Story Review: A Series of Anomalous Phenomena by D.B. Crelia from Alien Days Anthology

Cover image taken from the book’s Amazon buy page for review purposes under Fair Use doctrine.

Spoiler Free Summary:  A Series of Anomalous Phenomena by D.B. Crelia is the second story in the Alien Days Anthology. Humm is a shape shifter serving as first officer aboard his ship. He’s been tasked with a mission to obtain some DNA, but when things start to go wrong, they seem to pile up until they reveal just how bad Humm’s day is about to get.

Character:  Humm is likable if not proactive. He’s not competent either, but that’s be designed. The light-hearted approach to the story really worked for Humm. If you can’t have a memorable character (and I don’t  think Humm was) the next best thing is to have a character who was memorable for something. Humm was memorable to me because of his earnestness, which makes his humorous shortcomings endearing rather than frustrating.

Exposition: Honestly I thought this was spectacular, especially for short fiction. I don’t remember a moment where the story didn’t move forward and keep me either laughing or wondering what would happen next. That’s a big credit to the author. 

Worldbuilding: This story also takes place on Earth. We could do with a bit more establishing the alien races. For the story, it wasn’t so bad. But I would have liked a bit more rounding out of the universe at large. However, if someone were to argue that wasn’t necessary and might obstruct the story, I’d probably have to admit that’s true.  

Dialogue: This was solid. It wasn’t bad at all, but it didn’t stand out either. I think it was the biggest, surest way to improve the story. If the dialogue were a bit more snappy and clever, this story might have gone from not bad to great or even better than that. 

Image of Mr. Crelia taken from his Amazon author page for review under Fair Use doctrine. 

Description:  I got what I wanted from the story in regard to description. As usual, someone could argue they want more, and I wouldn’t shout about it, but I saw what I needed, and my imagination did the rest.  

Overall: This was a clever little story that had a good amount of humor. If you have 30-minutes, and you wanted something fun to read or listen to on Audible, this would be something to reach for. 

Thanks for reading

Matt