Despairs & Delights captures ten stories from the pen of Lincoln Crisler in a surprisingly easy to read collection that should please most dark genre connoisseurs. Clearly since this is the first collection from the Augusta, Georgia based Author it features a lot of early fiction including Lincoln's first professionally published story. Let's take the collection for a spin and see if we like the feel.

The vibe to take from this collection is that the stories are short, crisp in style, and so easy to read that you hardly need to flex yourself. I always figure if something is easy to read then the Author is doing their business without fleshing things out with stodgy descriptive passages that stifle any form of narrative flow that might be going down. I decided to hit Despairs & Delights in between doing some coding, you know read a story, do the next part of the project, hit another story, yadda yadda. The only problem with this plan was I kept wanting to read the next story as I got my Crisler groove on, what the hey projects are meant to blow out right? So if after a quick read that holds plot as being more important than great flowing drafts of pseudo intellectual waffle then you are in the right place with this collection.

Genre wise, the collection immerses itself in the dark realm and doesn't come up for air. We got zombies, we get ghouls, lycanthrope goodness abounds, and there are more cannibals than you can wave a thigh bone at. This doesn't even take into account the homicidal maniacs and other dark forces lurking to jump the unwary reader. So yeah good tour de force of the darker streets of horror-ville, and Crisler doesn't stint on the red stuff, lap it up gorehounds.

For those after some variety in their diets, fibre is grossly overrated in your horror bowl for mine, Crisler doesn't just slink around the dark genre, he does occasionally visit other genres. So we get an almost fantasy yarn in the excellent Knight of the Living Dead, presupposing fantasy involves zombies after some horizontal action. I kid you not, besides investing the story with one of the best pun titles I've read this year, Lincoln Crisler goes where very few Writers have ventured before with this one. Off the top of my head the closest previous story I've read to visit lust over zombietown would be a ditty by ScaryMinds fav Felicity Dowker, name of story escapes me, it won some awards. Anyways yes Lincoln Crisler visits the fantasy genre, and proceeds to cull the unicorns and replace the Elves with zombies. But hey it's got a Knight on an errand ergo it's fantasy, suck it up friends and neighbours. Guess we could claim Organic is a sort of fantasy tale as well, though it's more your sort of fable with a warning. Back to the other genres Sci-Fi fans are catered for with the longish Vacation, which sees nasty Aliens after earth children and a rumbled Detective on their arses. Great stuff, so it's not space opera, exactly what were you expecting in a dark genre collection?

While Crisler is paying a thinly disguise lip service to other genres he still has his dark shroud on and is out to haunt your nightmares. Farewell Engagement sees a punk rock band finding out the true meaning of Anarchy in the UK written in blood. Dialling into the cannibal holocaust end of town Lane Feeds the Multitude sort of takes a twist on the whole Jesus and the fish deal, though with murder being more prominent than any sort of miracle. The Devil's Due reprises age old warnings about deals with the Devil not being all you think they might be. Bringing the wolf to the mix The Hitchhiker takes a couple of unexpected turns away from the expected meat market. Three Blind Dice sees Crisler winking at the audience again when the Devil demands his dues being covered. Did I mention cannibals already? - Victory Feast puts the meat back on the table in chilling fashion. And finally Game Over shows how divorce can get real messy.

So having mentioned every story in the collection I'm clearly on the “no favourites” bandwidth here. The fact is I loved each and every tale I was presented with in the collection so no point highlighting anything yo.

With Despairs & Delights Lincoln Crisler indicates he is a writer on the rise and I for one can't wait to wade into his second collection to see if his style has evolved. The only disappointment with this collection is that it's way too short, though admittedly at 500 pages it would still be way to short. Recommended reading, add it to your list, you wont have any regrets the morning after finishing the collection.

If after a copy of the collection then cruise on over to Lincoln Crisler's site where you can download a free pdf version or order an autographed hard copy.