G218 Book Review of Red Phone Box Edited by Salome Jones

Name of Book: Red Phone Box

Author: Multiple authors, but this was edited by Salome Jones

ISBN: 978-0-957627-10-9

Publisher:  Ghostwoods

Type of book: Fantasy, United Kingdom, London, red phone box, connected stories, multiple characters, 2000s, secret worlds and lives, America, team, past present and future

Year it was published: 2013

Summary:

Shatter a mirror, and rearrange the pieces. What shapes will you find in the splintered glass?

Sinister forces roam London’s streets, skulking through the neon-lit rain. They are not alone. Haunted by memories of the man who abandoned her, Amber goes walking in the deep night. The phone box she enters takes her on a journey she could never have imagined, one in which the past and the future will be rewritten. Others follow in her footsteps, their lives intertwining, and the fate of the world hanging on their dance. Safran, pawn of unfathomable powers. Jon, who has lived and died and lived again. Gloria, who only intended to annoy her daddy. Cory, from a different world, on a desperate quest for allies. They and others will find themselves swept up as the playthings of gods who have managed to get along peacefully for millennia — until now.

Red Phone Box is a darkly magical story cycle, a network of interweaving tales by a dazzling range of masterful authors, including Gun Machine’s Warren Ellis. Let them take you to a very different London — one that hides on the other side of the fractured glass.

Red Phone Box is waiting for you…

Characters:

There are way too many characters to talk about, and unfortunately I only got the barest glimpses of their personalities before a new character was introduced. The main characters that were memorable for me include Amber, Henry, the black cat and Gloria.

Theme:

The phone box can take you places

Plot:

Almost all the stories are written in third person narrative from multiple person point of views. While there is connection between stories and plot and characters, the stories jump from one character to another, which rather means that continuity is extremely limited. For example, the first story features Angus and Iaian, then the second one features Amber, the third features Jarreth, the fourth Henry Bannister, the fifth discusses Crofton Wingwalker and so forth. It isn't until the tenth chapter that we see Amber, and then more new characters are introduced.

Author Information:

There are too many authors in the book, thus I can imagine that the review will stretch for ages. Instead of listing information, I will mention in this section the authors that have contributed stories in the book:

Gethin A Lynes,
Salome Jones,
Matthew Scoppetta,
Steven Sautter,
J.F. Lawrence,
James 'Grim' Desborough,
erisreg,
David Church Rodriguez,
Peter Dawes,
Remittance Girl,
Joe Silber,
Tamsyn H. Kennedy,
Thadeus E. Suggs,
Uri Kurlianchik,
Cvetomir Yonchev,
Kate Harrad,
Tim Dedopulos,
Gabor Csigas,
Dan Wickline,
Francesca Burgon,
Lacie Grayson,
Chuck Walker,
Hollis Dorian,
Chris Bissette,
Warren Ellis,
Joff Brown,
Robert Bal,
Sezin Koehler

Opinion:

This is more of a difficult read than I had anticipated, which is ironic because I can read multiple books at the same time and rarely do I get caught up in confusion over who's who in the book. I have to admit that its an intriguing and well written book, and the stories connect so seamlessly, the writing style doesn't differ at all from one story to another that one thinks a genius might have written it. While geniuses have written it, I had a lot of frustration due to constant character shifts, and some characters aren't even seen until way later. I found myself consulting the character sheet all the time, trying to recall who's who in the book. Sometimes as well the transitions seemed to lack on how all characters have met, or at least please tell me some stories where they have met up at the end and so forth. It also gives lack of information as to the history and background of why they were chosen. The book itself reminds me of an early Simpsons episode, clip show I think about numerous characters (ones I recall are of Lisa's hair getting stuck in a bubblegum, or before Apu got married, begins with Milhouse and Bart spitting at passing cars.)

This is for TLC Book Tour

Salomé Jones’ TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, December 2nd:  Svetlana’s Reads and Views

Wednesday, December 4th:  No More Grumpy Bookseller

Thursday, December 5th:  Books Without Any Pictures

Monday, December 9th:  Tiffany’s Bookshelf

Wednesday, December 11th:  More than Just Magic

Thursday, December 12th:  The Best Books Ever

Monday, December 16th:  Hardcover Feedback

Tuesday, December 17th:  A Chick Who Reads

Wednesday, December 18th:  The Z Axis

Monday, December 23rd:  Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

Thursday, December 26th:  Luxury Reading

3 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)