This short fiction review is for another chapbook of short stories. This time, however, instead of centering on a specific type of monster, this book is a tribute of sorts to Edgar Allan Poe. “3 for Poe: Tributes to a master of horror” is a short chapbook that contains three short stories that are written in the same style as Poe by a writer I had never heard of before that goes by the pen name Habu.
Now I am a fan of Poe so I was curious to see what direction the stories were going to take. Habu presents the tales in the same style Poe tales in that they are told in a narrative form. This form may seem somewhat dated by many modern readers who are not familiar with the classic writers such as Poe or H.P. Lovecraft who preferred to write in this style. It was nice to see the stories done this way even while realizing that it can be a difficult thing to pull off.
So this chapbook contains three short stories told in the vein of Edgar Allen Poe: “The Racher,” “The silken memory,” and “The Birthright.” Habu does a good job presenting these tails in the same manner as Poe and they read a lot like many of Poe’s short stories. I have to give him credit for his fair job of copying one of the masters of horror.
The problem with the chapbook, however, is that the author is able to emulate the style of Poe but not match the content. The middle story, “The silken memory,” came close to matching the intensity of Poe but the other two stories just fell short. Habu seems to have talent as shown by his ability to emulate Poe’s style and I would like to read some more of his works to see if that talent shows through. This chapbook was a good, short diversion but I wonder if Habu’s talent was held back by his attempt to write in the style of another author. Still, give this book a read for a quick diversion and an interesting look at an author’s attempt to write like a master.
NOTE: This chapbook is no longer available from Smashwords at this time and may be difficult to locate. As such, I was unable to locate a picture for this review.
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