The Fall of Icarus

5 stars. This book contains three enchanting short stories, each stunning in their own right and simply beautiful together. I highly recommend this book. I read this in just over an hour and it was an hour well spent. The author's writing style is lyrical, poetic and flows beautifully drawing the reader into the story, you feel as thought you are walking alongside the protagonist experiencing what they do, the sights, sounds and even smells of Paris. I can't wait to read more by this author. What Jenna Thought (15 April 2015)

5 Stars. The Author, a Man of Enchantment with his Impeccable Writing
By Scarlett Jensen on June 26, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
We have a collection of three short stories of an author with an impeccable writing style, every word filtered, re-thought and arranged to give the reader the essence of his messages. The name of the collection, The Fall of Icarus gives us a hint of his objective: all three stories which he unfolds are interrelated and connected just like the universe is to man.

What is this wonderful glue this author has to tie the reader with his writings about the essence of life?
— his knowledge of the universe, tales of antiquity and myth.
— the ocean is the core of his universe, deep, wide, dynamic and magical.

In The Elevator he centres around confinement, movement and doorways to other realms, be it real or mystical, enchanting, capturing the essence of life in a landscape like that of Paris.

As a studied mind, in his second story, the author takes Icarus in mythology, tells the story of the flight from an island prison, when Icarus, alongside his father flew with wings his father had constructed with feathers and wax. But Icarus fell to his death because he did not heed the constraints the physical world contained. In rethinking the story for a successful escape flight, the author says: " I may not be able to alter the constraints of the world, but I can change my own limitations." You can excel following your own path to escape the imposed constraints of life, be it those of one's own making or those of others.

In the last story he tells about a girl who wanted to fly. She thought she had the talent and manifested it in spite of the facts known that "only angels and daemons can fly". As we can imagine, the author has a vision beyond reality. The girl "was loosened from gravity……In spite of the strict dogma and refinement of behaviour". The girl escaped defiantly shouting " I will not be caught". What followed was excitement as she launched herself in the air, contemplating the world from above. The enchantment of the flight and what she could see and experience, filled her with wonder.

The author is acutely conscious of ingresses, confined spaces, physical limitations, openness and motion. His terminology centres around comings and goings, doorways, locking in, escape, flying and freedom. He extends our consciousness beyond boundaries. ..into other worlds, real or imagined.

I will never stop reading his work.

Scarlett Jensen
25 June 2015

5 stars. Flight and other fantasies
By Grady Harp HALL OF FAME/TOP 100 REVIEWER/VINE VOICE on June 28, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
British author NR Bates made his novel writing debut with AT THE SHARP END OF LIGHTNING, Book 1 of the OCEANLIGHT series. He steps away form that very elegant novel and offers us a collection a very short stories and the fact that these stories THE FALL OF ICARUS are as beautifully molded as his first book is a very positive indication that Bates is a rising star. He has indeed written extensively which explains why his command of the medium is so secure: he has published more than one hundred and twenty scientific papers on ocean chemistry, climate change and ocean acidification as a Senior Scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and Professor of Ocean Biogeochemistry at the University of Southampton, UK. Bates' passion for the ocean and environmental sciences has proven a successful driving force in both his scientific mind and his fantasy creative mind.

In a matter of only 31 pages Bates carves three interrelated stories connected by the concept of flight, imagination, and appreciation for the confines of a life lived in a space that prevents flight. He restudies the myth of Icarus through the imagination of a young scientist, the enclosure of a dysfunctional elevator that alters the plans of a man inside, and a woman with memory lapse whose tabula rasa mind creates a power to fly.

To relate more of the stories would be to spoil the joy of entering these very brief visits with Bates into the realm of possibility. He prose is poetic yet steeped in that sense of approaching magical realism or fantasy that makes this simple tales fly. They beg to be read repeatedly both for the joy of his writing skills and the little seeds of imagination they encourage to bloom in our reflections. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, June 15