Home What's New? Digging up Donald Reviews Immanion Press Short Fiction Bibliography Who is this Pirie Fellow? Links Email Steven Pirie

Digging up Donald Reviews

"A fabulous tale, laugh-out-loud funny."
Best selling author, Storm Constantine

* * *

"...not simply one of the most enjoyable books I've read this year, but one of the most enjoyable books I've read for many years."
Steve Redwood, Whispers of Wickedness
Read the full review

* * *

"Pirie's book is a shot in the arm of a jaded genre and if there's any justice he will be welcomed with open chequebooks by the devotees of comic fantasy."
Peter Tennant, The 3rd Alternative review
Read the full review

* * *

"Digging up Donald is a novel that has to be read by anyone with even the faintest interest in the absurd or the fantastic."
Christopher Teague, Infinity Plus
Read the full review

* * *

"This reviewer found himself dreading finishing the book - it truly is that entertaining a read."
Kevin Etheridge, The Horror Express
Read the full review

* * *

"...an excellent read, both for the humour and for the storyline. It never fails to hold you, nor to amuse you. Mr Pirie writes humour very well indeed, and that is not an easy thing to do."
Neil Davies, oncewritten.com
Read the full review

* * *

"Like all good writers, Mr Pirie has a distinct "voice". From the first page of Digging Up Donald, you are aware of entering a different world. There are many things you will recognise; but this is not a place you have been before."
"realrobinsons" Amazon.co.uk review
Read the full review

* * *

"Fans of Terry Pratchett, rejoice! This book should be read by anyone who likes their humor just a little bit off. "
K Anderson, Amazon.com review
Read the full review

* * *

I knew, from the moment I read that opening sentence, that I was in for a thoroughly enjoyable experience with "Digging Up Donald".
Donald Hardy, Amazon.com review
Read the full review

* * *

"Pirie has been likened to writer Terry Pratchett in terms of his humorous fantasy style, and I will add to that a comparison with Tom Holt and Douglas Adams."
Crystal Watson, Amazon.com review
Read the full review

* * *

"This book has a host of fine points: domineering matriarchs; a sex-crazed reverend with, shall we say, unwholesome intentions for the world; young love; not-quite-so-young lust; a bar fight in the land of the dead; high tea in hell . . . I'd say more, but a large part of the fun lies in figuring out Pirie's particular brand of mythology."
D S Hoffman, Amazon.com review
Read the full review

* * *

"Author Steven Pirie has penned a truly wonderful story in DIGGING UP DONALD. Comparisons to Pratchett and others are apt due to the style of humor (which is singularly British in my mind, though I might add Americans Tim Powers and James P. Blaylock as others who invite comparison), but Pirie's voice is all his own. I highly recommend this book."
Robert Kimsey, Amazon.com review
Read the full review

* * *

...the best book I have ever read in my entire life...
Garry Charles, Amazon.co.uk review
Read the full review

* * *

Other Fiction Reviews

From Zencore about
Mary's Gift, the Stars,
and Frank's Pisser

"If the last story had an American voice, then Mary’s Gift, the Stars and Frank’s Pisser could only be written in Britain. A group of abusive tramps are living at the edge of society. One of them, Mary, has the ability to channel the power of a distant star. This gives her psychic ability, but she is crippled by self-doubt and fear. It’s a bleak, harsh story with just enough of a hint of redemption about it to lift it up to the top rank."

Jim Steel
Whispers of Wickedness

*

"Mary's Gift, the Stars, and Frank's Pisser: Mary, Frank, Ruth and Alf are homeless street people, literally living in the gutter. The harshness of their life and ailments is described like the way they live: in your face. But between the filth, madness and despair Mary has a gift, one she is both reluctant to use, and when she uses it, people mostly do not believe her. As such, it is more a curse, and one she passes on to her — let's put this euphemistically — less-than- considerate partner. There were quotes in Nemonymous 1 (no less than eleven), and Nemonymous 2 (six), none in Nemonymous 3, two in Nemonymous 4 (one at the beginning, and one incorporated in the story by some pretentious writer...;-), and two in Nemonymous 5. Zencore! has no quotes, but I suspect that "We are all of us lying in the gutter, but some of us are staring at the stars" from Oscar Wilde would have been perfect for this story. And well deserved.

Jetse de Vries
the Ecliptic Plane

*

"“Mary’s Gift, The Stars and Frank’s Pisser” is another of the shining gems in this collection. Mary and her fellows are street people—addicted, mentally ill, and emotionally impaired. Yet Mary is a true angel in human form, capable of miracles. If only she could just find a reason to do so. Even among the filth and vomit of the gutters, she marvels at the beauty of the heavens. And despite the wretchedness of her world, we feel her wonder and celebrate her redemption at the end."

Jim Stratton
Tangent Online

*

"Mary’s Gift, the Stars and Frank’s Pisser: Mary and Frank are a homeless couple. While she lies in the filth next to Frank, Mary likes looking up at the stars. She knows them all by name: "the Shoplifter’s Elbow on the rise to the east, Mad Alf’s Pigeons almost overhead, the snaking Frank’s Pisser to the south."

Mary’s very possessive and protective of her stars. And also of Frank’s Pisser, which she likes to ride while looking up at them.

This one’s written with a brutal honesty, and for me, this is another argument in favour of smaller future Zencore volumes. There are a number of worthy stories here, but as I’ve said, not all are easy reading so that what should be a pleasurable reading experience becomes an endurance test. My own reading tends to be done with notebook to hand, a stack of new and old anthologies half-read, half-written-up beside me and maybe a half-read novel to fall asleep over last thing. I’d say that my attitude towards reading most stories these days is similar to that of a student swotting for an exam. This is probably not what the authors or Editor Des Lewis had in mind as their ideal reader when they penned their stories. It’s certainly not how I used to read and probably explains why I actually finish so few books now.

Anyway, the story of Mary, one of life’s victims, channelling the energy of a distant star for her abusive love is one of the least palatable and best stories in the book."

ligotti.net

*

More Fiction Reviews

From Sien und Werden "Clowns and Ghosts" about my story To Pull a Child From a Woman

Following a rather good poem by Serena Spinello which portrays the clown as somewhat less than salubrious, Steven Pirie’s To Pull a Child from a Woman is just as strange as its title might suggest. And this is the task the protagonist, Hobo, has literally to do – pull a child from inside a woman for the delight of the spectators at a sinister infernal circus of death. He knows it can be done – the evil ringmaster Whiteface dragged him into the world the same way – but the mother of course dies, ripped open. In a secret part of a library he finds books which tell him how it can be done, and also meets the librarian, a woman who has never been able successfully to give birth… This is probably my favourite story in the magazine, a study of loneliness and need and faith, just pipping the offerings by Emma Lee and Peter Tennant.

Steve Redwood
Whispers of Wickedness

From Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine Issue 24 about my story Harry, the Wife, and Mrs Robson, Hell's Temptress from Number Six

Next up is "Harry, the Wife, and Mrs. Robson, Hell's Temptress from Number Six" by Steven Pirie. In this surreal urban fantasy, a deeply unhappy man becomes obsessed with his beautiful and seductive next-door neighbor. It hardly matters that Mrs. Robson is a "witch from Hell" who maintains a backyard garden inhabited by shadowy monsters. When his shrewish wife leaves to visit a friend for a while, Harry yields to temptation. His indiscretion leads him to the very lip of Hell, and to escape doom, he must solve the temptress's riddle-only to discover that he's always known the answer.

Brit Marschalk and Marshall Payne
Tangent Online