Holes in the World: Tales of Horror, Sadness, Regret, Murder and Rage 2nd Edtn

This book is an eclectic compilation of nine short stories. It includes: Two versions of 'Silk' - a horror tale set underground, featuring a lurking aberration of nature. 'The Grief of Lawrence Gould' - a story of ghostly events that plague a would-be author suffering from the death of his wife. 'Masks' - where a young protege of the curator of the Capponi Library, Italy, is kidnapped. 'The Blockade Runner' - an action-packed science fiction story charting the exposure of high-level corruption. 'Hideous Humanity' - the outrageous and vitriolic journal of Nicholas Weir, a young man who has reached the end of his patience with 21st Century Society; and more. Featuring a New Introduction by the author and a new, expanded edition of 'Hideous Humanity'.

This is an interesting and varied collection with which I was very impressed. A lot of which would actually make good longer stories. On occasion the author provides a brief introduction to a story that allows a glimpse into the writing process i.e. ‘Prologue’, an experiment written with a novel in mind; ‘The Earth’s True Children’. With ‘Silk’ there are two versions, the shorter of which I think loses something in the trimming.
As for the other stories, I thought ‘The Grief of Lawrence Gould’ and ‘Masks’ were very good and thought provoking, but perhaps a bit wordy in places. ‘Through the Eyes of a Child’: hard-hitting and the shortest short story I’ve ever read. However, by far the best and worth the purchase alone is ‘Hideous Humanity’, a brilliant, caustic rant, detailing the slow and inevitable decline of a perfectly normal everyday man as he rails against the stupidity, banality and fading morality that we are all faced with day after day. It gripped me, made me laugh out loud, made me think. I truly hope the author writes the next instalment. Well worth reading.