I’ve enjoyed Wil Wheaton’s writing at his blog, so when I heard he had about this short story collection and that it was only $2.99 in the Kindle eBook format – I grabbed it.
“The Day After” is the longest piece. Excellently written. A hopeless situation at the end of the world. How do people deal with that? This does what good stories with fantastical elements (in this case zombies) always do: give us believable characters to hook ourselves to. This story is very cinematic. I would not be surprised to see this filmed or expanded into novel length at some point.
“Room 302″ is spooky. Its not much more than an impression of a story, but my mind filled in a backstory and a resolution. I wonder if what I came up with was similar to where the author was going and what other readers thought? I wish I could share without spoiling the story. Eh, it doesn’t matter – you’ll come up with your own ending.
“The Language Barrier” is the weaker piece in this collection, but its still a good read. It asks an interesting question: can language BE a barrier?
“Poor Places” is a Poker story. [mild spoiler] This piece has some autobiographical elements in it: the protagonist is formerly famous. He’s an ordinary guy now that ordinary people befriend and his past is rarely mentioned. He’s keeping himself (barely) fed in an interesting way. Wil communicates, I think, some of the disappointment he’s had to deal with – a life that has not quite gone the way he expected it to go when he was younger. I think Wil’s also imagining that with just a few easy, bad choices his life could have been much worse. He could have been Charlie Sheen without the money.
The story made me happy for how well the author is doing today.