Sunday, October 26, 2008

review: The Ant King and other Stories by Benjamin Rosenbaum


The Ant King and other stories
Benjamin Rosenbaum
224 p.p.
Small Beer Press

Benjamin Rosenbaum is certainly no stranger to Beam Me Up. I have featured several of his truly entertaining short fiction in earlier programs. Thought provoking stories like "Start the Clock" and "The House Beyond Your Sky" have entertained me as well as Beam Me Up's listeners. With both of these excellent pieces of fiction included in the publication, sandwiched in between wildly funny urban fantasy "The Ant King" and the introspective science fiction offering "A Siege of Cranes" and you can see that Rosenbaum has pulled out the stops and plans to give you a tour de force look into how his fiction operates. It is clear that there were no thematic rules set. Where Start the Clock is a disturbing science fiction piece, stories like Red Leather Tassels is a technicolor dream sequence that defies classification. Many of the stories stand well on their own, however some are tied together is a type of centralized thread. Some stories are larger than life, yet others illuminate a single moment. The Ant King and other stories could be described as a resume of Rosenbaum's talents - however for me it was like the desert cart, each amazing bite building on what came before and promising so much more in the future.

If your Science Fiction tastes lean a bit toward the Speculative, I can promise you will not be disapointed with The Ant King and other Stories.

<- to purchase this book -> - <- purchase the ebook and save a tree ->

<- free download pdf -> (other formats are available)

<- Benjamin Rosembaum's web page ->


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