Surprising LED ASTRAY: THE VERY BEST OF KELLEY ARMSTRONG is amazing
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(photo: Kathryn Hollinrake)
On his extraordinary blog MORE RED INK, copy editor Marty Halpern writes about his most recent project LED ASTRAY: THE VERY BEST OF KELLEY ARMSTRONG.
To say I was surprised when I began working on the stories in LED ASTRAY would be an understatement. I’m still not an “urban fantasy, werewolves-vampires-zombies” kind of guy, but I will definitely be reading more Kelley Armstrong stories in the future. What I discovered is that a number of the stories are written within Ms. Armstrong’s existing series’ universes – actually only ten of the collection’s twenty-three stories are “standalone”; all the rest fall within her existing series. So I would read a very cool story like “Learning Curve,” and then six stories later I would encounter some of the same characters in “The List.” The characters are so deftly written that when I came upon them again in another story it was like meeting up with old friends already.
One of my favorites, albeit a standalone story, is “Last Stand” – unexpectedly, at least for me, a zombie story! It’s a typical zombie story, in one sense: following a virus outbreak, soldiers in a fort must fight for their survival against the “Others.” The well-drawn, strong female protagonist, Monica Roth, was a chemistry teacher before the outbreak, and now serves as commander, doing her best to keep the “last band of resistance fighters” alive.
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How “Last Stand” differs from the typical zombie story is…well, let’s just say if I tell you, then I will completely spoil the experience of reading this story. You’re just going to have to trust me on this one: go order LED ASTRAY: THE VERY BEST OF KELLEY ARMSTRONG from Amazon or wherever you prefer to purchase books, and read this story – and the twenty-two others in the collection – and be amazed.
Read the rest of Halpern’s comments about LED ASTRAY at MORE RED INK.
For more information on LED ASTRAY: THE VERY BEST OF KELLEY ARMSTRONG, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover by Elizabeth Story