Name: The Dark Verse, Vol. 3
ISBN: 9780982314135

M. Amanuensis Sharkchild

Twenty-six short stories of occult and fantastical horror that will follow you to the visions of your sleep. This is Sharkchild's third collection of grim and ethereal stories.

Beyond Ghe Grip of Time

The Dark Verse, Vol. 3

Justin Jerome Price

Good writing, but Flawed adaptations 

So, I was conflicted as to whether give this book a three-star rating or two-star rating. On the one hand, this book is well-written in terms of word choice. Care was taken to ensure that each story evoked a strong, dark atmosphere where humans are mere prey to forces that they cannot hope to comprehend. Not to mention that there are a few good stories here. I liked the first story about innovation being a force of creativity and destruction; I liked the story involving the preternatural shopkeeper. And yet a majority of the stories feel incomplete.

The main issue is that a lot of these stories were made to be read for a podcast and thus acted out, thus the brevity of the stories which work in an audio format does not easily translate to the written format. So the abrupt endings come off more as an unsatisfying conclusion, rather than a dark ending. Furthermore, it is apparent that some of these stories are still ongoing, which adds to the "No ending" feeling that most of the stories five off.

All in all, I am going to give this a two-star rating. Not because these stories are inherently bad or because the writing is inherently bad, but I feel more work was needed to capture the element of the story in the written format.

The Dark Verse, Vol. 3 Beyond Ghe Grip of Time

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