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A Sky Littered with Stories
“I’m sure the sky is littered with stories, but they’ve all eluded me.”
Vegetable growing competitions. A crashed UFO. Unthawed poultry. And a ladder of stars.
Inside these pages, you will encounter a universe of differing characters. Some are fantastical and some entirely ordinary—though not a single one is the same as another. Every person in this universe is living a different life, and each of their lives is composed of countless stories.
Balancing humor and heart, this enchanting collection of fiction juxtaposes extraordinary circumstances with slice-of-life narratives as each attempts to interpret universal experiences. A Sky Littered with Stories finds the wonder in every human connection.
Vegetable growing competitions. A crashed UFO. Unthawed poultry. And a ladder of stars.
Inside these pages, you will encounter a universe of differing characters. Some are fantastical and some entirely ordinary—though not a single one is the same as another. Every person in this universe is living a different life, and each of their lives is composed of countless stories.
Balancing humor and heart, this enchanting collection of fiction juxtaposes extraordinary circumstances with slice-of-life narratives as each attempts to interpret universal experiences. A Sky Littered with Stories finds the wonder in every human connection.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
269 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 23, 2018
5 people are currently reading
1126 people want to read
About the author
R.D. Pires
8 books110 followersRD Pires has found there's always a story to tell, and so he spends his time writing them down. A writing project is always on his mind, even when there aren't enough hours in a day to work on them.
Author of many genres, he has a special place in his heart for queer fiction. His latest works have been part of The Tides That Reign series with book 1, Design of Darkness out last summer, and book 2, Sparrows Sing of Dying just released!
He lives in California with his husband and their daughter.
Author of many genres, he has a special place in his heart for queer fiction. His latest works have been part of The Tides That Reign series with book 1, Design of Darkness out last summer, and book 2, Sparrows Sing of Dying just released!
He lives in California with his husband and their daughter.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 7, 2020
A panoramic view of humanity.
In “A Sky Littered with Stories” by RD Pires, readers are taken on a winding tour of life with its varied ups and downs across an expanse of existence from birth to death. Within this collection of short stories, the emotions are ever-present and, much like the starry night above, are wide open for interpretation and meaning in our own lives while we gaze upon the light offered.
At its start, Pires’s work could be seen as a simple collection of short stories showcasing his work. Several pages in, readers are treated to the subtle brilliance hidden within. Weaving heart throughout, Pires takes his readers on a journey that seems to dance effortlessly between genres without overly saturating his work on one particular area of interest. Hints of the supernatural combine with drama and suspense while action blends flawlessly with budding romance coupled with fear. Each short story, something new. Each offering, a shifting perspective, an emotion checked off a hidden list. Expertly crafted, each display denotes a sense of our fragile existence, the mortal coil that ties us together. Although readers will be wanting to place Pires’s writing into a specific genre, doing so would only muddle the overall experience and diminish the appeal of how anthologies function. His work can be seen as all things, all of it in bits and pieces, beautiful, broken, dark, and light.
Within the stories, beyond the shifting parameters of Pires’s scenes, characters are well delivered and conceptually sound on all levels. We are pulled into their worlds and given access to moments, seconds of lives beyond our own. While the endings of most of the offerings follow a “good enough for now” or “happy for now” setting with some dropping off not so heart-felt, it does take some time getting used to this technique until we are made aware that maybe Pires’s goal was to force us to reminiscence, feel, or evaluate which worked flawlessly on so many levels in that regard. Readers will no doubt find enough detail in each story to be drawn in and allowed to form their own opinions on how each should effectively end or if what was given is enough to satiate.
Throughout, readers may find that Pires’s work operates much in the same way a television remote works. Each story seems to represent a channel change, to a show already in progress masterfully crafted for our appeal that works double duty to invoke a feeling, bring forth a long-forgotten experience of our lifetimes be it love, loss, illness, or the oddity of a life lived on a spinning ever-changing planet. Given enough detailed information and characterization to interest us before the scene/channel is changed, each story leaves us with a different emotion, a new experience, a shifting perspective. Lingering on the mind longer than the page count of each, the stories encourage additional thinking on the readers’ part, exploration of scenarios and possibilities. One could easily see an additional anthology on Pires’s part containing a collection of “what happened next” or “later that same day” of some of his stories but the chance of souring the emotional longevity of his initial work would make that a dicey proposition.
“A Sky Littered with Stories” is a journey through a shifting landscape of people and places throughout timelines that mirror our own experiences and the emotions accompanying each. Thoughtful and paced affectionately, Pires’s work stands as a definitive example of the possible fullness and ultimate briefness of life in its many colored and beautifully fractured parts. Shining bright or dimly lit through space and time, each character is all of us, each makes an appearance, and all have presence and meaning among the backdrop of humanity. Wonderfully crafted.
In “A Sky Littered with Stories” by RD Pires, readers are taken on a winding tour of life with its varied ups and downs across an expanse of existence from birth to death. Within this collection of short stories, the emotions are ever-present and, much like the starry night above, are wide open for interpretation and meaning in our own lives while we gaze upon the light offered.
