Book Review – Corona Chan: Spreading the Love

Originally released in March this year, Corona-Chan: Spreading the Love: Infectious Tales of Fantasy and Suspense Designed to Spread the Pulpdemic (or just Corona-Chan: Spreading the Love for short) is a fun collection of short stories which has thus far been the favorite book that I’ve read this year. There’s no particular theme to this collection, save that the stories generally fall into the science fiction, fantasy, or suspense genres. Beyond that, every author did his own thing. It’s truly an homage to the pulp fiction magazines of old, in the best ways possible.

I’m not going to go through every single story, but there are a few in particular that I’d like to highlight. First is At the Feet of Neptune’s Queen by Abraham Strongjohn. It takes place in the classic Barsoom universe created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which tells a fast paced adventure of Martian Prince Ch’Or and his companions trapped on the planet Neptune.

Second was Someone is Aiming for You, a sort of paranormal crime thriller from JD Cowan. Part Batman, part The Shadow, Cowen’s story has me on the edge of my seat from start to finish.

Third, I’d be remiss without mentioning Anacyclosis by Brian Niemeier. As stand alone story, it’s an excellent and thought provoking piece with some great mecha action. However where it really comes alive is recognizing that it’s a small piece of Niemeier’s larger Combat Frame Xseed universe, of which I’ve written before.

My favorite of the book, however, has to be Jon Mollison’s novella Adventure Constant. Blending our reality with a familiar enough yet delightfully different one, this is a story that made me want a lot more set in this universe. Fortunately for me, there is a follow up novella now available on Amazon.

None of this in any way should be taken as a slight against any of the other stories in this collection. Unlike some story collections I’ve read, there isn’t a dud in this book, at least not for me. Once I can start buying books again, I’ll likely be adding more from all of these authors.

At its full price of $0.99, Corona-Chan: Spreading the Love is well worth purchasing. There aren’t many better entertainment values for a dollar than this. However, the Kindle version is currently on sale for the low price of Free. Definitely can’t go wrong with that!