The Parasite from Proto Space & Other Stories By Brett Petersen

Print Length: 162 pages

Publisher: CLASH Books (22 Jan. 2020)

Language: English

ASIN: B0844PC3LD

Genre: Science Fiction Anthologies

The BookViral Review:

The best short stories should stay with you for days and weeks and the stories in Petersen’s The Parasite from Proto Space & Other Stories certainly hit the mark. A real feat of imagination Petersen’s stories are strange and dark. Exploring complex truths with nuanced simplicity and pithy prose whilst conveying in a few succinct words what many novelists take several pages to elucidate. Particularly good at drawing readers quickly into the confidence of his voice; the first few sentences of Petersen’s stories have that quality of strapping you in for the ride.

“Breaking a mirror is symbolic of destroying one’s conception of self,” says Billy-Sally and that’s what Petersen’s stories do. They wrap themselves around the wholly disconcerting premise that by subscribing to what’s expected of us we limit our ability to be who we really are. Capturing the all-encompassing intrusion of the world and its conditioning of our day-to-day emotions.

Introducing his readers to a host of wonderfully colourful characters A Free Ride To Pleroma encourages us to question the nature of reality. “There was the Inside (a.k.a. the Labyrinth or Multi-verse where humans and other creatures lived), and the Outside, which was a solid, infinite whole” Whilst Frogbaby delves into an ideal life experience without prior knowledge of pain and pleasure!

No doubt readers will have their favourite stories but what’s important is that Petersen is careful to maintain a balance between levity and weightier moral undertones

Quirky, imaginative and thought-provoking The Parasite from Proto Space & Other Stories will certainly appeal to discerning readers of the genre and bodes well for future releases from Petersen. It is recommended without reservation!