Breakwater Harbor Books is a group of self-published authors that have banded together for promotional and support purposes.  This is just what it says, a collection of their short works.  Sadly, the quality of that work varies widely from one end of the collection to the other.

Even worse the lead off story is my least favorite.  “The Sliver of Abilon – A Mirrorsmith Tale” by Dee Harrison lives down to every negative stereotype of fantasy fiction.  The language is baroque with simple concepts adorned in elaborate vocabulary.  The story struck me as awkward and halting.  It was bad enough that I nearly stopped reading at that point.

Things didn’t get any better with “Diary of the Gone” by Ivan Amberlake.  Amberlake’s writing reads like the product of a modestly talented ninth grader.  He hasn’t learned how to tell a story and gets caught up in what he thinks is clever word play.  Instead we end up with peculiar sentence structure and ideas left hanging without any connection to the story.  Even when I re-scanned the story for this review I have no idea what it’s about.  It revolves around high school students and some mysterious activity in a local swamp.

“Life Ever After. Nina’s Story: Part 1” by Claire C. Riley was the first stories in this collection that made me think it might be worth continuing to the end of the collection.  She brings a little bit of a new twist to the zombie story.  Told from the point of view of a married couple who had been struggling with their relationship it gives a new way of approaching the story.  There’s not a lot here but the title gives me hope that she will continue to explore what she’s created.

Next up is “NovaFall” by Scott Toney.  It returns us to the overwritten style of the first story.  The concept is interesting but the writing just overwhelms it.  Toney is listed as the founder of Breakwater Harbor Books.  A quote from his “About the Author” section gives a taste of his approach.  “As an author, Toney has become a bard of many genres, from Fantasy and Sci-Fi, to Romantic Suspense, Historical and Religious Fiction”.  “A bard”?  Seriously?  My recommendation is that he try to focus a little more and polish his skills in just a few genres.

“Cybilla” by Mindy Haig is the fifth story in the collection.  By this time I was just about ready to quit.  Imagine my surprise when a romance story that draws heavily on concepts from mythology.  Not eactly my normal reading material.  But the story is well told and the writing is solid.

“Capturing Perfection – An artist’s tale of love, love and beauty in Renaissance Milan” by Cara Goldthorpe.  Beyond it’s ridiculously long title, the story (by another co-founder of the group) is interesting.  A beautiful woman is forced to use her gifts of painting to create works that her husband takes credit for.  Eventually she creates a special deck of tarot cards.  Goldthorpe bases that part of the story on historical fact.  I found her story telling a little awkward for my taste but the story carried me over that hurdle.

Closing out the collection is “until the Ninth Hour” by C.M.T. Stibbe.  Here we get a murder mystery to round out the book.  Centering on the work of a serial killer the story drew me in more than I expected.  It was a solid way to wrap things up.

Having read several other, similar collections I was disappointed in this one.  The couple of well written stories only barely balance the lesser offerings.