Short Story Review: Necromancer and Greydeere

I have this condition. I wish I knew the name of it. Diagnoses are important. But I know many other bookaholics have it, so at least I’m normal. Right? What happens is... I read a book that I love, so then I go find everything else that author has written. This has happened many times with authors such as Sarah Dessen, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Charles de Lint.

As you all know, I recently read WE HEAR THE DEAD by Dianne K Salerni. And I loved it so much that I’m giving a copy away here. Check back on Sunday for the winner announcement and an interview with the fantastic author. And while I'm plugging cool stuff, you have until tomorrow to enter Dianne's contest on her blog.

While playing around on Dianne K Salerni’s website I found out that she had written two short stories. “Necromancer” in VISIONS Volume 1 and “Greydeere” in VISIONS, Volume 2. Both are published by Strider Nolan. If you click on the titles you can read excerpts in pdf format.

I received VISIONS Volume 1 on Monday. Why does Amazon ship books separately even when you click on “group items together”? Anyway, I cracked it open that night to read “Necromancer”. And I feel the need to point out that this is one of the greatest covers ever.

VISIONS was referred to as “a modern pulp magazine”. I have to admit that I had no idea what that meant. So I turned to the ever faithful Wikipedia and read up on the history.

“Necromancer” fits in the horror/occult genre, as you could probably guess from the title. It was fantastic, very creepy. And what I loved most about it was that I thought I knew what was going to happen, but… I was wrong. I love being wrong when it comes to this. Figuring out the ending in the beginning is never any fun. I’m not crazy about Miranda, the main character. She made some decisions that I consider unethical. Rakhoum was a creepy old man, but I enjoyed his scenes. He came to the library Miranda worked at in search of ancient Persian texts on sorcery and necromancy, but remember “raising the dead is impossible.”

Based on the synopses of both stories, I was sure I’d like “Necromancer” better. Again… wrong… “Greydeere” was even more amazing! It fits into the fantasy/sword and sorcery genre, however, there was little of that in there. The ninth Marquis was mysterious and tricky… or so he thought. And Evan was so sweet. *little crush* But the character that fascinated me most was Greydeere. The little surprise Dianne included early on made this character that much more interesting. Can’t say more or it would give it away. There was some major sexual tension I this story, and I was never sure who I could trust or not trust. But the “legend of Greydeere reached new heights”, and I hope we see more of this thief.

I can only say how much I loved Dianne's selections, as I haven't gotten to the others, but I can say that between what I've read, and what I've heard, these books are must-haves.