Bryan R. Dennis

There's a broader selection of reviews of this novel over at Amazon - so you might want to take a look at those before deciding whether this book is for you. Where I came out was somewhere around the 4 star mark – there were parts of the novel about which I shared the enthusiasm of the many 5 star reviewers but others where I had some sympathy with some of the more critical reviews on Amazon (which, I hasten to add, are in the minority).

It reminded me most of some of Douglas Coupland’s work. For instance, it explores some similar territory - office cubicle hell, the vacuousness of modern life etc (it is, after all, set in and around Las Vegas) - and contains a fair amount of Coupland-like quirky observation (maybe a bit much at times).

But it is not without emotional depth – there is a nice twist, part way through, when we finally discover exactly why our hero, Henry Pluck, seems to like hanging out with older people quite so much (which is initially quite puzzling). As one of the Amazon reviewers has pointed out, it can occasionally feel a bit meandering – but since Henry has rather lost his sense of direction, it’s in the nature of the subject matter that the reader should end up feeling as if he/she is being led around in circles a bit (rather than being propelled in a straight line at Warp Factor 7 directly towards an explosive, coronary-inducing finale).

So, overall, my verdict on "Epitaph for a Coyote" is well worth a read - but my favourite from this author so far is a short story called "Illinois Corn" from a collection called "Unpredictable", which you can get free from feedbooks - click here for a review:
http://www.paulsamael.com/blog/unpredictable… (meer)