What editor Amne C. Petty and the wonderful folks at JournalStone Publishing have done here is come up with an entertaining way to feature a number of writers in their stable where each one tells a tale using the common denominator of Limbus, Inc.
The book is a well conceived, shared-world, anthology that got better with each new short and was tied together masterfully by yet another story from Brett J. Talley which begins in the Prologue, appears at times between stories and wraps things up nicely in the Epilogue.
"Limbus is latin for 'edge' or 'boundry,' but that's not the whole story. Welcome to the worlds of Limbus, Inc, a shadow organization at the edge of reality whose methods are low-rent, sketchy, even haphazard to the ordinary eye: a tattered flyer taped to a bus-stop shed or tacked to the bulletin board of a neighborhood Laundromant, a dropped business card, a popup ad on the Internet. Limbus' employees are as suspicious and ephemeral as the company, if indeed it could be called a company in the normal sense of the word.
Recruiters offer contracts for employment tailored exactly to the job seeker in question. But a word to the wise...it's always a good idea to read the fine print."
In the first, of what appears to be a series of Limbus, Inc. books, we get to enjoy stories as diverse as "The Slaughter Man", by Benjamin kane Ethridge, a man hired by Limbus, Inc. because of his unique skills working for many years in a Slaughterhouse.
From Brett J. Talley, there's "The Sacrifice" where the lead character suffers from PTSD and only his particulr skills are suited to the job assignment he's been recruited for.
"One Job Too Many" from Joseph Nassise requires the applicant to travel back in time to perform a variety of tasks. When reading this one, I became so engrossed in the story, I was late coming back from lunch and all I could think was, please don't fire me, I really don't need to see a Limbus, Inc. business card on my desk.
Anne C. Petty has an entry titled, "We Employ." Here, the job is for a dog walker, but believe me, the job entails so much more.
This installment of Limbus, Inc. finishes with Jonathan Maberry's "Strip Search". A raw, gritty story involving a series of gruesome murders of young people and an assignment to stop the next one.
Each author comes at the assignment with a slightly different approach, but they all share the task of getting their protaganist to respond to contact from Limbus, Inc. I found the business cards to be very effective and enjoyed the way they interacted with the clients. You'll see what I mean when you read the book and I hope you do.
Official release date is April 26th amd Limbus, Inc. will be available as a limited edition hardcover, signed by the authors and in ebook formats as well.
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