Chris Farnell's Dirty Work is WILD!

Today we have another short story collection.

It's wild. It's crazy.

And I'll never look at video games

Or time travel

The same way again.

Cover design by Phil Cooper.

Dirty Work is a fantasy/sci-fi short story collection written by Chris Farnell.

So what's it about?

A broker negotiates a demonic deal. A soldier fights for her life during the dolphin apocalypse. An unemployed man searches for a job in a future where sponsorship means everything. A food and drink industry consultant tries to avoid a PR disaster when fingers start showing up in soda cans. A man repeatedly travels back in time for a length of ten-minutes each. A caller discovers that it's always important to read an insurance company's fine print - even in a zombie infested society. A man discovers that an 8 bit childhood video game is more than just a game. A ninja has an "average" day at the office.

So... this one is... wierd.

I guess that's kind of obvious, though, right? Dirty Jobs takes the reader on a wild ride, and doesn't hold back. There's absolutely no sense of the author saying, "Well, gee... maybe I'm going too far."

Nope. 

Chris Farnell opens up his imagination to the rest of us, inviting us through not one, but several different alternative realities. He doesn't hold back at all.

And I'm afraid I'll never look at my favorite childhood video games the same way, again. As if that's not enough, I'm now wondering what it'd be like to experience kissing myself. Would I be any good it it? And why in the world am I even considering that possibility?!

Darn you, Farnell!

This one is well worth reading. It set my imagination on fire, hit me with a blast of confusion on a few occasions, and amazed me with its possibilities.

The stories are very short, and are something that I could have easily used in a National Forensic League competition when I was in high school... and won it. Reading this aloud would be quite easy, and would entertain any Oral Reading judge.

I would have blown through the competition.

I would have gotten all the way to the State level.

And maybe even into the semifinals, from there.

Sorry... I got a wee bit nostalgic for a second. But that's what this short story collection did to me. It was wild and exciting. It got my heart beating. My eyes leapt from one word to the next, transfixed. 

It brought back that buzzing sensation I used to have when I found that one perfect story to use for competition. The one that was fast paced, full of twists, and easy to draw people into. Something that brought me back a couple of decades into my past.

That's something that's worth reading.

It's very likely that a few of these stories will cause gigantic question marks to form above your head. You'll hit a couple of points where you'll think, "What in the heck just happened?"

Just go with it. It's worth it.

And read the acknowledgements. They won't give you any amazing eruptions of insight. They won't impart any special knowledge. But they will entertain you. The acknowledgements really feel as though the author is sitting across from you at a pub, amusing you with a great conversation.

This one is a bit pricey for its length, but it's worth every penny. 

Chris Farnell has done something different with this collection, even going as far as to change the format between stories. That's a bit of a risk, of course, but I feel that it works, giving this not just entertaining words, but visual appeal, as well.

Dirty work can be found on Kindle.