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Brendan Ball was born in London and grew up in the south-east of England. After an ill-fated year in a famous seat of learning he departed for preservation of sanity, and vaguely remembers after this a strange odyssey of several years back in London. Since 2003 he has lived in Moscow, Russia. He is internationally married with two bilingual children and is a sort of economic exile.
Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
Savages: A Triptych is a trilogy of interconnected short stories written by Brendan Ball. In Long Live the King, the aging leader of a tribe contemplates his inevitable fall from power and will sacrifice even those he cares about in his need to survive. The Deposition is a darkly comedic tale about dream states, and the alternative worlds one enters and sometimes doesn't exit while asleep. Lunar Seas presents a stark vision of the future where access to literature is regulated by bureaucrats and the corporate world keeps free citizens under strict control. The lunar colony is seen through the eyes of Roland, whose innocent obsession with a fellow passenger on public transport leads him to risk everything he has.
Brendan Ball's short story trilogy, Savages: A Triptych, is dark, disturbing and deeply thought-provoking. The author's initial story had me mentally revisiting O'Neill's classic play, The Emperor Jones. As in that work, the tension and fear in this story is a palpable and pervading presence. The Deposition is a marvelous dark comedy, which reveals even more darkness as one reconsiders it. Lunar Seas builds beautifully from its predecessors. I quickly became involved in Roland's story and appreciated how Ball mingles the events that led up to Roland's exile with the account of his stay on the lunar colony. Roland's commuter romance with Azalea is inspired and will spark fragments of recognition and remembrance in anyone who's ever commuted to their workplace. The innocence and light of their relationship glow in these dark tales, and somehow brings hope through it all. Savages: A Triptych is highly recommended.
