Book Review: Breaking the Ice Stories from New Tibet V.1

 

Book:  Breaking the Ice Stories from New Tibet V.1
Author:  Tim Susman, et. al
Pages: 207
Hard Core Scale: 3.75/4
Normal Scale: 8/10
Publish Date: 2001
About: A collection of stories set on the icey, miserable world of New Tibet  where people fight for the right to survive, their dreams, and love amongst their corporate overlords and criminal organizations.
Review:
One of the pinnacle works of the fandom A collection of shorts set in Tim Susman’s (Kyle Gold’s) world of New Tibet containing mostly  writers of higher skill caliber and story sense. Rereading this has been a joy, but also an interesting reflection. Some stories had less luster and I could barely remember most.

Dead End:
Samuel C Conway (Uncle Kage) 4/4 10/10.
A bartender welcomes you to New Tibet.
Usually I’d frown upon the use of second person, but the frame is strong and well written. This is a classic Introductus done just right and sucks the reader into the rest of the volume with ease.

A Prison of Clouds
Tim Susman (KyPle Gold) 4/4 10/10
A young fox plans his escape with his love from New Tibe’ts cold hell.
The core of this volume. Written long before Tim became Kyle Gold. There is a reason most would mark him as the best writer in the fandom. I can only agree here at least from the Tim side of things. The highest quality of writing in an emotional rollercoaster ride that takes readers onward and inwards.

Nightswimming
David Andrew Cowan: ¾ 8/10
A fox lover tries to unite with her Otter lover while a father worries over his daughter.
High levels of beautiful writing. There is just some story formula work that is just missing under the hood in question of world design and character related to world. All of it just attaches to that Otter in a bad way, holes to fill, but that only will be apparent for those who are paying attention.

Array of Hope:
David Richards: 2/4 7/10
A fox tries to sneak off New Tibet while falling in love with an unlikely fellow.
Immense dialogue chains, low description, and no time to digest. The brevity gives for the reader to know and get to feel for the characters . In  Lon’s case his lack of care for the relationship just is shitty to begin with. So the three combo of dominate dialogue chains, lack of description, and characters not coming to the forefront in that lack or lacking of relationship hurts the work a lot.

A Touch of Gray
Jeffy Eddy 2/4 8/10
A snow leopard tries to take care of his only daughter while forces of light urge him into dangers in their battle against the dark.
Lovely pun, but no cigar. Lots of exposition telling moments amongst good writing. The big thing is this universe as a whole and a complex layer in world design that really complicates things. Quickly explained phenomenon on behalf of the ”supernatural” to get out of a corner is poor storytelling and does terrible things to world design.

Skin Deep

“2” 2/4 7/10

A wolf hitman falls in love with a blind fox, hoping their work does not catch up on them.
Beautiful concepts strangled in mechanical execution. Repeat sentence structure dominates the work with telling over showing. New Tibet is filled with downers. This issue is resolution does not happen in one form or another, the longest work in anthology having the weakest ending.  Very difficult to care or be attached by this character with their double life, when they are truly a terrible person. There is not enough equivalent exchange for that change of person. The split framing also does not help build character and hurts story flow. In addition to the royal use of you.

 


Gorgeous  Book Cover by Odis Holocomb

 

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