Book Review - The Night's Neon Fangs by David W. Barbee

The Night's Neon Fangs is a book containing four novellas by David W. Barbee: The Night's Neon Fangs, Noah's Arkopolis, That Ultimo Sumbitch, and Batcop Outta Hell. Each one is an inventive take on a classic story theme. 

The titular work is a story about a man that has been bitten by an electric werewolf. The story is a vivid and well thought out version of the original werewolf story with a modern, unique twist. Can this electric werewolf learn to control his affliction?

In Noah's Arkopolis the Ark never reached land. After the flood, solid ground disappeard forever. Centuries later, Arkopolis has become a city floating on an endless ocean whose citizens are mutated ancestors of humans and animals. It is an alternate history story unlike any other.

The third work, that Ultimo Sumbitch, continues Barbee's theme of traditional story types with his own bizarre stylings. This novella has a western base with a cyborg as the protagonist, zebras and ostriches alongside horses, and a saloon that serves liquor in a gaseous state.

Barbee finishes this collection strongly with Batcop Outta Hell. At first glance, it has the appearance of the ever-popular police/detective story. McNulty’s family was killed. He wasn't able to protect them. Now he has returned from Hell to avenge them. Did I mention that he is a bat?

The Night's Neon Fangs, in its entirety, is entertaining and cohesive. It is hard to find a werewolf, western, detective, or biblical story that hasn’t been written the same exact way a hundred times. David W. Barbie creates worlds within your favorite genres that will change the way you view…well, everything.

Book Review - Planet Mermaid by Leza Cantoral

Planet Mermaid is short and fast-paced. It was over before I could blink and never boring. The book uses a basic fairytale formula similar to Disney films as an initial basis for something much darker and more unique. It begins with Lilia the mermaid who is dissatisfied with her mundane life in an underwater paradise. Lilia's sisters are content with their lives that pretty much consist of socializing, mating, and pawning their babies off on her. Lilia, however, dreams of traveling to the mysterious surface above, meeting the land walkers, maybe even hooking up with one. A cliche setup for sure, but thats the point. The familiarity works as an instantly accessible introduction and as a perfect dichotomy to what follows, drawing out the following events, giving them more oomph than if the story had come out guns blazing. I’m not just talking about the violent and sexual content. This isn’t an adult fairytale. Whether or not that's what it's trying to be, I’m not sure, but I feel calling it that would be doing it a disservice.

After its brief intro segment that lasts only a few pages, the story itself transitions along with the protagonist. Lilia makes her way to the surface and emerges from her fairytale cliche. She enters a new world that is much harder to define, it's a little sci-fi, a little horror, and extremely unpredictable. At this point, in complete contrast to what it initially had you believe was in store, the element of surprise becomes it’s greatest asset, and talking about any specific moment, even the smaller ones, would be a massive spoiler. It hits you with a barrage of super cool imagery, grotesque cruelty, and thought provoking plot. The final scene in particular is a complete surprise, almost seeming out of left field, but is actually a perfect way to wrap things up, bringing the ideas from the beginning back around with a twist and giving meaning to everything that happened in between.

Planet Mermaid can be effortlessly read in one sitting and will stick with you long after its short runtime. It establishes a surprising amount about its characters and world, and while closing the loop on everything major pertaining to the specific story it’s telling, it leaves you (Much like Lilia) wanting to know more about it’s universe.

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