I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
It seems that more than a few folks out there are finally waking up to the reality of the strange and deeply disturbing surveillance omni-culture we are immersed in. Like a
Yes, some of this is very new, hot garbage and nothing but a bad time. Yes, some of the bells and whistles are new, but the panopticon was not built over night. The whisper networks and tapped phone lines have been long buried, hidden like unseen root networks for ages. The eyes in the painting are following you across the room, as they followed your grandparents, and relatives long forgotten.
The knee jerk reaction, when coming to Under A Malevolent Eye, is an expectation of stories purely about the now. Perhaps because there such growing body of investigative reports, whistle blower testimonies and lived experience being shared, around contact and interaction with that great amorphous Surveillance Blob. Publisher, editor and contributing author Eric Raglan, seems to have anticipated this most probable expectations. Seemingly in direct response, Eric has intentionally brought together authors whose stories eschew the easy path of derivative horror. Each author recognizes that draw of the easy scare, the “fast fiction” capability of telling something unsettling about the present incarnation of the surveillance state, yet staying on the surface. That’s not what the stories are written for, because there’s nothing to learn if we remain on the surface.
Under a Malevolent Eye will make your stomach hurt. You’re heart will ache, while your pulse speeds up. We’re all acutely aware of the state of things now, and are riddled with anxieties about what nightmares could blossom tomorrow, or the day after that. Whether it’s from a meditation on self sacrifice and inability to grieve, out of fear. Or perhaps it will be from a reminder of the capacity individuals to willingly harm others through wielding power and control. Collectively these are stories both timeless and prescient. Meagen Kane, Charlene Elsby, Joe Koch, Cynthia Gomez,Briar Ripley Page, Zin E. Rocklyn, Mae Murray and Eric Raglan, each bring a thread to the collective work of weaving a web of tales, to trouble, to warn and educate us. But for a few brief glimpses of light (we take care of our pet cats), there is no happiness here, but there is illumination. Through the reading, and perhaps their the writer own telling, there is hope.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8677906733https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8677906733