Beyond The Rainbow's End

Short Stories

Fiction - Anthology
53 Pages
Reviewed on 02/03/2016
Buy on Amazon

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Author Biography

James Pitter was raised in the United Kingdom and began writing poetry, song lyrics and musical composition in his early teens.

He works in the creative industry and earlier studied screenwriting, writing for theatre and creative writing in his spare time to develop his writing skills. Among his early credits were an invitation from Television Arts Performance Showcase (TAPS) to attend a script workshop to critique his first screenplay and his first theatre play was performed on the London Fringe.

James has since self-published an ebook of his short stories called Beyond The Rainbow's End and recently had a further short story published as part of an anthology with fellow authors called No Bounds: An Anthology of Short Fiction. All proceeds go to Medecins Sans Frontieres: Doctors Without Borders. Both books are available for purchase on Amazon.

His current projects include the development of screenplays for TV and drafting his first novella. To learn more about James Pitter, please visit his author website at http://www.jamespitter.com.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Lori A. Moore for Readers' Favorite

Beyond The Rainbow's End: Short Stories by James Pitter is a collection of five short stories, just 57 pages in all, covering a variety of situations and introducing diverse characters. In A Digital Immortality, we meet Jed and Rami encountering a philosophical debate over whether or not information can or should be extracted from one person's brain and implanted into another human being. The Morris Winthrop Reports: Fashion Week introduces us to a cynical veteran writer who despises his work covering celebrity scandal. The Brunch Brats is the tale of two inebriated ex-pat couples brunching at a local hotel and arguing over infidelity. In Opposite Directions, two bus passengers discuss logistics during their commute. The Secrets We Hide has a double-twisted plot involving an overprotective mother and her relationships with her daughter and her husband.

Beyond The Rainbow's End: Short Stories by James Pitter runs the gamut or full spectrum of unique scenarios and contains quite a few twists, turns, and secrets. Pitter includes both mundane and far-fetched scenarios in his writing of these five stories. I had trouble following The Secrets We Hide as it jumped back and forth quite a bit, but the ending is worth the wait. I enjoyed A Digital Immortality, which contained a lot of technical information about a possible future. Beyond the Rainbow's End is a little bit of this and a little bit of that put together in one enjoyable collection or anthology of short stories.

MAC

Authored by James Pitter, Beyond the Rainbows End is a presciently written collection of dialogue-rich short stories. Each story bears aspects of intellectual overtones, portraying a nuanced account of human behaviour.

The Morris Winthrope Reports: The Fashion Week is about a journalist's latest scoop in the fashion world where he discovers how many kinds of celebrities there are. In their short and sad existence of the passing lime light, he realises that there are two kinds of celebrities, the brazen self-promotional sort seeking media attention, and the other, the more refined that does not. This celebrity psyche is what grabs the journalist's attention caught up in this paradox of a mirage.

A Digital Immortality is absolutely fascinating. In an ambitious scientific innovation, Dr. Ingram tries to design a computer program emulating the human brain. Experiments are therefore carried out into the human brain to understand how it retrieves information and such. Sacrifices must be made in order to conduct this experiment but it is also an ethical issue. The trade-offs are always not morally right, even though there might be volunteers prepared to make those sacrifices. Such experiment could lead to finding cure for degenerating diseases of the mind, opening a new horizon in scientific studies.

The Brunch Brats is about a group of shameless expatriates - bureaucrats going out on branch with friends in a culturally sensitive country to be drunk and to be publicly indecent, only to realise that there is also adultery involved.

Opposite Directions lends itself to more than what meets the eye. Seemingly, it is about these characters who are onboard a bus which is going in the opposite direction. It avoids making a left turn because the road is accident prone. This delays their arrival to the destination. On a metaphorical plane, this almost bodes to the fact of how a wrong turn could change the course of action itself. This could happen as the end result of many events transpiring to affect choices that people are forced to make.

The Secrets We Hide, explores the criminal mind of a prisoner in all its complexity. Harriet's interest in Raymond, from the black lagoon,is not fully transparent as her family and friend try to fathom her decision for interviewing him. Until the very end of the story, no one is nearly clear about her intentions as she has her own hidden secrets to contend with.

Dan

An accomplished book for a debut author.

James captures the essence of his characters and brings them to life with a skill usually reserved for seasoned writers.

From the hilariously ironic exploits of an expat community in The Brunch Brats to a sinister tale about mind uploading in A Digital Immortality, James displays a deft ability to switch effortlessly from one genre to another with ease.

I have no hesitation in recommending this book and look forward to reading more from James Pitter.

Kari Nicholls

Even though I've finished reading Beyond the Rainbow's End, I'm still thinking about these stories--still pondering over the details. Pitter is an intellectual writer with a skill for wit and excellent story-telling. I absolutely loved "Opposite Directions" and I'm still reeling from "The Secrets We Hide." Definitely a great read--makes you want to re-read the stories to comb over the details a second or third time.

Amy

A colourful and diverse selection of characters are cleverly observed in this book of short stories. I thoroughly enjoyed the Author's witty exploration of human behaviour, especially 'Opposite Directions' and one of my favourites 'A Digital Immortality'. Each story takes you on a journey with the characters, and you are able to absorb their relationship with themselves, others, and their environment. I would highly recommend this book and will be looking out for more of James Pitter's work.

