Chronicles and Tales from Other Planes

Andrea Spinosa's new short story anthology “Chronicles and Tales from Other Planes” promises a bit of everything - horror, fantasy, sci-fi, dystopia... in short, a little something that might appeal to a wide variety of literary tastes.

The author showcases some creative ideas and plenty of imagination in this collection.

That said, the execution of some some of these pieces left a little bit to be desired... “Shadows of the Enchanted Detective” was written in the style of a play script and the dialogue was quite clunky. “The Enchanted Veil: A Bard's Epic” had some plot holes. We are introduced to a Scottish bard who bids farewell to his home in Scotland and poof! He's in South America. How? Why? The only explanation we get is that he's there to “unravel the threads of... forgotten tales”.

As for strengths... though “The Shadows of Wisdom: A Tale of Philosophy and Dread” is unusually vague, its atmospheric and philosophical writing style make it the clear highlight of this collection.