Dark Melodies

A really well-written collection but unfortunately the repetition wore me out by the end.

The theme running through almost every story is music being used as a key to open up a Lovecraftian other world. Rhythms and melodies, fingers drumming out beats, the same beat playing over and over in one's head, and drinking heavily to drown it out is used in almost every story.

Entire paragraphs of the same thing were also repeated that describe this other place and its effect on the person that goes there. If you read these by themselves you wouldn't notice or care, but seeing them back to back it gets old.

But despite this issue, this is a great collection. The writing otherwise flows, it's always exciting, and the characters are varied and strong. It all leads to another excellent Derek Adams story which does the themes the best, making for a packed short story with all the good stuff. I'd recommend reading it first actually, so it's not hurt by you reading too many similar stories beforehand.