Customer Reviews

Destinations Unknown

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Gary Braunbeck may still not be known much yet outside of the small press, but DESTINATIONS UNKNOWN is one more piece of evidence that he's rapidly becoming one of our finest modern fantasists. The short novel that opens this collection, "The Ballad of Road Mama and Daddy Bliss", is like the flipside of J. G. Ballard's "Crash", a wry and outlandish look at car culture. Braunbeck starts with a story of an average Joe working off community service hours by driving an ambulance, but soon turns our protagonist's world upside-down, when he finds himself in a community where both cars and people are recycled, and "The Road" is a living, breathing thing. Like a great road trip, this tale takes plenty of entertaining side trips, but they all point the way to an ending full of action, comedy and horror. Probably no author since R. A. Lafferty has been able to pull off a mix like that, although comparisons to the emotional punch of Theodore Sturgeon are apt as well.

The collection is rounded out with two shorter works, "Congestion", an uncomfortable piece about a man suffering a heart attack while stuck in a traffic jam; and "Merge Right", a serious left turn into the dreadful surrealism that has marked much of the author's other work.

The volume is also graced by the fine cover art of Deena Warner. One could have wished for an introduction, perhaps discussing Braunbeck's own forays into car culture, but the excellent fiction should be enough for anyone.

This collection of three road trip novellas from Gary Braunbeck won the Bram Stoker Award in 2006. IMO the Stoker is well-deserved. A very entertaining book.

Three stories - one novella, and two shorts. The novella, "The Ballad of Road Mama and Daddy Bliss" is equal parts strange, inventive, thought-provoking, and genuinely creative. It doesn't take long for Gary to develop sympathy for his characters and for him to always establish some personal link between the reader and his worlds.

A second story, about a man who is on a lonely drive with his wife's remains in an urn in the passenger seat, really had me near tears. The way he weaves suspense, grief, internal-dialogue, and the supernatural together, is just amazing. You feel like you're riding along in the backseat and you've known the protagonist all your life.

What I've read of Gary Braunbeck has been outstanding, and I am looking to pick up everything I can find now. I live in Ohio, too, and I've been to Denison U. which is in the town where he grew up and morphed into his fictional Cedar Hill, Ohio. You can't pass this guy up - trust me.

What can I say? Wow. This was my first experience reading Braunbeck. How is it that it took this long for me to discover him? Destinations Unknown reminded me of good old summer days, settling into the new Stephen King collection.

"The Ballad of Road Mama and Daddy Bliss" is the novella that dominates most of the book. Simply fantastic, Stephen King-like characters with Joe Lansdale's taste for the bizarre. "Congestion" is more the kind of short story you'd expect to find in one of the horror mags; good but a quickie. "Merge Right" is reminiscent of King's "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut" somewhat and had me just as enthralled as the first story.

Looks like it's going to be a Gary Braunbeck-filled year for me as I hunt down more of his work. I already have "Prodigal Blues," which is next. On finishing Destinations, I immediately ordered "Graveyard People," I'll have to decide where to go from there. It's rare to find an author you enjoy as much as I did Braunbeck. Highly Recommended!