Story Review: Am I Alone? by J.R. Handley and Corey D. Truax from Alien Days Anthology

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

Spoiler Free Summary:  Am I Alone by J.R. Handley and Corey D. Truax is the third story in the Alien Days Anthology. Alexis is a security guard in Area 51 until boredom and curiosity cause her to stop roving outside and move inside. What she finds inside will change her life forever.

Character:  Alexis is an OK character. She’s proactive. I think my beef on her is that her proactivity is the only factor to her character that I find memorable. She does a few likable things, but as the sole character in this story (more or less), she doesn’t have any opportunity to demonstrate her character traits very much. As an Odera Chronicles short story, one can imagine we’ll see more of her in future books or anthologies, but we see more happen than we see her do things. 

Exposition: This story flowed well. I felt like it had a good mix of events and backstory. The fact that there are so few characters contributes way more to the slower parts of the story than the exposition, but some will feel the story drag here and there. I just don’t think exposition is to blame.  

Image of Mr. Truax was taken from his blog post for review purposes under Fair Use doctrine.

Worldbuilding: As an origin story, this worked well. The story is a great teaser opening to a larger series of adventures. No, we don’t get a lot of world building, but we do get promises that invoke a desire to read in seek of fulfillment, which is the goal of a story like this in my opinion.  

Dialogue: I have to give this an N/A. There are indeed a few spoken lines in this story, but there just isn’t enough dialogue to evaluate fairly. 

Description:  This was probably one of the stronger aspects of the story. It’s a very visceral, cerebral story. We experience a lot of events that aren’t necessarily character driven. That also contributes to the slower parts of the story, but the description gives it a life that a one-character story can’t bring to itself. Honestly, I think a single person story with very few interactions is a bold writing exercise. I felt that the authors knew that, and made sure to give readers detailed, sensory-evoking scenes to offset the limited character issues. I’m not personally a fan of description, but I can recognize the wisdom in the decision making process. 

Representative image of Mr. Handley was taken from his blog for review purposes under Fair Use doctrine.  

Overall: I’m still not positive where I would rank my top three stories in this anthology, but I can say with certainty that this is one of them. I would have loved it as a prologue to a space-fairing adventure story. It’s enough to make me curious, where if I had time or an Audible credit I didn’t know what to do with, I’d give her a chance. However, I’m not actively refreshing my Amazon and Audible accounts to see when this book comes out. It’s a solid story that at least promises better to come. 

Thanks for reading

Matt