Icy Sedgwick is a #FridayFlash regular on Twitter, and "Checkmate" is a collection of 15 of her short pieces. It's a good choice for a rainy weekend afternoon or plane trip.
Synopsis: A collection of Icy's flash fiction, published between 2008 and mid-2010. The stories run the gamut of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror, and are arranged in chronological order of publication.
Storytelling: Five stars. Icy has an amazing ability to write dark fiction with an oft-humorous twist. While all of them are well-written, six of the stories stand out as particularly memorable for me:
Midas Box -- a young woman's life takes a turn when she is given a very special box.
Checkmate -- in which the fate of the world is decided over a coffee shop chessboard.
My Bleeding Heart -- a macabre twist on an old pun.
Bleed Them Dry -- a vampire has more than one way to draw blood.
The Mirror Phase -- a creepy story of a little girl fascinated with a mirror.
The Dead Do Listen -- sometimes, the dead want to set the record straight!
Writing: Five stars. Like most #FridayFlash participants, Icy is versatile and can write well in many genres. In fact, her Western novel, "The Guns of Retribution," was recently released in paperback and eBook by Pulp Press.
Editing: Four stars. Checkmate stands out in the self/indie-published arena as having very few typos or other editing issues. I ran across maybe one or two minor issues. All books -- indie or otherwise -- should have this much care put into them. The only real glitch I ran across was a formatting thing: using the Kindle's "five-way" to move between stories put the original place of publication at the top of the page, and the title at the end of the previous page. This may have been something Smashwords did.
Summary: Brief as it is, this is a steal for 99¢. If you enjoy dark fiction, you'll find big enjoyment in these short works.
