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Book reviews for "Fanchi,_John_Richard" sorted by average review score:

Hideous Progeny
Published in Paperback by RazorBlade Press (2000)
Authors: Peter Crowther, Paul Finch, Gary Greenwood, Ceri Jordan, James Lovegrove, Simon Morden, Chris Poote, Brian Willis, Iain Darby, and Rhys Hughes
Amazon base price: $12.95
Used price: $112.23
Average review score:

It's alive! It's alive!
Coming out of RazorBlade Press, Hideous Progeny is one monstrously beautiful anthology that explores the world as it would have been if Dr. Victor Frankenstein's gruesome experiments had not gone awry. Writers such as Tim Lebbon, Peter Crowther, Steven Volk, Steve Rasnic Tem, and Rhys Hughes (to name just a few) each donate a small literary organ to the mix, and everything is skilfully stitched together into a marvellous book by first-time editor Brian Willis.

Cosmetically, the book is a two-face: while cover design by Chris Nurse is nothing short of outstanding, the internal layout is not without blemish. For example, outside margins are too wide, story titles are not always at the same height in the page, and the author's name is italicised in some but not all of the instances. Another gripe I have is that page numbers on the right-hand pages are left-aligned; plus, headers have no indication about the stories presented below them: these will give you a bad time if you want to riffle through the book to look up a specific something. There are a few extra typesetting warts and moles as well, as I noticed some characters showing up in a different size than the rest of the text, uneven spacing between words, typos derived from bad OCR, and so on. I sincerely encourage RazorBlade Press to pay more attention to internal design in the future, and run a few spell checks as well. Still, don't let appearances fool you, because the writing on these pages is top-notch.

In the whole, I was not in the least disappointed by Hideous Progeny while expecting quality work. Many short stories surprised me by their original angles, and all are very well written. The subjects are quite varied too, although some do overlap a little - it seems inevitable given the limitations inherent to their collective premise. I have my favourites, of course: Peter Crowther's piece is shocking yet touching at the same time, and the idea behind "Mad Jack" is a simple but nevertheless brilliant one. "The Banker of Ingolstadt" is perhaps the funniest in the book, and I found Steven Volk's "Blitzenstein" to rank among the best.

Whatever shortcomings the book has, they're quickly overwhelmed by the superb fiction it it, not to mention a downright gorgeous cover. For £6.99, it's well worth getting Hideous Progeny: not only will you be adding a fine specimen of a book to your library, you'll also be helping small press business to thrive. Because I want to see more from RazorBlade Press. Oh yeah.


Close-Ups: From the Golden Age of the Silent Cinema
Published in Hardcover by Oak Tree Publications (1978)
Author: John Richard. Finch
Amazon base price: $25.00
Used price: $0.26
Collectible price: $9.99
Buy one from zShops for: $1.45
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The Nature of Man: A Social Psychological Perspective
Published in Hardcover by Charles C Thomas Pub Ltd (1976)
Authors: John G. Finch Symposium on Psychology and Religion Fuller Theological, John G. Finch, Richard L. Gorsuch, and H. Newton Malony
Amazon base price: $18.75
Used price: $47.45
Average review score:
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Related Subjects: Author Index

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