Book Review – Shoot the Devil – Ten Tales of Humans Defeating the Demonic edited by Eric Postma

I’m usually a fan of indie short story collections as it provides a number of introductions to new authors in the indie space and test out which writing styles, characters, settings would be good to check out. Plus, the collection of the whole, based on the editor’s pick provides an encompassed viewpoint that can be interesting and also point to the talent and need for indie authors. The initial premise of Postma’s collection is that evil should be vanquished and done especially in the “collective” Christian author viewpoint – hence the “shoot the devil”. Well, this collection only uses a gun one time, and the collection seems to be an opportunity for a number of authors to try and hook with a pre-existing storyline character, and it feels really disjointed from a short story perspective. A number of other stories were not that good and the good ones were ok. There was nothing that really stood out in this collection that made me immediately search out the author like other indie collections have. The following are the stories and my short thoughts on them:

An Exorcism for the Demon by Daniel Humphreys – A psychic detective who gets kidnapped by a serial killer. The first character a part of the author’s preexisting series whose powers seemed to be held back for no real reason and there was no allowance for tension to be built that was available in an interesting set up for the story. Final Grade – C-

Phantom Ridge: From the Case Files of Virgil Everness by N. R. LaPoint – A western setting where a husband and his psychic wife uncover the demons taking over a town. I liked the characters and the setting. A husband and wife demon-hunting couple who loved each other was refreshing, and they actually shot “the devil”. Final Grade – A-

Fell Beasts by John C. Wright – A woman has a battle of wits with a demon vampire. A battle of wits with some interesting aspects of the vampire monster, and an ok conclusion, but left a lot to be desired. Final Grade – C+

Who Rules the World? by L. Jagi Lamplighter – An Illuminati meeting that might be its last. Another author who is using a preexisting story where a lot more had to be done for me to care or help me with who anyone was. There was not enough comedy where it could and tried to exist, and there were too serious takes for something that would have made the point with the comedy it was failing to use. It takes a lot for me not to like a story about a secret organization controlling the world. Final Grade – D

Wolf in the Wind by James Pyles – A sheriff hires a psychic detective woman to hunt a dimensional werewolf. Really hated this story. For a collection of books held by a loose confederation of Christian authors, this one especially had a of cursing and taking the Lord’s name in vain and unnecessarily. The female psychic detective had some interesting qualities but the focus wasn’t much on her, and the story was over with sequel bait that wasn’t needed. Final Grade – F

Game Warden: A Tale of Peter Bishop by Russell Newquist – a man tries to save camping Boy Scouts as they’re transported through dimensional portals after encountering a fae. I think this was part of another series. I was again lost because of that. The Boy Scout aspect could have been done a lot better with more time and the kids just seemed to be ok with everything happening to them. This was quite confusing what was happening and why it was in this collection. Final Grade – C-

The Silver String Job by Steven G. Johnson – a mage pulls out all the stops to track down the entity who might have his soul. The setup for this was decent, and the world-building had elements that I would have enjoyed reading in a larger story. There could have been a bit more explanation of the makeup of the world and the reason the mage is on the hunt for what he is. The ending kind of peters out. Final Grade – D+

Last Chance Lane by Michael Gallagher – a priest helps two men who return to settle a score with a monster who took their friend years ago. There were aspects of this I liked. Another story where a devil is shot using a gun. The haunted house aspect could have been used more. The set up is what took the majority of the story and the ending could have used more of the foucs. Final Grade – C-

To Catch A Monster by Declan Finn – a ageless demon hunter is fated to take out monsters and rescues a woman who wants to know more. The overall story is just ok. This again, seems to be a preexisting character but at least the tragic character was interesting and someone I probably wouldn’t mind reading about. The problem I had with it is that seemed to be a story only to promote the character and not be part of a self-contained story. Final Grade – C

Eye Hath Not Seen by Corey Comstock – a man uncovers the dark arts but then has a change of heart that sets him down a completely different path. My Protestant bias is probably going to count against this one but at least in the world the story occupied, I understood the ending. I just didn’t understand what world or when anything was happening. The mad scientist, I thought, was in a fantasy world but then seems to have been in our world where he once served the darkness, he stumbles into helping the light. Mary turns out to be a great focus than Jesus here. See, told ya, it couldn’t be helped. Final Grade – D

Overall, I was disppointed with the collection and while the editor seemed to want to unite around punching the devil in the nose; the stories picked seemed to be “check out the full explanation of my story in my series I care about more”.