Calvin Demmer

The world's fate lies with a comatose young girl; an android wants to remember a human she once knew under Martian skies; men at sea learn that the ocean is a realm far different from land, where an unforgiving god rules; a school security guard discovers extreme English class; and a man understands what the behemoth beneath the sea commands of him. The Sea Was a Fair Master is a collection of 23 stories, riding the currents of fantasy, science fiction, crime, and horror. There are tales of murder, death, loss, revenge, greed, and hate. There are also tales of hope, survival, and love. For the sea was a fair master.

The Sea Was a Fair Master

Becca Futrell

Thank you so much to Calvin Demmer for sending me a copy of The Sea Was a Fair Master to review!

Flash Fiction (flash fic·tion), noun.: fiction that is extremely brief, typically only a few hundred words or fewer in its entirety. difficult to write & yet Calvin Demmer nailed the shit out of it.

When it comes to flash fiction, you have only a matter of seconds to grasp the reader, set up characters, & deliver a plot. Y'all, sometimes people can't even do that in a full-length novel, yet here's Calvin Demmer servin' us with some exceptional bite-sized reads. Prior to reading The Sea Was a Fair Master, I seen a lot of positive reviews, but I was still semi-nervous to read this collection of extremely short shorts, because wow -- can flash fiction actually be good? Will I even be able to write a proper review? The answer is yes & this collection is proof.

Calvin Demmer also managed to include so many plot twists in such few words. Every time I started a story, I was so excited to see what direction it would take me. & because of that, each story was extremely unique to both the others in the collection, but just horror, in general.

The Sea Was a Fair Master includes a wide-range of horror sub-genres; androids, ghosts, serial killers & more all come out to play in this collection. I, personally, am a big fan of slasher/serial killer fiction, so just imagine how pleased I was to see that there were multiple stories that played to my interests.

Favorites in The Sea Was a Fair Master:

- Underneath
- The Peeper
- Hangman
- Noisey Neighbors

These flash fiction pieces are the ones to REALLY stick out to me, but I gotta be honest — there’s not one story in here that I didn’t like. And, if it means anything, I tried my best to savor this collection. I typically rush everything I do, BECAUSE THERE’S ALWAYS SO MUCH TO DO. But, I wanted this to last forever. The good news is — I can always just reread it & I’m positive I’ll still love it as much as the first time.

My main question now is — WHEN THE HELL AM I GONNA GET A CALVIN DEMMER ANTHOLOGY FILM?!

I can go on & on with this rave-review, but instead, you guys should do me a solid & read the DANG BOOK YOURSELF? It’ll be worth your time, I promise. ♥ & I’ll be over here seeing what other Calvin Demmer works I can get my hands on & read.

The Sea Was a Fair Master

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