Other Indie Authors Are Available #3

I've read some great books recently (plus a few stinkers...) and a number of them were written by fellow indie authors. I know many readers struggle to find the good books in the multitude of indie-books, and many indie authors struggle to find the audience they deserve, so consider this a literary dating service... and best of all, you get to date as many as you like! (Links are to Amazon UK)

Loisaida - A New York Story - Marion Stein

Good lord this was good! And I don't mean a good, self-published cheap Kindle book, I mean a good book full-stop. The story is told from multiple perspectives and points of view, and the author has total control over all these voices. The subtitle, "A New York Story" is perfect, because the multiple voices seem like a chorus for the city. Because of these shifts in view point, the book seems initially slightly scrappy, and all over the place, but careful reading reveals every section has a part to play.

The plot itself is strong too, and full of drugs, death, and sex. There's some genuine harrowing and moving scenes, and strong character development (if that's the right word for some of these character's fates).  Recommended if you like edgy literary fiction.


On The Holloway Road - Andrew Blackman


An interesting rewrite of On The Road, set in modern day Britain. The author plays on the contrast between the open road of the 50s original, and the traffic-jammed, speed-camera lined roads of nowadays. The titular road leads from London to the north of Scotland, and the two central characters have many encounters, although with a level of disillusionment and bathos not found in On The Road.

The writing throughout is strong and this is worth a read if you like On The Road.



Ice Age - Iain Rowan

Yes, yes, I've mentioned Iain many times on this blog, and his story Lilies - which is included here. But the praise is justified. The best stories here (for me Sighted, Here Comes The New Way, and the aforementioned Lilies) are those which are the most original, where the author is doing something utterly his own. Some of the others have a more conventional ghost/horror story structure, but always with something new - even if that something is just the clarity and precision of Rowan's prose, which is sparse but strong, and full of memorable little phrases. In particular the depiction of a war-torn city in two of the stories is brilliant.




(The full list of good self-published or independent authors I've discovered I keep updated here.)