, and Sanctuary. The names themselves give away the events that happen to occur in the tales. Although the stories are very revealing and give away ample information, there still remain mysteries about them all that tend to cloud the brain of a reader. What prophecy was being talked about and how was it possible to come true? How did the octopus-like creatures evolve? How was the biggest fossil ever discovered with human skulls? These are just to mention a few of the important mysteries in the tales. These tales compel a normal person to ponder over the huge expanse of possibilities of such events occurring and their possible reasons.

Coming to technicalities, I have to appreciate the writer for his versatile style of writing. He has taken on appropriate writing styles to fit the need of the plot. On a similar note, each tale is very much different than the other. It doesn’t feel like a particular strategy was followed repeatedly while writing the plots. I sincerely appreciate the writer for his versatility. A lot of the scenes are described in a movie-like manner, which really helps to visualise the plot. The writer mentions that his inspiration came from watching episodes on TV that had the potential to become a full-blown series on their own. This same notion can be felt by the readers as each tale has the superb potential to be an entire novel.

Although being a great written work, there are some minute aspects that bring it down a couple of notches. Firstly, there are missing or misplaced start or end quotes in dialogues that show that the book hasn’t been professionally edited. As much as I appreciate the detailed information given, in some places, the sentences felt forcibly stuffed. As an example, consider this phrase from the book- ‘Dawn had engulfed the horizon, was quickly taking over the sky to become day, and it was time to wake her assistants, Lisa Broullette, a twenty-eight-year-old American, deep ocean thermocline scientist, and Mark Larsen, a young research intern from New Zealand finishing up his masters and desperately in need of sea-time.’ Sometimes, the pace of the plot seems to have completely stopped or moved too fast. This draws away from the pleasure of reading such interesting tales. The book also contains a decent amount of profanity and sexual content.

Considering all the above points, I am rating Tales from the Gray Area three out of four stars. I enjoyed the plots and concepts; however, I did find difficulties in enjoying the book as a whole. The differing paces in each tale, the pauses, and sometimes, the skips dwindled my enjoyment. This made me take down one star. The book would be a great read for fantasy and sci-fi lovers, especially for those who enjoy novellas.

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Tales from the Gray Area
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