View source for Pale Pieces by G M Stevens

{{infobox1
|title=Pale Pieces
|author=G M Stevens
|reviewer=Jill Murphy
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=A surreal train journey in which our narrator and his fellow passengers address perception and the human experience.
|rating=5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=230
|publisher=Independently Published
|date=September 2025
|isbn=978-2959675720
|website=https://gmstevens.com/
|cover=295967572X
|aznuk=2959675703
|aznus=2959675703
}}

Our unnamed narrator is about to begin a train journey with his companion Django. Where they're going and what the purpose of this journey is, is uncertain. Django found the tickets ''on the floor somewhere'' and has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we are probably in the past as the pair travel to the station by coach and the train is a steam locomotive. The atmosphere is congenial yet also slightly creepy. This unsettling dissonance in atmosphere is what really sets the scene for what is to follow.

As the journey goes on we meet various passengers, all some degree of eccentric and the travellers go on excursions outside the train. Conversations are philosophical and the excursions feel surreal. Language is sometimes antiquated and formal but sometimes modern and sardonic. It's a witty combination and it leaves the reader without a certain mooring. but always engaged. The whole thing has the feel of a dreamscape, where one moment you're walking along the street and the next you're making a cup of tea in the kitchen. Gradually, our narrator finds the weights of his thoughts heavier and heavier and he can only hope that the final excursion will provide him with what he is looking for.

''Pale Piecess'' is a fascinating novel, dealing with human perception and insight, the effect of memory and the moving delineation between the real and the unreal. Despite its fantastical nature, the luscious prose is absorbing and invigorating. I thoroughly enjoyed every page.

It can be tricky to assign star ratings to a book that defies a simple genre description. If you like narrative progression and character development in your novels, you are not going to enjoy ''Pale Pieces'' with its dream-like qualities and express rejection of specific times, places and any other anchors. You'd probably get halfway through, give up, and say ''two stars and not for me''. But if you like playful language, atmosphere, philosophical meanderings and drawing your own conclusions, you will love this clever novel and go with five stars and a bagful of enthusiasm. I am in the latter camp. I loved everything about ''Pale Pieces'' from the atmospheric opening when I wondered if I was about to read an unsettling Victorian ghost story to the end when I remembered my own version of looking for shells on a beach with the one I loved.

Overall then, with the caveat that you won't enjoy ''Pale Pieces'' - what a title, by the way - if you like "proper" stories with clear beginnings, middles and ends, this evocative and enriching novel comes highly recommended by me.

You might also enjoy [[The Never Pages by Graham Thomas]], which gives you a journey where memories do not exist.

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