What do you think?
Rate this book
The Stitching
Imagine if you woke up in a dead world. A world much like this one, but empty of all other life. A place where telephones rang at random intervals, written words appeared in some bizarre language and night fell whenever it so desired. This is where Luke and Anna find themselves, here to play out a deadly game between two ancient forces. It is here they'll learn the truth about magic, the truth about each other, the truth about butterflies and spiders. Welcome to The Stitching...
ebook
First published January 1, 2009
7 people want to read
About the author
Brian Fatah Steele
40 books90 followersBrian Fatah Steele has been writing various types of dark fiction for over fifteen years, often describing it as “cosmic horror with elements of urban fantasy and sci-fi.” Steele originally went to school for fine arts but finds himself far more fulfilled now by storytelling. His own titles include DIRE BRANCHES (Alien Agenda Publishing), OUR CARRION HEARTS (Bloodshot Books), HUNGRY RAIN (Severed Press), CELESTIAL SEEPAGE (Alien Agenda Publishing), BLEED AWAY THE SKY (Bloodshot Books) and THERE IS DARKNESS IN EVERY ROOM (Sinister Grin Press), along with the self-published YOUR ARMS AROUND ENTROPY, BRUTAL STARLIGHT, FURTHER THAN FATE, and IN BLEED COUNTRY. His work has appeared in such anthologies as 4POCALYPSE, BLOOD TYPE, CTHULHU LIES DREAMING, DEATH’S REALM, THE IDOLATERS OF CTHULHU, and the Bram Stoker Award-nominated DARK VISIONS, VOL.1.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 18, 2011
Starting out in a seemingly post-apocalyptic world, Anna and Luke are unaware that they are no longer in the world they went to sleep in. They only know that now they are alone. Completelely until they find each other and join together on this unknown quest. The novella is a quest narrative, complete with a threshold, helpers, and challenges along the way. The twist is, Anna and Luke, as well as the reader, are not sure what the ultimate goal is. Once they find out they're "not in Kansas anymore," so to speak, the goal is ostensibly to "get home," but it quickly becomes more complicated than that. Cinematic in its scope, the narrative moves along with a driving force that keeps the reader turning pages until the end. Steele creates characters with depth. Even the characters who are not on page long are whole and complete characters, and it is not hard to distinguish between them. The reader becomes especially attached to the main characters, Luke and Anna, who are complex, with their own strengths, weaknesses, habits, and neuroses. Steele's writing is vivid and engaging. The images are visceral and original. Especially if you are into fantasy books, I highly recommend reading this novella.
July 15, 2011
Oh, what a lovely idea! What a lovely idea, yet again!
The world Brian Fatah Steele builds is surreal, beautiful, magic, and sort of darkish in places, a mix I thoroughly enjoy. The world is the part I truly deeply loved, more then the characters I’d say.
The plot is very original, but then again, all of his writing is, so no surprises there The characters are a bit twisted, well at least Anna is; but she’s human-twisted, not evil-twisted, you know? Smaller scale compared to his other characters from what else by him I’ve read. In fact, I sort of disliked her, she’s constantly off-balance, weepy and tragic here, off-of-her-heels nutty there…I don’t know. I think if she’d be viciously murdered at some point near the end, this would become a full on 5 butterflies review instantly buuuut that’s just me being my evil self.
Seriously though, the ride you’re taken on, the creatures, the notions you’re presented with, it’s all worth your time and plenty more. Maybe you’ll like clingy Anna, and her big, moist, deer-eyed visage, I mean she is interesting in her own way, she has her charm, that I won’t deny.
You’ll find all sorts of beautiful here: zombie-things, evil-ish things, magical creatures, grudges, plotting and scheming, lies, a bit of cheating…and then, out of the blue, a lovey-dovey-like thingy. Now that really bumped me off my trajectory. I totally did not see that coming; I mean, it’s not lovey-dovey, sugar and spice and all things excessively nice, but compared to I guess my expectations (bad thing to have while reading, or in life in general, I guess) it struck me as…sweet-ish. I wasn’t hoping for sweet-ish, at all. I’m not sure if the ending would have been different, say Anna being swarmed by African-bees and then thrown into an acid bath, would have made me love the story more…(ok, so probably it would have). It feels to me like an open ending, so I will not lose hope someone will viciously murder Anna, or at least torture her mercilessly in a story to come. Hope never dies, does it? fu~fu
But anyways, jokes aside, I still highly recommend it, even more so then my personal favorite by him, (which is Far House, Deep House) because thanks to the ingenious world-building and charming penmanship, adding a possible positive-note ending, it might prove easier to love for a larger audience.
The world Brian Fatah Steele builds is surreal, beautiful, magic, and sort of darkish in places, a mix I thoroughly enjoy. The world is the part I truly deeply loved, more then the characters I’d say.
The plot is very original, but then again, all of his writing is, so no surprises there The characters are a bit twisted, well at least Anna is; but she’s human-twisted, not evil-twisted, you know? Smaller scale compared to his other characters from what else by him I’ve read. In fact, I sort of disliked her, she’s constantly off-balance, weepy and tragic here, off-of-her-heels nutty there…I don’t know. I think if she’d be viciously murdered at some point near the end, this would become a full on 5 butterflies review instantly buuuut that’s just me being my evil self.
Seriously though, the ride you’re taken on, the creatures, the notions you’re presented with, it’s all worth your time and plenty more. Maybe you’ll like clingy Anna, and her big, moist, deer-eyed visage, I mean she is interesting in her own way, she has her charm, that I won’t deny.
You’ll find all sorts of beautiful here: zombie-things, evil-ish things, magical creatures, grudges, plotting and scheming, lies, a bit of cheating…and then, out of the blue, a lovey-dovey-like thingy. Now that really bumped me off my trajectory. I totally did not see that coming; I mean, it’s not lovey-dovey, sugar and spice and all things excessively nice, but compared to I guess my expectations (bad thing to have while reading, or in life in general, I guess) it struck me as…sweet-ish. I wasn’t hoping for sweet-ish, at all. I’m not sure if the ending would have been different, say Anna being swarmed by African-bees and then thrown into an acid bath, would have made me love the story more…(ok, so probably it would have). It feels to me like an open ending, so I will not lose hope someone will viciously murder Anna, or at least torture her mercilessly in a story to come. Hope never dies, does it? fu~fu
But anyways, jokes aside, I still highly recommend it, even more so then my personal favorite by him, (which is Far House, Deep House) because thanks to the ingenious world-building and charming penmanship, adding a possible positive-note ending, it might prove easier to love for a larger audience.
Read
December 30, 2009I'm still not entirely sure where the idea for this novella came from. I enjoyed writing iy, but I'm still not satisfied with how I ended the tale.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews