excellent

A great collection of clever, intelligent stories that twist and turn and unsettle. I enjoy this authors novels, and this did not disappoint.

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One of the best short story compilations I’ve read

These stories really stuck with me. Excellently written, poignant and bizarre. I highly recommend them.

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Life after death

A collection of short stories, mostly horror, and a fine way to pass a few hours. There's not much depth to the vast majority and most of them tend to end in a horrible way, with gotcha style moments. Despite the fact that they're all broadly horror themed, there's still quite a bit of variety to the stories. They range from eldritch horror, to time travel, to werewolves and even gypsy curses. I was certainly never bored, but I can't say that many of the stories stuck with me for very long after reading.

Dead Men Can't Complain is the longest of the stories and is definitely the best of the bunch. It's the only one with a real narrative thread and character development, plus the ending isn't as shocking as the rest, making it seem more worthwhile. The story is a new(ish) twist on the zombie outbreak and takes place a number of years after, humanity having won. I found it to be quite a charming and tender look at afterlife care, and parts of it reminded me of Shaun of the Dead's epilogue. It's also fairly humourous, feeling more tonally in-line with the Threshold books.

Audiobook - Ray Porter's performance is great, as usual, but I actually enjoyed the switch in narrators for the couple of stories that were set in the past. It kept things fresh and the English narrator sounded more period appropriate.

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EX cellent

I loved this book so many cool stories all well written and read. The icing on the cake was the final tale, set some point, (150 years I think) in the Ex heroes universe. Humans have come back but the X virus lies dormant in some creating a more domestic issue for those few whom have it and who should have died but came back.
Great short tales and well read worth listening to if you’re a fan of mister Clines. I am

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3 people found this helpful

Woah! Mind blooown!

This was pretty amazing. I’m a big fan of “14” and the others in the series (not “Dead Moon” that was so awful it must have been written by someone else) and this didn’t disappoint. It was like a series of Peter Clines “tasters”. Loved ‘em.

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2 people found this helpful

An interesting collection

A small little audiobook,less than 5 hours, that has Clines style throughout.

There's a little bit for everyone in here, time travel, zombies, robots, love story,horror.

When listening to short story books, I always imagine if it was a full book would it be any good, and in this there are at least 3 that I'd be intrigued to listen to an extended version.

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3 people found this helpful

Brilliant

Loved every moment of these cleverly written short stories. I only wish there were more.

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1 person found this helpful

Very enjoyable

Great short stories, some very provoking ideas. It was a shame some of them were short stories, I didn't want some of them to finish.

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The best thing(s) Peter Clines has written

I think Peter Clines is better known for his novels, which -- to be honest -- I consider to be of rather variable quality. I liked 14 and Dead Moon, but the other's I'm not so impressed by. The Fold was based on a clever idea, but the story was told in a way that I did not find very convincing.

This collection of stories, however, has all the hits from Clines' novels, and none of the misses. The stories cover a range of subjects, told in a number of different styles, but are all thought-provoking, and some are funny at the same time. In some of Clines' novels, the humour seems to me to be a distraction from the plot, but that isn't the case here.

This isn't just the best things that Peter Clines has written, it's one of the best collections of short stories by any author I've read in the last few years.

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3 people found this helpful

Between Science and Superstition.....

A Superb short story collection excellently narrated. Stories worthy of the Twilight Zone with some tying into Clines other works. Contraption being the grandest of finales.

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