Story review: Scream Angel

I blogged earlier here about a new reader and reviewer, Ken McKinley, discovering my work for the first time by coming across my story "Out of the Light" when it was reprinted in an anthology. He enjoyed that story enough for him to go looking for some more. Here's an extract of his review of my SF novelette, "Scream Angel": 

My introduction to Douglas Smith has been a very rewarding one. I stumbled upon his work in a compilation called Best New Werewolf Tales. The story was Out of the Light and it was excellent. This caused me to dig deeper. Who was this mysterious author that I hadn’t heard of before, did he write anything else, and was it as good as Out of the Light?

Well, I now have two of those three questions answered. I can’t say that I know him, but I did find more of his stories on Amazon and after reading Scream Angel, I can tell you that answer is yes for the final question. ... the world needs great story tellers and I feel that Smith deserves to be recognized as such. ...

In a wildly inventive and imagnative story, human emotions of loss, desparation, and love bubble to the surface. I’m usually not a huge fan of heavy sci-fi/fantasy. Most of the time, it requires such a bloated set up to be able to explain everything. I tend to tire of it because many authors have a hard time getting the balance right. ... I can honestly say that Smith does an excellent job in balancing the story and makes for an extremely enjoyable read. I loved the unique characters and premise of the drug, Scream.

The other thing that I found enjoyable is the brief explanation at the end of the story on how he came up with the idea of Scream Angel. It lent a personal touch to the whole thing and allowed the reader to have a glimpse into the creation of it all. I may not know the author, but i’m enjoying getting to know his work. 5 out of 5 stars.

Thanks, Ken!

You can read the full review here. "Scream Angel" first appeared in the anthology Low Port in 2003. It won the Aurora Award in 2004 for best short fiction. It's the lead story in my collection, Chimerascope, and is also available as a stand-alone ebook.