Tyrannia is difficult to characterize, each story is weird but weird in its own individual way. One story features young people who break into houses to play music and dance. Another has angel-like beings who guard a portal to between this world and another. In a third story, a group of three kidnap a professor and prepare to torture him according to guidance that he helped author for rendition of enemy combatants. Many end without resolution so the reader is left hanging, to imagine what the final scenes would be. ( )

This collection of stories from Alan DeNiro proved to be a frustratingly mixed bag. There were a few strong entries, but they were mixed in with far too many experiments in style that seemed overly obtuse, meandering, or just too pointless to care about. Laboring through so many of the latter frustrated me enough to make me leery of seeking out DeNiro’s stories in the future. Which is a shame, because when the author has his storytelling hat situated firmly and confidently on his head, his wonderfully weird characters and settings—which at times approach George Saunders levels of surreal worldbuilding—actually help the stories become even more fully realized and rewarding. Three that stood out were “The Philip Sidney Game,” “Highly Responsive to Prayers,” and “The Wildfires of Antarctica.” The everpresent layers of weirdness are certainly evident in all of these stories, but in each of them the weirdness successfully adds to rather than distracts from the storytelling. ( )

A few were intriguing: Cudgel Springs, Plight of the Sycophant, Dancing in a House, and Highly Responsive to Prayers. The vast remainder were either disturbing in a scattered way - decent build up with a confusing, weak climax - or just plain fell flat. Often, the only reason I finished a story was the obligation of giving it a fair review. Oh, the horror. ( )

I agree with the reviewer who didn't love Tyrannia but kept reading. DeNiro's fresh perspective is immediately engaging, and unsupported details that bothered other reviewers just gave me the impression of glimpsing unfamiliar but fully developed worlds.

However, I was surprised when an early story turned to graphic kidnapping and torture. I don't like horror and DeNiro's creativity and vivid descriptions are effective. The collection is generally darker and more dystopian than the empowering subversion I expected.

Finally, I like irreverent typesetting, but Tyrannia's liberties are confusing and distract from the content.

DeNiro's unusual and sometimes disturbing stories will attract a small, enthusiastic fan base. I think Tyrannia is interesting, but not a keeper.

DeNiro cross-breeds the charged ambience of Philip Dick and Bill Burroughs, with Ballard, Pynchon and Cronenberg thrown into the mix. What emerges in Tyrannia is a unique dystopian future that is bleak, surreal, and yet not quite improbable.

The title story is a mobius strip that brings a new meaning to the term “life after death”.

There is a subterranean horror (metaphorically perhaps?) in “A Rendition” — a story about three students kidnapping a professor who helped draft the torture memos used in the War on Terror.

America is a radioactive wasteland in ‘The Warp and the Woof” where a writer and his agent play out an historic relationship in a feral new world.

A wild 21st century Dickian mind melter! ( )