First time of this author and really enjoyed both stories. He really has a way with words and telling a story.. ( )

More literary in feel than most science fiction ( )

This book consists of two speculative novellas by Walter Mosley -- one involving Prometheus’s return to contemporary south-central Los Angeles; the other an animatronics firm’s discovery of a portal to the cosmos.

I read very little genre fiction but was eager to read these because I’ve hugely enjoyed Mosley’s writing and rich characterization, especially The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned and Little Scarlet. So I’m distressed to report that I hated these. They have a YA (vs. adult) feel, and (more than once) I envisioned a high-schooler writing them on his way to turn them in during class -- very thin, a mere outline of character and plot (especially in “On the Head of a Pin”), where I was continuously blind-sided by last-moment information, new characters and unearned twists.

As I said and to be fair, I’m not familiar with the conventions of this genre -- these novellas may fit them well. But I am confident in suggesting them only to fans of speculative fiction.

(Review based on an advance reading copy provided by the publisher.) ( )

Walter Mosley is a very good story teller. I like him because he fires my imagination. He is rightly noted for his detective fiction featuring Easy Rawlins, but as shown in these two stories, he seems to know no boundaries. "On The Head Of A Pin" deals with the consequences of being able to see into the past and the future. The other story tells the tale of an attempt to lift man from the dregs of our society to the heights our souls were meant achieve. While both stories are very imaginative and well written, I definitely preferred the story,"On The Head Of A Pin",for it's imaginative theme combined with more believable characterizations. Mosley can take you from the heights of a mountain to the depths of your soul. He can help us count the the angels sitting on a pin or give our souls the gift of fire. Book provided for review by the well read folks of Amazon Vine and Tor publishers. ( )