A Shrewdness of Swindlers — DeAnna Knippling

1 August 2021 By 5t4n5

DeAnna sent me an ARC to have a read and comment on, with the caveat that she still had some polishing to do. So yes, there were a few things that still needed some work with the copy i received, but all in all, it was a very enjoyable read. And then, having sent my notes to Deanna, she then sent me an updated version back with my little moans all sorted out.

What i liked most-est about this book is that instead of the the usual bunch of short stories thrown randomly into a collection, DeAnna has taken time to tie all these stories together with a frame story. Each short is given its own character to tell it in a magical, story contest in a downstairs backroom of a speakeasy: which just happens to be organised by one of the Fae who we’re told really like to collect human stories.

But one of the story tellers is murdered just before the contest with the suspect most probably being one of the tellers at the table, which makes things more interesting.

Best of all, it’s a good collection of characters and a good collection of stories for you to enjoy, with a prize at the end for the best story.

DeAnna’s Page

#vampires #scifi #fantasy #deannaknippling

You Know What They Say About a Woman in Red Stockings — Deanna Knippling

4 May 2021 By 5t4n5

You Know What They Say About a Woman in Red Stockings, written by Deanna Knippling. In the antholgoy, Mother Krampus.

DeAnna’s Page

#fantasy #deannaknippling

Mother Krampus — C. Patrick Neagle, Jude Reid & Deanna Knippling

4 May 2021 By 5t4n5

The House You Build — C. Patrick Neagle

Schnabelperchten — Jude Reid

You Know What They Say About a Woman in Red Stockings — Deanna Knippling

DeAnna’s Page

#fantasy #cpatrickneagle # #deannaknippling

Doctor Rudolfo Puts His Foot Down — Deanna Knippling

4 May 2021 By 5t4n5

DeAnna’s Page

#fantasy #fairytales #deannaknippling

Drink Me — DeAnna Knippling

12 February 2021 By 5t4n5

DeAnna’s Page

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Evil Twin — DeAnna Knippling

1 September 2020 By 5t4n5

DeAnna’s Page

#fantasy #fairytale #deannaknippling

By Dawn’s Bloody Light — Deanna Knippling

1 September 2020 By 5t4n5

DeAnna’s Page

#fantasy #fairytales #deannaknippling

A Murder of Crows — DeAnna Knippling

29 August 2020 By 5t4n5

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Good Neighbours — DeAnna Knippling

16 July 2020 By 5t4n5

I really enjoyed this. A nice captivating little short to fill an hour or so.

In East Smithville the fog is always coming and with it, the Fairies who whisk people away, not to be seen again for years. This is the story of one such person returning — for a while at least.

I admit to being thoroughly disappointed that it ended, i really wanted it to keep going: away with the Fairies.

Well worth a read of your time and it would be really good if DeAnna came back to East Smithville some time and wrote a few more short stories about people returning.

DeAnna’s Page

#fantasy #fairytale #deannaknippling

A Perfect Moment — DeAnna Knippling

10 July 2020 By 5t4n5

I revceived this as an ARC from DeAnna to read, comment and review.

As a short story, anthology stocking-filler it does what it’s supposed to. I was quite happy to read it and wasn’t put off at all but, it doesn’t do much more than that.

As with a lot of these shorts for anthologies, there’s usually a really good idea at their core but the word count to play it out just isn’t available, and i do feel that this is one of those. There’s a greedy reader part of me that wants this spun out novel length into a temporal food-fight similar to Recursion by Blake Crouch.

DeAnna’s Page

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The Clockwork Alice — DeAnna Knippling

27 June 2020 By 5t4n5

I really enjoyed All the Retros at the New Cotton Club, so i was really happy to discover that Deanna’s also wrote some “Alice and Wonderland” stuff.

Instead of the fun clockwork story about Alice and all things Wonderland that i was expecting, i found a story heavily biased towards the real life of Alice Liddell and her relationship with Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll): this story is set several years after Charles’ death.

I’m not going to get into my views about Dodgson here, this is about DeAnna’s views, and she does a fairly good job of brushing over things (sweeping them under the carpet) and tidy things up in making a story out of Alice’s and Charles’ final years. Although, to be honest, i think that DeAnna just makes things worse: i’m left with the opinion that this story could be a nice little dose of Streisand effect for a lot of its readers.

And for those of you feeling the effects of Streisand, you can begin at Wikipedia.

All that aside, it’s a fairly good read, and a must for all Alice and Wonderland fans: just expect it to be more about Alice reminiscing, through thoughts and dreams of Wonderland, than a pure Wonderland adventure. Sadly, there’s a few typos that detract on occasion, and that are so obvious they should have been easily fixed before publishing.

Final words, other than those few annoying typos, DeAnna’s a very good writer. The Queen of Stilled Hearts is in “The Pile” and i’m looking forward to giving that a read soon.

DeAnna’s Page

#aliceinwonderland #fantasy #steampunk #deannaknippling

All the Retros at the New Cotton Club — DeAnna Knippling

14 December 2019 By 5t4n5

A free book that i received when i signed up to the Wonderland Press newsletter. I think you get a different free book now so you’ll have to go to Amazon and buy it now.

This is my first book by DeAnna and i was delightfully impressed with it. Although it’s just a short little novella, it does allow you to sit quietly for an hour or so and read the whole book, quite easily in one sitting, with a cup of coffee and slice of cake — or whatever your reading thing is.

If you’re into the AI/VR stuff with downloaded/uploaded human minds (a bit like what goes on in Altered Carbon) then you’ll most probably really enjoy this.

I do hope that DeAnna writes some more stuff in this sci-fi arena: the New Cotton Club seems like a wonderful playground for many more literary adventures.