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The Distended Eye
Just beyond the membrane, a part of human consciousness lingers, unknown, with the promise of an infinitely expanded mind. Some will voraciously seek to know it, others will stand with resolve in the face of it, and still more will be drawn into it and its dark implications, but each must act.
For there is something, a wholly alien being from the other side of the veil, effecting its own machinations upon the world to some uncertain, insidious end. And much closer, an amoral company works in secret, running terrifying experiments and obfuscating its purposes.
All will know some, but none will know all.
The Distended Eye is a novel-length collection of five original weird fiction tales.
For there is something, a wholly alien being from the other side of the veil, effecting its own machinations upon the world to some uncertain, insidious end. And much closer, an amoral company works in secret, running terrifying experiments and obfuscating its purposes.
All will know some, but none will know all.
The Distended Eye is a novel-length collection of five original weird fiction tales.
219 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 9, 2016
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74 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 11, 2018
The Distended Eye is a collection of short stories. While each story in this collection can exist on its own, together they form a larger picture. As such, I will discuss the faults and strengths of this novel from a holistic and reductionist (distended) eye.
Story 1
This story presented a mystery, and it was handled with such expertise that I wanted to keep reading to figure out what was going on. Diving was important to this story, and it was well researched. The characterization was decent, but the plot was meh. After the inciting incident, the team just sort of does the same thing over and over until they successfully resolve the mystery. There also was some unneeded head-hopping and POV changes.
Story 2
Once again, the suspense was well handled. This was amplified by the way the story was told: a recollection of the past. Said format provides you with a part of the solution but not all, keeping you tied until the end. Characterization was good, and the plot was great; things developed naturally and there was causality. I didn’t find anything that I didn’t like.
Story 3
This was the worst. Fredrik L. Knudsen did not provide enough time for this story to really develop. To top it all off, Knudsen included unnecessary POV shifts. This had potential; if more time had been spent on this story it could have been brought to the same level as the others.
Story 4
This was the best story—an unsettling, punchy, well-crafted piece of prose. The protagonist was developed pretty well for a short story. The plot was good, using seemingly unneeded details to sensibly facilitate a strange ending. Once again, there wasn’t anything that I found distasteful.
Story 5
Good plot and characters just like the previous story. My only gripe is with how narration was handled. It’s told in the same style as Story 2, but some parts make it seem like the protagonist is currently experiencing what he speaks of. Nobody tells stories like that.
Overall
Knudsen did a good job of creating an unsettling atmosphere—of making me feel as if something horrible could happen at any moment. Reaching the end of this anthology forms a cohesive, sensible whole that leaves enough unanswered to make you think about the story even after it has ended, but it will require some patience to see the entire painting.
This painting is somewhat marred by the prose itself, however. Knudsen has a tendency to include unnecessary words into his writing, giving it a floaty, clunky quality. The book could have benefited from a more rigorous editor.
Here are some examples of what I mean.
(20%) “The food that they had enjoyed during their trip now seemed unpalatable…” The characters in this segment are clearly shown not to be enjoying the food; this isn’t probabilistic, so “seemed” bogs down the sentence and should be replaced with “was”. Also, “that” adds no semantic clarity or information to the sentence and, therefore, should be removed.
(53%) “Benny then heard the words that he hoped he would never hear, because they would mean that he was finally losing it.” The issue with “that” has already been discussed. The second “would” adds no information. “Mean” should be turned into “meant”. Taken together, these changes would make this sentence flow off the tongue more smoothly.
(87%) “The more I researched, the more I began to feel like a Christian archaeologist discovering that the Pagans were right.” There is no need for “began to” when you could just say “felt”. Began makes it seem as if the character started feeling an emotion but never actually completed feeling said emotion.
Unnecessary words aside, this book isn’t filled with typos; don’t get that idea in your head.
Story 1
This story presented a mystery, and it was handled with such expertise that I wanted to keep reading to figure out what was going on. Diving was important to this story, and it was well researched. The characterization was decent, but the plot was meh. After the inciting incident, the team just sort of does the same thing over and over until they successfully resolve the mystery. There also was some unneeded head-hopping and POV changes.
Story 2
Once again, the suspense was well handled. This was amplified by the way the story was told: a recollection of the past. Said format provides you with a part of the solution but not all, keeping you tied until the end. Characterization was good, and the plot was great; things developed naturally and there was causality. I didn’t find anything that I didn’t like.
Story 3
This was the worst. Fredrik L. Knudsen did not provide enough time for this story to really develop. To top it all off, Knudsen included unnecessary POV shifts. This had potential; if more time had been spent on this story it could have been brought to the same level as the others.
Story 4
This was the best story—an unsettling, punchy, well-crafted piece of prose. The protagonist was developed pretty well for a short story. The plot was good, using seemingly unneeded details to sensibly facilitate a strange ending. Once again, there wasn’t anything that I found distasteful.
Story 5
Good plot and characters just like the previous story. My only gripe is with how narration was handled. It’s told in the same style as Story 2, but some parts make it seem like the protagonist is currently experiencing what he speaks of. Nobody tells stories like that.
Overall
Knudsen did a good job of creating an unsettling atmosphere—of making me feel as if something horrible could happen at any moment. Reaching the end of this anthology forms a cohesive, sensible whole that leaves enough unanswered to make you think about the story even after it has ended, but it will require some patience to see the entire painting.
This painting is somewhat marred by the prose itself, however. Knudsen has a tendency to include unnecessary words into his writing, giving it a floaty, clunky quality. The book could have benefited from a more rigorous editor.
Here are some examples of what I mean.
(20%) “The food that they had enjoyed during their trip now seemed unpalatable…” The characters in this segment are clearly shown not to be enjoying the food; this isn’t probabilistic, so “seemed” bogs down the sentence and should be replaced with “was”. Also, “that” adds no semantic clarity or information to the sentence and, therefore, should be removed.
(53%) “Benny then heard the words that he hoped he would never hear, because they would mean that he was finally losing it.” The issue with “that” has already been discussed. The second “would” adds no information. “Mean” should be turned into “meant”. Taken together, these changes would make this sentence flow off the tongue more smoothly.
(87%) “The more I researched, the more I began to feel like a Christian archaeologist discovering that the Pagans were right.” There is no need for “began to” when you could just say “felt”. Began makes it seem as if the character started feeling an emotion but never actually completed feeling said emotion.
Unnecessary words aside, this book isn’t filled with typos; don’t get that idea in your head.
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