Review
“You mean those little pricks are having a mutiny?” - Santa Okay so this is a short story rather than a novella, our previous minimum length for review. Since it's been published as a stand alone work, in much the same way as short films see the light of day, we figured we should have a look, read the actual story, and pass on our thoughts. Please note we don't accept short stories for review that have not been published as stand alone works. If your story has featured in a book or magazine then we will review the whole package rather than individual parts. Okay lets fire up the reindeer and slay our way into this. Santa is distracted from fixing a Japanese toy by his Wife who can inform him the Elfin helpers are throwing off the shackles and are in open revolt. The reindeer have already felt the brunt of the proletarian uprising and Santa needs to gain control again quickly before all hell breaks loose. Thankfully Santa has stocked up on combat weapons for just such a situation and is fairly quickly knee deep in Elf gore as he exacts retribution. However there's a darker secret buried deep in the elfin quarters. Has Santa got the fire-power to get the job down right or will Xmas be cancelled this year? Being that we are rapidly heading toward December 25th and I haven't as yet received my copy of Festival Fear (2010 edition), due to only having just paid for it, I needed something to help celebrate the festive season in ScaryMinds style. Thankfully Legumeman came to the party with a Christmas fable from Melbourne writer G.N. Braun. And Christmas was saved once again from those who believe it should be celebrated without faux Christian dogma all wrapped up in the commercial imperative. Nothing says Xmas like a go for broke horror yarn that is taking no prisoners in the telling. I'm in fact going to make a call here and say Insurrection is the best dark genre Xmas yarn since Peter Ball's flash fiction piece The Year The Zombies Came For Christmas. First things first, Braun's tale of seasonal massacre is not for the genteel, the language in use is about what you would expect to hear down the local building site. Extreme situations call for some extreme language in my opinion, as opposed to what Hollywood may believe. So if blue language isn't your thing, and hey I don't believe f-bombs on the street are acceptable but dug Braun's dialogue, then this may not be the present that's really going to sit well under your tree. In Insurrection Santa isn't shy about tossing around a few f-bombs, and even the occasionally c-nuke. Guess I should also mention this one is high on the violence stakes. Besides slaughtered reindeer dressed for the barbie, Santa goes all Rambo on us, and isn't taking any prisoners while doing so. The violence kind of fits in with the overall tone of the story, and I certainly had a wide smile on my dial over the personal arsenal Saint Nick has at his disposal. If the concept of Elves being slaughtered via various high powered weapons offends then once again Insurrection may not be the story to usher in the 25th with. For those still with me, thankfully the moral majority have departed for Twilight no doubt, what you do get with Insurrection is a well written story, that is paced extremely well, and which has a twist in the tail to keep things rocking. There's a few bends along the way to the conclusion that add a lot of interest, and of course the whole concept of Santa swearing like a dockyard worker and sniping Elves will I'm sure appeal to a lot of ScaryMinds readers. Braun has written this one for us, bless his deranged mind. Clearly I'm not about to say you are going to learn anything about the human condition from the yarn, sometimes that just isn't part and parcel of a horror outing, but you will be kept entertained for how ever long it takes you to read the 17 odd pages. For some strange reason the story reminded me of one of those Dark Horse Alien books, don't ask me why just had the same feeling of pace and action injection that drives you along to the conclusion. So yes we are talking action here rather than psychological drama. Overall I had a hoot with the story and was left with the strong impression that G. N. Braun is a lot stronger writer than you initially expect, given the concept of Resurrection. Something of an early Christmas present, the story certainly has me checking to see what else the Author may have available currently. I would tend to ensure you have been good during the year, for sure you don't want this version of Santa dropping down your chimney if you haven't been. Okay the cool part about the story is it's available as a downloadable pdf from Legumeman Books, and it's absolutely free. As stated, early fracking Xmas present or what! For those wanting to see what G. N. Braun might be up to, check out the Author's website right here. For those who want additional Santa action from Braun, there's a sequel to Insurrection included in Tasmaniac's Festive Fear this year, but unfortunately that collection has sold out already. On the bright side I'll tell you all about it in our review of the book.
ScaryMinds Rates this read as ... Have added this Author to the list of writers to keep an eye on.
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