Ursula K. Raphael for Dream Sonata Reviews
Relevant excerpt from review of book:
Fish Out of Water by Carl Barker was kind of like Jules Verne on crystal meth…incredibly intense and severely alarming.
DF Lewis’ Real-Time Review of BFS Journal (Winter 2010)
Relevant excerpt from review of journal:
This is a remarkable and substantial story. Well-written, sometimes in an accomplished, but pedestrian, prose (in a good way when describing unpedestrian events), sometimes melodramatic, sometimes absurd – neatly absurd particularly in its very satisfying ending. A story of torture, madness, Poe-like devices, a pier, and coming back ouroboros-like to where you began, via a version of King’s Misery. If you don’t like torture, you won’t like this. But, again, when you’ve read it all, I’m sure you will like it. A Fable with a Moral, like John Tait’s Mole and Snake: “I feel like a hapless mouse tied to the bottom of a grandfather clock, lured by the luxurious promise of cheese.” And it all takes places in Blackpool. And what is Mammone’s Well? Well, I leave you to read this remarkable, yet strangely pedestrian, strangely absurd, work. And God is there somewhere, too, and Satan…
Michael Compton for Fangoria Magazine:
Relevant excerpt from review of book:
…and—this reviewer’s personal favorite—Carl Barker’s “Why The Wild Things Are.” Here, our rather lax central character Lionel shifts about his house, sips Earl Grey, reads newspaper articles from the previous week and indifferently muses over whom he should notify regarding the dead postman lying face-down in his garden pond, being picked apart by infected fowl. Giving little thought toward the well-being of his former mail carrier, Lionel seems instead occupied with how he’ll obtain a second copy of Reader’s Digest to replace the copy he lost to the gore-filled pond in his front lawn.
In any anthology, not every story is going to be exceptional, and when thumbing through ZOMBIE ZOOLOGY, one can’t help but feel as though one or two of the entries were initially intended as basic animal-attack tales that underwent last-minute rewrites to better fit in with the undead angle. That said, there isn’t a single story in ZOMBIE ZOOLOGY that sinks below mediocre, and most of them, particularly the aforementioned, are quite clever and engaging.
Colleen Wanglund for Zombie Hoard:
Relevant excerpt from review of book:
I didn’t care for Why The Wild Things Are by Carl Barker, only because I didn’t think it flowed as well as the other stories. A story about local wildlife turning into zombies and the government’s response, I found myself losing interest while reading about how it happened via a newspaper article along with the main character (he’d read it repeatedly).
Gareth D. Jones for SFCrowsNest.com
Relevant excerpt from review of issue:
‘The Man Who Came To Dinner‘ is Carl Barker’s first published story and he does an excellent job of capturing the occasion of a dinner party and the mysterious visitor who arrives unannounced. The man is uncomfortable in his surroundings and, through his eyes, the dinner party becomes a strange and incomprehensible ritual. It’s an impressive debut.’
Steve Redwood for The British Fantasy Society:
Relevant excerpt from review of issue:
Quite different is Carl Barker’s “The Man who Came to Dinner”. It’s pretty clear from the beginning who this “man” is – he’s about as gauche in human company as the Queen would be at a Goth party – but the story is carefully constructed, with two main protagonists, one on the point of death, who act always in character, and an ending, if not exactly uplifting, at least comforting. This is apparently the writer’s first published story, and a very worthy one too.
Nick Jackson for Midnight Street:
Relevant excerpt from review of issue:
Then, just as I thought the show was over, there was Carl Barker’s rather fine and wistful story, “The Man Who Came to Dinner” describing an encounter between an enigmatic first-person narrator and a man who is forced to come to terms with his own mortality. I hope Mr Barker will shortly be producing more such delicately-nuanced pieces.