Pressed on with a couple more last night.
Loved
Last Report of the KSS Psychopomp. Possibly my favourite so far. Loads of atmosphere, and the description of the abbatoir/trophy room the Predator had created was wonderfully gruesome - these stories are generally doing a good job of depicting effective gore when appropriate without it ever feeling too much. Also, I really liked the multi-cultural thing the Psychopomp's crew had going on. The Arabic captain in particular made me think of what's-his-face from the first Abrams
Star Trek movie who was in command of Kirk Sr.'s starship (I'm not a fan, can't remember names
) In fact, I read all of Ahmed's lines in that actor's voice
Is it just me or did the Predator in this one feel like maybe it was a rogue bad blood?
Skeld's Keep was another good read. The Viking stuff could so easily have been cheesy but S. D. pulled it off (I actually missed her credit when I read it - poet - and didn't realise it was her until after I'd finished; if I'd known I would've had higher expectations). I'm not entirely sure "Grow some balls or f*ck off..." is authentic Viking dialect, but I got a good belly laugh out of it all the same
While it's not my favourite story of the lot, it did contain
by far my favourite moment from
any of the
Predator stories I've read so far, in this anthology or otherwise:
Spoiler
The bit where one of the Predators tore off a man's head with its bare hands and then threw it at another, knocking him down too. 10/10
