Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The Dark Age: A Short Story / Jason Gurley


Reviewed by: Fredlet

Genre: Short Story/Science Fiction/Fantasy/Time Travel

Approximate word count: 5-6,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Jason Gurley is the bestselling author of Greatfall, among other novels and short stories. By day he's a designer, and by night he writes and designs book covers. He lives with his family in Oregon, where he is currently writing a novel about a girl named Eleanor. He loves meeting readers, and often gives them free books via his newsletter.”

Find out more here from his website or by subscribing to his newsletter. Follow him on twitter or like his Facebook page.

Description:

“On the day she was born, he left for the stars. 

He watches her grow up on screens. Misses her first words. Misses her first steps. She's never kissed his scratchy cheek, or fallen asleep on his shoulder. He's never wiped away her tears, or sung her to sleep. 

Now she's a toddler, and he's about to enter hibernation sleep -- and when he wakes nearly 150 years in the future, his family will be gone. 

This is a short story for every father who never wants his daughter to grow up.”

Appraisal:

I’d read Mr. Gurley’s Silo Saga: Greatfall novel a bit ago and really enjoyed his Kindle Worlds contribution to Hugh Howey’s world of Wool.  I picked up The Dark Age: A Short Story while looking for a quick read. The cover just caught my eye and the blurb was interesting. I was unsure I would be able to connect with the plot, because I am not a parent. Not to worry; I am a daughter and wife, and an author’s job is to pull you into the story no matter what. Mr. Gurley sure did that!  I had such an emotional reaction to this book… heart racing, breath taking, all the tears shed. And the dreams that followed which made me ruminate about personal experiences I’ve had evoking the feelings of a dark age.

I can’t remember the last time an author’s words had such an effect on me. Stopping to think, I came up with The Diary of Anne Frank and Tuesdays with Morrie. While The Dark Age: A Short Story is heart wrenching, it is also uplifting and covers a lot of ground. I found it amazing that in so few words you came to know the main and supporting characters and could empathize with their choices. The ending reminded me of the emails I wrote to my father after his death, which were undeliverable, returned to me, and saved to an email folder. I went back and read them all, as I also did with this book.

FYI:

In case you haven’t noticed, this is a short story well worth the amount of time it will take you to read.

Format/Typo Issues:

I read both the e-book and paperback editions and found no errors. If any were there, I was too involved in the story to notice.


Rating: ***** Five Stars

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