2023-08-10
Characters grapple with dragons, futuristic tech, and the undead in Kirtley’s debut collection of short stories.
In “They Go Bump,” soldiers on a war-torn Earth test new camouflage that renders them invisible—but if they can’t even see their comrades on the battlefield, how will they know if or when enemies infiltrate their group? “Beauty,” a selection from the fantasy genre, offers a diverting play on “Beauty and the Beast”: Nicole, the titular beauty, runs into the beast in a bar. She quickly falls in love with him, “gremlin ears” and all, but will that change if he turns into a conventionally handsome man? In “Power Armor: A Love Story,” genius inventor Anthony Blair goes nowhere without his seemingly impenetrable suit of armor. He becomes smitten with would-be assassin Mira, who searches for Blair’s weak points, whatever her reasons may be. Kirtley draws inspiration from numerous books, movies, and TV shows, and employs sharp, concise prose that complements his puckish sense of humor: The quirky “Seeds-for-Brains,” for example, is “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” from the headless horseman’s perspective, while “Red Road,” a revenge tale with anthropomorphized mice noblemen, recalls Brian Jacques’ Redwall series. On occasion, the author barely strays from the source text; “Transformations” follows a transforming robot potentially discovering emotions much in the way the original animated TransformersTV series often showcased human traits. Several of these stories were written for themed anthologies—this collection includes many of the stories’ original illustrations from earlier publications, or from Kirtley’s website.
The author’s passionate voice breathes life into this wonderful array of tales.