Title: Fool’s Fire

Author: Pete Mesling

Release date: October 1st, 2022

I’ve had the pleasure of reading a few things from Pete now; a collection and a novel, and I’ve become a fan of his storytelling and the way he paces his pieces.

When he reached out regarding this, his newest collection, I was excited for it and dove in immediately, believing it was releasing shortly. Turns out – it wasn’t coming out for about four months haha! Whoops! I guess better than the alternative and not realizing it came out four months prior!

What I liked: Much like the last collection of his I read, ‘Jagged Edges & Moving Parts,’ this one covers a lot of territory and makes it so that there will be something for each reader. It’s a nice feature, as sometimes a collection of a particular theme can result in a sense of repetition.

The highlights for me were;

• Imposter Syndrome – this was a pulse-pounder. It picks up innocently enough with some people driving on a road. They see a man, he tells them about something horrible happening ahead and takes them to ‘safety’ at a nearby Military base. We learn about a military experiment gone awry and begin to learn the horrible truth. This made for a fantastic short story but would easily have worked as a novella or even a novel itself. Great stuff.
• The Thing in the Road – I mean, with a title like that you know you’re in for something crazy, right? Simple set up – husband and wife driving home. Both have had a few too many, husband more than wife, causing him to struggle to keep them between the lines. They argue and then BAM! hit something they didn’t see. Mesling does an excellent job of keeping things straight forward yet complex.
• The Dragon’s Tooth – this was incredibly unsettling. A feature film is being made several decades ago. An artifact is revealed and things begin to happen and odd things occur. Really well done.

Mesling keeps the quality top notch throughout, which made for easy and exciting reading.

What I didn’t like: I’ve been saying this for like two years, but I’m fairly burned out on collections and anthologies. This may play into why some stories didn’t connect as much with me, but that is also a common thing or the nature of collections/anthologies. As always – reader mileage will vary with stories, but there are a lot of goodies within!

Why you should buy this: Mesling is a profoundly moving writer. His stories ebb and flow and rocket and all while maintaining their humanity and emotional connection to the here and now. I think this would be a perfect addition to anyone’s TBR who is looking for a new collection to dive into.

4/5