The Sky That Wraps

Collected Short Fiction

By: Jay Lake

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren, Jonathan Davis, Stephen Bel Davies

Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

This collection of short fiction from award winning-author Jay Lake represents his favorites of his own work, both current and classic. With an emphasis on recent publications since his last short fiction collection, in 2007, The Sky That Wraps showcases his reach in fantasy, science fiction, and the ambiguous territory in between. This volume includes two all-new stories, "Coming for Green" and "To Their Late Escape", as well as previously uncollected fan favorites "The American Dead" and "The Sky That Wraps The World Round, Past the Blue and Into the Black". Twenty other stories round out this wide-ranging survey of Lake's work.

©2010 Joseph E. Lake, Jr. (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Snoozers

If an author has to give an introduction before each short story, that’s a big clue they’re not good enough to stand alone. This is a collection of shorts, most between .5 and 1.5 hrs, and many connecting to the author’s various series (or so we’re told by the author). I kind of feel like these were the chapters that editors felt should be left on the drawing room floor, but the author is so enamored with his work that he just couldn’t let them go.

After listening to the novella Coming for Green, I thought this larger collection would be a good value. Sadly, most of these stories are about mood and feature reminiscing or ruminating about events,
Few of the shorts have action, dialogue, or memorable characters. I started and stopped this several times over the past year and ended up speeding up the narration quite a bit to get through it.

I only cared for the shorts from the Green universe, and perhaps that was more to do with Ms. Kellgren’s energetic narration breathing life into the characters.