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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
G Edward Martin's 13 Acorns is a compilation of the author's stories that are described in their entirety as “Modern Short Stories for Thoughtful Adults”. The author explains that the book title came from a meditative experience wherein he was hoping to meet a spirit guide and instead stared at an acorn for thirty minutes. Later while describing this to a friend, she pulled an acorn she was unwittingly compelled to pick up and showed it to him. Thus, a strong oak analogy was born for the title. The short stories are all original, all independent and distinct from the next, are accompanied by sketched art by the author himself, and range in tone, tenor, and length. In The Return Flight, a foreign object is following a spacecraft under intelligent control, raising concerns about its intentions. The captain must decide whether to lead the object back to Earth, potentially risking humanity's extinction, or divert the course, resulting in the crew's guaranteed death but potentially saving humanity. In The Values of a Dying Man, a young man in his prime faces possible death and must reconcile what this, and his life, have meant.
I really love short stories but mostly read them for sheer entertainment value over a search for ideas that are meaningful. There is no such thing as a book that is not thought-provoking even if the only thought a reader has is that it's not working for them. However, few set out with the intent to evoke intentional, meaningful thought in the way 13 Acorns by G Edward Martin does. The story that did this the most for me is The Nobody Who Fought A Dragon, a much longer-than-average short story that revolves around a town drunk named Bill who is unwittingly coerced into accompanying a prince and fighting a menacing dragon. His choices are limited. He can either fight the dragon and probably die but possibly live, or refuse to fight the dragon and definitely die in a pit covered with spiders. Decisions, decisions, right? Bill comes out as a champion, but the coming out part is actually deeply humiliating on a private and personal level. The stories are all wildly creative, expertly written, and fantastically immersive. Very highly recommended.
