Review of “Non-Existence Never Hurt Anyone” by John McLaughlin

Plot: Brooks is up to the “Party Staff and Responsibilities” module of the new employee tutorial when his new supervisor comes in to check up on him. He has just started his job as a sensory technician. They don’t discuss the manual, but the merits of the new ruling Negative Utilitarian Party. The NUP (delightfulContinue reading “Review of “Non-Existence Never Hurt Anyone” by John McLaughlin”

Review of “Hiring the New Staff” by Lynne Lumsden Green

Plot: Twenty generations ago, human civilization collapsed. Those aren’t human generations—because who cares about that?—but cat generations. The oldest cats remember what it was like to have effortless food, to live without fleas, and to sleep on soft beds. The current situation, where they have to live on vermin, is not acceptable. The greatest felineContinue reading “Review of “Hiring the New Staff” by Lynne Lumsden Green”

Review of “The Brides of Dracula” (1960)

Saturday pizza and bad movie night. Yummy pizza, with a bit of nice doughy crust. Thanks, Dominos! And, of course, Svengoolie. Plot: Student Teacher Marianne Danielle (Yvonne Monlaur) is on her way from Paris to a new job teaching at a girls’ school in Transylvania. When they stop at an inn for a meal, aContinue reading “Review of “The Brides of Dracula” (1960)”

Review of “The Exhumation of Commandant De Alvarado” by Richard L. Rubin

Plot: Captain Julian Escobar leads a small detail, including his friend, Lieutenant Maria Bazan, on a mission to administer a dose of post-mortem justice. They have orders to exhume the remains of a war criminal, Commandant de Alvarado, confidante of the Fascist dictator of the former regime. The old Commandant has been lying in aContinue reading “Review of “The Exhumation of Commandant De Alvarado” by Richard L. Rubin”

Review of “Protocol” by Sean Soravia

Plot: The unnamed narrator of this story is about to be sent one month into the future on a test mission. His mission is to wait for someone to open the door, check in with the technician, then press the yellow button to return. He is never to leave the machine. No words are toContinue reading “Review of “Protocol” by Sean Soravia”

Review of “Just Before Dawn” (1946)

Saturday pizza and bad movie night. Yum. Plot: After hours inside the Ganss Funeral Home, two sinister-looking men meet. One hands the other what appears to be a kit containing a syringe and a small glass bottle marked “insulin.” “It’s not what it says on the label,” one man tells the other. In the nextContinue reading “Review of “Just Before Dawn” (1946)”

Review of “Fast Forgotten” by Ronald Schulte

Plot: Sometime after being struck by a truck, the unnamed narrator suffers from retrograde amnesia. He remembers the rehab. Before the accident, he was a runner. He has no memory of running, or of anything that occurred before the accident. At home, he has a trophy room and a family to corroborate it, however. HeContinue reading “Review of “Fast Forgotten” by Ronald Schulte”

Review of “Just Deserts” by Gordon Pinckheard

Plot: An alien ship drifts to earth and lands in a field outside Liverpool, England. The area is cordoned off and, much to the delight of the scientists, an Alien is recovered. It is promptly taken to a prison. The Alien is banged up, with patches of its surface skin torn off and its limbsContinue reading “Review of “Just Deserts” by Gordon Pinckheard”

Review of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)

This week’s offering of Saturday night pizza and bad movie night was a classic. We watched it with Svengoolie. Plot: While bringing the Princess Parisa home for their wedding at Baghdad, Sinbad stops at the island of Colossa for fresh water and supplies. While there, the crew notices enormous cloven footprints, and an entrance toContinue reading “Review of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)”

Review of “Suckers” by Tim Boiteau

Plot: Jameel has just moved into a house in an unhappy neighborhood of northern Detroit. Half of the houses are habitable. The rest shelter crackheads. His wife Marta has recently passed away. Jameel waits, avoiding the sun, going out once a month for groceries, cleaning his pump-action shotgun. He watches new neighbors move in nextContinue reading “Review of “Suckers” by Tim Boiteau”