S Clem

I don't normally like short stories, as I find that they end just when I'm wanting more. Somehow this author did a great job of giving me closure when each story was over. I would recommend these stories to other readers.

Some of the stories are a little hard to follow, hence the 4 star rating. Perhaps someone with a brighter mind than mine would be able to focus and glean the author's intended meaning better than I was able to. The stories are all very interesting, I just found some of them to be a little overbearing. A Digital Immortality and Brunch Brats were my favorites, although they're as different as night and day. That is one thing that I did definitely enjoy, and commend the author on- his ability to write many genres with equal skill. Some authors are really only good at one genre and when they venture outside it we all suffer, but not James Pitter. He seems to have the remarkable gift of being a chameleon of sorts.

Altogether, it was a very enjoyable read. It you like reading things a little out of the ordinary, you will enjoy this.

Eishinas

'Beyond The Rainbow's End' is an entertaining collection of five short stories artistically crafted with different genres beautifully woven with different emotions of characters and their journey through life.
This captivating book has something to read and indulge in for everyone. 'The Morris Winthrope Reports' is a journalists take on different celebrities and their behavior.
'A Digital Immortality' is about scientist Dr. Ingram and his experiments carried out into the human brain after designing of a computer program emulating the human brain.
'The Brunch Brats' pulls its readers to the table of socializing expats and their married life conversations'. The next story 'Opposite Direction' tells us about travelers on board of a minibus facing delay to their destination due to the direction taken by their driver, where as 'The Secrets We Hide' is a journey through Harriet's life, exposing her long kept secret.
It is very talented of author James Pitter to describe events of each story in a gripping narration with great finesse, showcasing his mastery over language and its nuances. 'Beyond The Rainbow's End' is definitely one of the most intriguing reads, perfect for a relaxed vacation. Highly recommended to all those looking for mystery, science, humor, secrets and different flavors of life in one good read because variety is spice of life!

Maria T

Beyond the Rainbow’s End is an intriguing and confrontational collection of short stories. It’s a tough writing form in my opinion and James Pitter ‘s done an excellent job. The first short story in the collections is the stream of consciousness narration by fashion writer Morris Winthrop. Archetypal cynical and highly critical he exists in this superficial world waiting to find the angle for his master piece in the meantime making us chuckle with his sharp insights and cutting comments which are bang on. I loved it!
The short stories are certainly varied as the next, A Digital Immortality deals with human genetic engineering and the moral, or maybe immoral implications of research in this area. The story leaves an uneasy feeling about the cost humans may have to pay in the pursuit of scientific advances, or if the aims can even be called progress.
The remaining 3 stories are equally uncomfortable – Expats living the good life abroad at least on the surface which thinly conceals infidelity, drunkenness and discontent. Opposite Directions had me virtually tearing my hair out – something so British about this! Hilarious word play with the names but it drove me nutty – well done. Finally The Secrets We Hide. This was probably my least favourite as the tragedy ofsecrets tears a family apart. The reveal is slow but unstoppable and fate wins the day. It was about as much fun as ripping off a plaster – but still very well done.
James Pitter manages to provoke a huge range of emotions and reactions for only 53 pages – I for one would be very interested to see what he’s going to come up with next.

Peggy

Beyond the Rainbow’s End, written by James Pitter, is a collection of five short stories. Each short story stands alone and is not connected with the others in plot or characters. Each story feels like there were more dimensions to the plot.
The Morris Winthrop Reports: Fashion Week is a reporter’s view about the celebrities around her. Her bias opinion of people could ruin them because of what she write, but she seems to not care, or understands too well that is what people want to read.
A Digital Immortality was a little disturbing when you think about what neuroscientist could possibly be accomplishing in the future.
The Brunch Brats was my personal favorite. It was light with a bit of humor and mystery about the place the characters lived. Yet it touched everyday topics married couples face.
We can all relate to the story Opposite Directions. We have gotten turned around while driving or been given bad directions. I felt their frustration with the minibus driver.
The Secrets We Hide reveals how even our most restricted secrets can, and will, be exposed. It appears at the end that secrets will come back and haunt you.

Renee Spicuzza

James Pitter has written five short stories with a varying degree of types of style, all under the title name of “Beyond the Rainbow’s End.” Pitter takes the time to craft characters so quickly and efficiently so that we, as the readers, can relate to them and the experiences they have. The stories are short and snappy, so you would think that being able to build a character and plot in such a brief amount of time would be impossible, but Pitter excels. Since the stories are so short, I don’t want to give anything away, but I absolutely love each of the stories for the unique take on each scenario that is presented. Even though each plot is very different from the next and each has their own specific trait that makes it stand out, they are all cohesive pieces that belong together in this collection. I cannot wait to read more stories from Pitter!

Betty Mermelstein

James Pitter has accomplished drawing in readers with his fine command of the English language and characterizations in his short story collection, Beyond the Rainbow's End. The five stories are unrelated, though each shows the complicated twists of human relationships. Most of them are intertwined with a spark of wit and sarcasm, demonstrating how people can find humor in frustrating situations or how they can bait others when flinging out their words, searching for reactions. The dialog is real, coming from gut emotions. The conversations are felt to be actual ones that might even turn heads in public as human frailties are exposed. James Pitter offers excellent descriptions of visuals and actions and gives us characters that make us wish we could continue our experience with them. I would look forward to another compilation of stories by this author.