Blink of an I – is a prosaic mosaic of short stories following simple tales of identity, the incomprehensibleness of Aliens, altered reality and the fluidity of time. These tesselate into a novella of First Contact, apocalypse and our fundamental human needs – told from a standpoint of confusion, fear and loneliness.
Title: Blink of an I | Author: C.A. Hill | Publisher: Independently published | Pub. Date: 24 Feb 2019| Pages: 117 | ISBN13: 9781797953137 | Genre: Sci Fi | Language: English | Triggers: None | Rating: 2 out of 5 | Source: I received a copy of this from the author for review consideration
Blink of an I Review
Blink of an I was one hundred percent an ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ kind of read.
I found the short and snappy synopsis of this book intriguing, and the first story within this collection, (the title story) ‘Blink of an I‘ intrigued me. It is completely unlike anything that I have ever read before, and this first story fascinated me. Unfortunately, after that I got a little lost. The writing is flawless, but I found it incredibly dense and hard to connect with. It felt like something that could definitely be studied as part of an identity syllabus in higher education; everything written is interesting and wholly dissectible, that I can imagine it to be something that students could write countless essays on, and make countless references to. The writing is intellectual, scholarly and thought provoking when reading in the right mindset. The copy that I received has plenty of space in the margins where you could quite easily make notes and highlight quotes, with all the text centred on the page as if written as poetry.
The final story ‘Overwrite‘ has a little more conversation and was probably what I found the most interesting within the whole thing, I just needed something to break up the monotony of the detailed descriptions of the thoughts and confusion within the stories. It is a shame that this one missed the mark for me here.
As I said above, this is totally an ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ read. There are no particular characters to love/hate. There are no twists, or dramatic plot to get invested within. It is a collection of short stories that take you into the depths of the human mind, when faced with the prospect of aliens.
My rating here is solely from my experience with these stories, and I give it two extra-terrestrial stars.
You can find this book at many retailers via clicking on the appropriate link on GoodReads (Buying direct from retailers is a good way to support indie authors); however, in the spirit of supporting literacy programs, we would like to point out that you may be able to purchase this book through BetterWorldBooks.
Sian joined the Coolthulu crew in March 2019 and reviews horror and science fiction books for the site.
She’s trying hard to play it cool but she’s more excited than Lilyn’s new puppy to be part of the crew. PS we got T-shirts!
It sounds very existential. I’m intrigued, actually.
It is very existential! Let me know how you get on if you try it!