 – Customer review on 14/01/2008
How can three of these four authors, all of whom are excellent in their fields, let the reader down so badly? Harrison is good, but nothing comes alive in her novella; the same with Pettersson, not a bad story but no oomph, not compared to her full-length novels. As for Sands, oh Lynsay, Lynsay, what were you thinking? The premise was okay, being accidentally turned into a shapeshifter, but when the bad guy comes in—no really, it’s not meant to be funny. I’m sure he’s meant to be evil. Just read part of the denouement: ‘Jill shuddered at the thought. Cutting parts off, freezing her . . . None of it sounded appetizing. She was doubly glad she’d escaped him that morning.’ I mean, puh-leeze. However this book does have a redeeming quality, and Liu shines like a star in a morass of mediocrity. When you read ‘Six’ you read a true master of writing, a story with no easy fixes, a story with such depth of characterisation that you will still be thinking of Six, the Chinese agent trained as a warrior and assassin since she was five years old, long after you’ve put the book aside. Liu takes this collection from a two to a four star.
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