Story Review: Go for Bait by T.C. Bucher, From For a Few Credits More Anthology

Spoiler Free Summary: Go for Bait by T.C. Bucher is the 11th story in the Four Horsemen anthology, For a Few Credits More.  Mackey seems to be running a boring operation in a crap location, but when projectiles randomly start flying at his team, he has to discern who’s attacking. Once he does, his team still has to take on the threat.

Character:  This is another story that I had to go back and skim just to remember stuff. I remember breezing through the story, but the characters aren’t very memorable. This story is a great action piece. But it’s plot driven, and while I don’t have a single negative memory of the story, nothing stood out either. The characters fell into this category for me.

Exposition: This had to have been done well. If I don’t have memorable characters, the action needs to be fast and the exposition needs to be next to nonexistent for me to be able to read it as quickly as I did. So what this story loses in depth and memorability, it makes up for in pacing and fun.

World building:  This was fine. I didn’t get frustrated with any questions (I would have remembered then).

Image of Mr. Bucher taken from his Amazon author page for review purposes under fair use doctrine.

Dialogue: This is sort of up there with character. I don’t remember any, so I know I didn’t hate it, and it didn’t slow me down.  However, I can’t recall a single line of spoken word.

Description: If I have trouble remembering it, the description had to have been done right. It was enough to keep my imagination active, but not so much that I felt like I had to slog through it.

Overall: When I went back today to scan this story, I immediately thought, “Oh, this is the story with the enemy in the tunnels!” No, I won’t remember it for years to come, but if I have a long drive or a plane ride I don’t know what to do with, this book was a pleasant, fun way to burn a few hours.  Not every story can be super memorable, but this one was at least fun.

Thanks for reading,

Matt