World of Hurt

World of Hurt, Brian Hodge. Earthling Publications, 2006. Limited 500. The book is a fine limited, though not exceptional in any way and, as usual with Earthling, the limitation is hand-written in ink. Of late, it seems, I've been choosing books that consist of religion -- mainly Christianity -- and, as I've complained before, I don't enjoy this topic. Hodge impressed me with Falling Idols because he takes the myths from a unique angle and I really appreciated the way he told those stories. World of Hurt is much the same (in fact, it would fit very well in that anthology), however, this time I found myself a bit disappointed. At a hundred and fifty pages the story falls somewhere in the nowhere land of novella/novel. And on reflection, it almost feels like a short story. A very paradoxical sensation, truly. I can heartily recommend the book to those who enjoy thinking about the nature of god and faith and the resultant "life" that these two things suggest after death -- the book is horrifying if you're a believer. But if you're not feeling in a speculative mood, you'll have to take the book on its visceral merits, which are tense and vivid -- very worthy of the genre. Still, I cannot say that the book, as a limited, or the story itself was worth $38. But, I must be honest, I'm becoming a rather cheap and picky bastard as time goes by.