Country: UK
Genre: Crime Fiction
Pages: 135 kb (eOriginal)
"Dave, it's Franco. Hope it's not too early."
Who the fuck is Franco?
Some books are bound to create discussion by their very existence. Col Bury's MANCHESTER 6 will make people talk even if they never read a line of it, raising questions like: Why is it so short?Can you sell a book so short? Or taken from the opposite perspective: Isn't it the point of a 99 cents eBook? To offer a writing sample, which also happens to be a complete product. Isn't it the 99 cents novels that rig the game? I decided to cut short and read the damn thing. Well, Col Bury makes a damn good case for himself and for the short, "sample-esque" eBook with his MANCHESTER 6. Yeah, it's a little short but who reads a goddamn short story collection for its epic length? Here's a book that knows it's purpose, which is to create a demand. There are six stories, wild and angry characters, five tales of a blooming new talent and one supernova of a short story.
That epic story is the last of the collection and is titled GALLANCE, after its protagonist. Past the obvious catharsis of seeing a gang rape being punished, it's a story that shines in its execution. It is paced like a goddamn heart attack. The action (and this is quite the action story) is fed by the feeling of danger and emergency. We're far from the complacent shootout type. Bury gradually lifts the veil on what's at stake for Gallance in such a breakneck operation, hence the brilliance of the story. On the surface, you have killer action going on, but as you keep reading the story gets deeper and deeper and you start rooting for Gallance a lot harder. It's all charged up within a few pages and its a bold display of Col Bury's talent. I finished GALLANCE and the first thing I wanted to do was to email him and ask for another. It slightly reminded me of Joe R. Lansale BULLETS & FIRE, which is my favorite short so far, this year.
Gang rape is such a primal act. Gallance wasn't even sure cavemen would have stooped so low. The poor victim was just a piece of meat to be chewed and spat out by the pack of baying animals. Or, in this case, Carlos and his cronies. Gallance shook the torturous images, and accompanying scream, from his mind. Time for focus.
There are five other stories to MANCHESTER 6. My two favorite among them were LUCKY SHIT and MR. CURLY TOP. There are no bad story that sticks out here, but there are no stories that can stand in the shining glare of GALLANCE. It's just that ahead of the others. I thought the others were a little tentative. LUCKY SHIT has a great, ironic start and an intriguing protagonist, but it ended so abruptly that it took some irony out of the story, which is the variable the story was built on. Put in perspective, MANCHESTER 6 is the introduction of a great new voice, with a knack for interesting characters and wild, imaginative settings. GALLANCE is worth more than the price of admission alone. Col Bury's voice is stark and violent and clash pleasantly with the complexity of his characters. There might not be much material, but MANCHESTER 6 knows its purpose, to sell you its writer. Consider me a fan.
THREE STARS