Customer Reviews

Strangers and Beggars

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Short stories are snapshots. Snapshots often reveal a truth that a formal photograph cannot. The seventeen snapshots in this collection are divided into sections (Teaching, Love, Death, Time) but they all feature the same thing: touching characters in extraordinary and true circumstances.

No matter how odd the situation, the reader can connect with the character; under the nonsensical lies plain truths we can all understand. Don't fit into your surroundings? Don't despair; neither do many of the people you'll meet in these stories.

Take Miss Hathaway. She has a problem with a spider in her classroom and when she's directed to take care of it herself, she does, but in an altogether unexpected manner. Demi has the ability to sense the life-force of insects, but even better, she can channel that energy. Yet, nothing ever goes how one expects it to--good for readers, heartbreaking for Demi.

The death dwarves have even bigger problems. They're just trying to do their job, which is to bring death to the masses. Our Intrepid Hero John Minor gets in the way. What's he thinking? Another man trying to do his job is Pierce. That job involves recording the voices of the past. He's recording something he shouldn't be, and just can't stop himself.

Ever have a neighbor who doesn't want to adhere to the covenants of the community? You're already familiar with Gary then, who seems determined to paint his house black. Owen doesn't like this at all, though his wife keeps going over there...

Have you ever sacrificed something near and dear for love? Ever dared to speak forbidden words? Relied on a sixth sense during a baseball game? Have you crouched atop your desk at work while sharks circle? Of course you have.

Which means you'll relate to the people in these stories. You'll understand their dilemmas, their heartbreak, their fear.

And that makes this collection a treasure. It's science fiction and it's fantasy, but at its heart, it's truth.

Simply put, "Strangers and Beggars" is one of the best short story collections I've ever read.

Sixteen of the seventeen stories kept me riveted from start to finish. Though the stories cover a wide variety of themes, settings, and characters, they share a solid foundation of Mr. Van Pelt's great writing and vivid imagination. If you enjoy the book even half as much as I did, you'll have gotten more than your money's worth.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this collection of short stories. it is worth pointing out that some stories are "sci-fi," others are more fantasy genre and yet others are neither of those. That is not a criticism -- I was happy to read all of them. The author has a knack for writing memorable characters in worlds that seem to have gone in some way topsy-turvy. The stories could almost have been written in a previous decade (for me they read like the 1970's) but the stories were written more recently. Again that's not a criticism but if you are looking for 21st Century "gore and action type sci-fi," you wont find it here.

Then you'll like James Van Pelt's "Strangers and Beggars." The stories here cover fantasy and science fiction with an emphasis on fantasy in the modern world. They are at once thought provoking and entertaining. Van Pelt is a name to watch for.

Jim is a friend. While he was collecting the short stories for Strangers and Beggars he withdrew one. Not right for this collection. This collection might be used in a classroom and as a teacher Jim knew that the withdrawn story was not right for a classroom.

Great decision. I can share each and every one of his tales and keep the young reader's interest. The book is on the American Library Association's Best Books for Young Adults.