Time's Hammers: The Collected Short Fiction of James Sallis

by James Sallis

This book is a collection of the short fiction of James Sallis, best known for his crime novels set in New Orleans.

Genres: Short Stories

398 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2000

About the author

James Sallis (born 21 December 1944 in Helena, Arkansas) is an American crime writer, poet and musician, best known for his series of novels featuring the character Lew Griffin and set in New Orleans, and for his 2005 novel Drive, which was adapted into a 2011 film of the same name.

Reviews

[Owain Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sallis does loneliness, solitude and dislocation better than any other writer I know. He also does humour, madness and guilt just as well too. The stories here are culled from Sallis' years scratching out a living writing for various journals and magazines - mostly scifi and crime/mystery titles, some well known and some not so - and there are essays written by Sallis introducing each of the two parts, both of which are refreshingly and humourously self-critical but they also throw light on the writer's influences. These two essays have led me on to discovering more great writers than any other resource I have come across. Given that this is a collected works you'd expect variety, and indeed that is what you get but there is something about the way Sallis writes when at his best, sparse and poetic at the same time, that leaves an indelible print on the mind. I just know I'll be going back to this one many times over. And if anyone ever says scifi or crime isn't real literature smack them round the head with a copy of this then after the pain has gone and they have stopped shouting at you make them read it. If they still say the same afterwards, well, chalk them up as a lost cause, give them your pity and move on with your life.