Wandering Souls: Blue's Ballads and Proverbs

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

You are invited to sit and listen as stories of tragedy, growth, and extraordinary situations unfold. From a farmer who wants to rebuild his family's home to a young girl who is related to her entire school, this collection of short stories will connect you to harrowing characters and is designed to make you think "Did they make the right choice?" as you ponder the nuance in each episode. We hope you enjoy the full series (No new episodes currently scheduled).

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: Thebluehand_

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 2
Views: 4,064

Chapters(16 total)

Reviews

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Community Reviews(1)

D.J. RintoulRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I've really enjoyed reading The Blue Hand's short stories thus far.
It's my hope that this collection will expand and reach even greater heights.
A brief set of reflections on my perception of the collection's strengths and weaknesses:
The writing style is great fun, extremely engaging, capable almost by itself of hooking the reader and pulling you in until the story really gets going. In particular, the way this author writes horror (including psychological horror) shows a strong instinct for how to grasp the reader's attention and build suspense and dread.
The style of writing in the allegorical stories is excellent as well, although I think those stories lack some of the bite that the horror has. While the first three stories in the collection have more or less perfectly satisfying endings that fit what was created, I felt that the ending of the fifth story undermined how serious and threatening the antagonist of that story felt throughout. I had a similar issue in the sixth story, and I also questioned what the significance of the allegory was.
If the characters are stand-ins for world religions, why is Quetzalcoatl still alive while Mr. Weh is dead? Judaism (if Weh is meant to be original-recipe Judaism, since that is the foundation of Christianity and Islam) is still alive and well, and it will probably outlast pagan beliefs generally.
If the characters are instead symbolic of actual gods that are supposed to exist in the world of the story, why would they ever be willing to see the influence of religion on the world end? Are Loki and Satan really going to be motivated to do what's best for humanity, as the story asserts the end of YAH International is, when doing that would also shorten their lives? How does a deity die (as Mr. Weh apparently has), anyway?
I get that the message is how ruthless religion is in its method of spreading, and I don't disagree that it's a message worth conveying.
But it feels as if the allegory lost a lot of its logical consistency