Review of Tales from the Gray Area

[GinaMorry]

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

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4 out of 4 stars

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Dr. Priya Patel found that 108 babies were born on the same day with strange birthmarks that resembled letters of the Indus Valley Script. Could this mean reincarnation? It is up to Priya and her friends to decipher the Indus Valley tablets to find out. Dr. Stewart was aboard a research vessel when thousands of octopus-like creatures rose from the depths of the ocean and killed two crew members. The ship barely made it back to shore. It is only a matter of time before the creatures evolve to live on land and take over.

Dwayne, one of Lucifer’s Originals was given a vacation from Hell. He was put in the body of a senator. How will living a mortal life change one of the Fallen Angels? Ernie, an old man from a small town, and his friend discovered ancient bones that turned part of the town into an archaeological digging site. What will the discoveries say about the history of the town? Marika is a powerful healer and fortune teller. She is in hiding to protect herself and her children from the people that want to use her powers. They are closing in on her and she needs to find someone that she can trust to help her family. Clatu is an alien that goes to a rehab facility on Earth to recover from being poisoned by his enemies. Joshua is an army lieutenant who was rescued by Inuits in a secret valley in Canada. The story of their leader is one that nobody outside the valley would believe.

Tales from the Gray Area by Curtis Stephen Burdick is a collection of seven novellas. Each story transports the reader to a different realm. He starts with reincarnation of people from an ancient civilization, then goes to sea monsters, then angels and demons, then archaeology, then fortune tellers, and then finishes with aliens. Curtis Stephen Burdick wrote about almost every sci-fi/fantasy theme I can think of. All seven novellas captured my attention with my favorite one being about reincarnation. Each one was filled with mystery and suspense.

The most intense part of the stories were the endings. The author ended them with very dramatic cliffhangers. I would say that this is something that I didn’t like, but that would defeat the purpose of this being a collection of short stories. Most of them were interesting enough to stand alone as individual novels, but the cliffhangers at the end were a crucial part of the experience of reading this collection. Also, I liked how the author included some humor. For example, an alien that was poisoned by enemies went to a rehab facility to get over his addiction to the poison.

I give Tales of the Gray Area 4 out of 4 stars for the reasons listed above. I enjoyed reading all the stories and the endings left me wanting to know more. Also, the book was very well edited.

I recommend this book to readers over the age of 17 that enjoy sci-fi/fantasy and mystery books, especially those who like short stories. The age restriction is because of strong language. The book does include talk about reincarnation and Lucifer and his Originals, so some people may be sensitive to this book based on religious beliefs.

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Tales from the Gray Area
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[Satwik Mohanty]

It's true, the stories were quite fascinating but the cliffhangers left me a bit frustrated. I had to think about the rest of the story by myself. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.