At its start, Pires’s work could be seen as a simple collection of short stories showcasing his work. Several pages in, readers are treated to the subtle brilliance hidden within. Weaving heart throughout, Pires takes his readers on a journey that seems to dance effortlessly between genres without overly saturating his work on one particular area of interest. Hints of the supernatural combine with drama and suspense while action blends flawlessly with budding romance coupled with fear. Each short story, something new. Each offering, a shifting perspective, an emotion checked off a hidden list. Expertly crafted, each display denotes a sense of our fragile existence, the mortal coil that ties us together. Although readers will be wanting to place Pires’s writing into a specific genre, doing so would only muddle the overall experience and diminish the appeal of how anthologies function. His work can be seen as all things, all of it in bits and pieces, beautiful, broken, dark, and light.
Within the stories, beyond the shifting parameters of Pires’s scenes, characters are well delivered and conceptually sound on all levels. We are pulled into their worlds and given access to moments, seconds of lives beyond our own. While the endings of most of the offerings follow a “good enough for now” or “happy for now” setting with some dropping off not so heart-felt, it does take some time getting used to this technique until we are made aware that maybe Pires’s goal was to force us to reminiscence, feel, or evaluate which worked flawlessly on so many levels in that regard. Readers will no doubt find enough detail in each story to be drawn in and allowed to form their own opinions on how each should effectively end or if what was given is enough to satiate.
Throughout, readers may find that Pires’s work operates much in the same way a television remote works. Each story seems to represent a channel change, to a show already in progress masterfully crafted for our appeal that works double duty to invoke a feeling, bring forth a long-forgotten experience of our lifetimes be it love, loss, illness, or the oddity of a life lived on a spinning ever-changing planet. Given enough detailed information and characterization to interest us before the scene/channel is changed, each story leaves us with a different emotion, a new experience, a shifting perspective. Lingering on the mind longer than the page count of each, the stories encourage additional thinking on the readers’ part, exploration of scenarios and possibilities. One could easily see an additional anthology on Pires’s part containing a collection of “what happened next” or “later that same day” of some of his stories but the chance of souring the emotional longevity of his initial work would make that a dicey proposition.
“A Sky Littered with Stories” is a journey through a shifting landscape of people and places throughout timelines that mirror our own experiences and the emotions accompanying each. Thoughtful and paced affectionately, Pires’s work stands as a definitive example of the possible fullness and ultimate briefness of life in its many colored and beautifully fractured parts. Shining bright or dimly lit through space and time, each character is all of us, each makes an appearance, and all have presence and meaning among the backdrop of humanity. Wonderfully crafted.
September 14, 2019
I read this book via an Amazon KINDLE Unlimited download.
Besides being a rather voracious book reviewer I’m also an author who has written a book containing Flash Fictions, the majority are only 5 sentences long, so I can appreciate the effort it takes to write short stories like the two dozen, contained on the pages of this book
These short stories can be read in doctors' waiting rooms, riding the public transportation system or whenever a reader doesn’t want to be left wondering how the story ends given the amount of time, they had to read the story in. While each story might be brief, each story makes a statement and has a beginning, middle and ending.
The myriad of the types of stories the author has written for this book, along with a multitude of fully-developed characters and storyline settings, along with a broad range of emotions from warming the cockles of a reader’s heart to pulling at their heartstrings, from the innocence of a child to an adult’s convoluted existence are sure to please a broad audience of readers.
Given the complexity of his stories, as well as for entertaining his readers, I’ve given the author, RD Pires, the rating of 5 STARS he’s received from this reviewer.
Besides being a rather voracious book reviewer I’m also an author who has written a book containing Flash Fictions, the majority are only 5 sentences long, so I can appreciate the effort it takes to write short stories like the two dozen, contained on the pages of this book
These short stories can be read in doctors' waiting rooms, riding the public transportation system or whenever a reader doesn’t want to be left wondering how the story ends given the amount of time, they had to read the story in. While each story might be brief, each story makes a statement and has a beginning, middle and ending.
The myriad of the types of stories the author has written for this book, along with a multitude of fully-developed characters and storyline settings, along with a broad range of emotions from warming the cockles of a reader’s heart to pulling at their heartstrings, from the innocence of a child to an adult’s convoluted existence are sure to please a broad audience of readers.
Given the complexity of his stories, as well as for entertaining his readers, I’ve given the author, RD Pires, the rating of 5 STARS he’s received from this reviewer.
January 28, 2020
What R.D. Pires has accomplished with his outstanding collection, A Sky Littered with Stories, goes to the heart of what the short story form does best: beautifully capture a moment in time. Story after story, page by page, Pires captures fleeting, granular, emotional moments that are often difficult to describe but are universally recognizable. The wonder of childhood, the sadness of losing a loved one, the thrill of a chance encounter, the regret of past decisions, the joy of having your hard work recognized, the longing for something greater than ourselves. These are the kinds of moments that Pires explores and illuminates with each of his stories. And to top it all off, he writes with a level of creativity and a willingness to experiment that is incredibly inspiring. Give this collection a chance. You won’t regret it!
May 29, 2019
Most of these were entertaining. Some were a bit ridiculous. But my favorite stands out as the one story that seems real: In Me All That Fire. So good.
July 16, 2022
i wanted to like this book but i absolutely hated it. i felt it was all over the place and couldn’t get into it as quick as i wanted to.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews