Red Phone Box: A Darkly Magical Story Cycle Paperback – November 26, 2013

A series of strange and magical short stories each featuring a red phone box. The stories are by different authors and each manages to tie in the phone box and something from a prior story. The stories are for the most part clever and entertaining. They offer a touch of the macabre and strange. An interesting premise that was well executed.

It started out for me as very confusing. But felt drawn to characters . The story development fascinated me. At one point I thought this is just too many story lines. But in the end thoroughly enjoyed this battle of good over evil.

It has a story by Warren Ellis in it, if that doesn't equate to a guarantee of a good read I don't know what does.

A series of stories that are both technically unique and deeply connected.

Oh my goodness! I had absolutely no idea what this book was about at the start and might still be a little confused at the finish but it is an awesomely entertaining literary treasure! Read it. You'll be glad you did.

Weird, but I like the premise. It's like a game where each writer crafted a new chapter following the previous author's story.

A red phone box. It seems innocuous enough, a little outdated but nothing all that unusual. But this red phone box in particular can take you places, physically and emotionally, that you never imagined you could go. London is far more dangerous than anyone realizes, and the phone box plays a key, sinister role in this cycle of stories.I wanted to love this book. I thought it was such a cool concept. 58 installments, by 28 different authors, all weaving in and out of each other, all focusing on the mystical powers of the red phone booth. Sounds amazing, right? In many ways it was. Despite having so many authors collaborating, the writing style is cohesive, the voices similar, and the tone consistent. The actual story content, however, I found to be a bit scattered. There were just a few too many things going on here for me. I found it difficult to follow who was involved with whom, particularly when certain characters themselves could not keep it straight.And speaking of characters, there were just too many. When you need to include a downloadable dramatis personae for your readers, you may want to consider scaling back on the number of characters It was hard to feel any real connection to any of the characters or even care what was happening to them because I just could not keep them straight. This coming from a reader who often juggles up to 6 books at one time.I guess I went into this expecting something different (more Doctor Who-ish). I still think the concept, and the writing, was good, just a little overly ambitious.I received a review copy courtesy of TLC Book Tours in exchange for my honest review.

I was already expecting greatness from this book, having been a backer on Kickstarter (albeit a late one) and having gotten a good look at the behind the scene story process. I did somehow miss the fact that it had gone from being a collection of stories having to do with red phone boxes, to being a cycle of interconnected stories involving a particular phone box. This seriously peaked my curiosity; how the heck did they make this work? Well I don't know how they did it but they did! Of course, if you're anal retentive, you'll find a few stories that stick out from the main narrative but a true story lover can pull back and see that they don't detract from it but widen the universe a bit. After all, are you really going to believe that those characters are the only people ever to enter the phone box? There really weren't any stories that took away from the quality of the cycle and I thoroughly enjoyed the book, even when it did take some rather crazy turns. Upon seeing a page announcing a Book Two my heart leapt. I've already started saving up for the next Kickstarter!

In this ambitious anthology, there are many Londons. And many possibly realities. And other places. Humans who transform into cats (or vice versa). An Egyptian god with the head of a lion and the passion of a satyr. Blood-sealed mystic circles. All are under threat, from deities ancient and awful and some wonderfully modern, in yer face creations which aim to unseat the established order. These are not separate stories, to be read in isolation or in any old order. Instead they’re an impressive collaboration, a melding of voices and imagination, each writer telling one or more chapters in a sprawling, bewildering contemporary saga of mythical proportion.This is a substantial book, not a rapid read. Even on holiday, and able to devote big chunks of time to it, I found it hard to keep track of all the threads, to fathom where the myriad narratives and characters were going. Instead I allowed each chapter to present itself afresh: some showcasing a new person who arrives, enacts a morality tale and vanishes altogether – while others return time and again, their plots thickening around them into an increasingly chilling menace.So definitely bear with the opening third of the book, which introduces myriad characters and sets them on their converging paths. Some of the stories don’t seem necessarily to contribute to the overall arc, but many overlap slightly, each casting a shadow elsewhere in the collection. By the final quarter it’s become an almost conventional quest novel, with the players assembled into distinct teams, and lines of combat drawn.The ending perhaps doesn’t live up to the story’s early promise – perhaps too many characters in play, too many threads left dangling. I paid close attention but I’m pretty sure that a couple of choice characters simply vanished from the arc, their part in the tale left unfinished.Even so, the majority of Red Phone Box kept me captivated. I loved the contrast in styles, the skill of the editors in blending it all together, the myriad in-jokes (‘indigo starfish’ indeed) and the accomplished interpretations of street-level London, and of the otherworldly low lives which might lurk between the seams. A great book to indulge in over a few days; monstrously more accomplished than the average anthology of short stories.8/10Find the full review at murdermayhemandmore.net

I enjoyed this book in terms of it being very different to the sort of thing I would usually go for, and could certainly appreciate it for the achievement it was, but I have to say I found it a real struggle at times to keep up. I read this with my book club, and it seems that those of us who read it in bigger chunks enjoyed it more than those of us who dipped in and out a few chapters at a time (me being one of them), mainly because there are so many characters and storylines it's really difficult to keep track if you leave too long between each time you read. There is a character list you can download which is a definite help, but for me that wasn't always to hand, and so there were a number of times where I just couldn't remember who was who or where they were meant to be. Give it a go if you have time to sit and concentrate, but as a commuter it was something of a challenge!

A unique concept, writing in the round with an unusual theme - 'don't go into the phone box!'. Loved this book, a recommended read.

The book itself is challenging and rewarding as the various storylines interleave. The editing is well done to mix the various writing styles from the authors. Some open endings and will be interesting to see if there is a book 2

Really enjoyed this. I have no idea how hard it must have been to organise so many writers to produce this cycle, but the effect is brilliant. Snapshots of people's lives building into patterns and then a very tense climax. Great stuff.