Very rarely do I give a collection of short stories a 5. I couldn’t put this down, I loved every story, they all have something, and while they’re not all completely unique, Alan Brennert has a very peculiar style of writing that just mesmerises me from the beginning. I can’t place my finger in what it is exactly, but I just love how he tells stories. All of the ones in this book are mostly stories of people on the edge of society whether because they are mythological creatures, social pariahs, or just have diseases that isolate them. Each story is unique and within different genres, but the feeling of loneliness, isolation, and ultimately finding their place or being at peace with themselves is the same in all, and no matter what the story was about, they all got to me. I think the most memorable ones are the one about the deaf musician and the girl he finds and falls in love with, the one about tue Aztec priest and the thief (it happens in two timelines), the extremely short Superman story, and the last, which also gives name to the book, and it’s about a scientist and unexplained phenomena happening on his lab. Most are tales of love for another knowing no bounds, while others are of loving yourself. I just loved the feeling it left me with.

The book was creative, fun, and worth reading.

Brennert's books on Hawai'i were so good that I thought I'd try his book of short stories. I try to stay away from short stories because there are typically a couple of "shouldn't have been there" selections. This was no exception. However, the first short was superb! The rest paled in comparison, although the last short was extremely good, but not superb only because of the somewhat anticlimactic final sentiment. Hawai'i and Moloka'i were his best; Daughter of Moloka'i was pretty damn good except for taking liberties with dialogue (adult Asian women in mid-century would NOT speak so crudely). I recommend this book for travel because you don't have to get too deep before interruption.

WOW! What a way to start the year! A fantastic book that built awareness and compassion for a community of people who were treated as subhuman. I am speechless, but this is definitely on my highly recommended list of books.

I'm not a fair judge of this book because I only bought it because it's the story version of my favorite television episode ever - a "Twilight Zone" from the late 1980's. The episode still gives me goosebumps (the good kind) every time I think of it.