- austrianspencer
Not a good fit at this time - Adam Hulse
I snapped up this collection of Adam’s short stories, primarily because I know Adam’s work through his Tupuqa series of creature features, and through one off’s such as Below economic thresholds, or the two-part Growth (the second part I still have to read), but secondly, because Adam is a constant cheerleader for other authors, myself included, and damn it, that makes it that I have to buy all his books, right?
Right.
So, here’s the thing, and I’ll say straight up, that doesn’t mean I’m going to enjoy all of his books to the same degree. Not a good fit… - I enjoyed. It’s a great spread of stories, from spaceships to dark fantasy villages, a woman being hunted by hunters to leech-like humans that live in a world under a hotel… There’s plenty of scope here.
I’ll say that the spark that ignited The Cursed series didn’t spark here for me, I enjoyed the shorts, with Opt out and Nothing but ashes my favorites amongst the collection, and the progression in the writing is very clear, some of the earlier shorts are a writer finding his flow, getting into his groove, finding his voice. Some of what felt slightly off might have been the restrictions of the pieces – most were written to specific restraints, concepts – word count – contents (specific requirements) – and given those restrictions, you can still feel Adam having a blast writing within them, but I think his unrestrained talent on his novels (where there are no constraints) are where he shines.
This is a good snapshot of a writer and his imagination and a great springboard for his longer works.
I’m giving this 3,5 stars, rounded up to 4 for Goodreads.
You can buy "Not a good fit..." by clicking on the appropriate Amazon link, below:
You can follow Adam on Twitter, HERE.
You can follow Adam on Instagram, HERE.
You can follow Adam on BlueSky (if you are on it), HERE.
You can watch Adam doing weird stuff on TikTok, HERE.
