A debut story now, and one that,unfortunately, misses the mark for me. ‘Maximum Darkness’ is the tale of  twenty-two-year-old Robin Parker, who has become plagued by visions — he sees auras of light and shadow around people. He doesn’t understand what they are, but remembers reading a story once about something similar; if he could only find the book it was in…

The problem with this story is that the real turmoil in Robin’s mind doesn’t come across strongly enough. We know that he’s deeply disturbed by his visions, but we’re watching him react to them from a distance, rather than experiencing them with him — and, because we’re not so invested in Robin’s experiences, it becomes harder tio empathise with him. ‘Maximum Darkness’ ends up as okay, but nothing more.

Link
Index of my Black Static 15 posts