Plot: After eleven and a half years, he realizes he hates his wife. He isn’t sleeping well, and his hairline is receding. He wants a convertible. His wife snores and farts in her sleep. To make matters worse, she wants a baby. Maybe he should have an affair with some Brittany Spears look-alike—not as sheContinue reading “Review of “Night Visions” by Holley Cornetto”
Category Archives: Theme of Absence
Review of “Specimen 913” by R.D. Harris
“Doctors are an intelligent breed,” said Jeff, “but you, Doctor Broadway, are tethered by apprehension and procedure.”
Review of “A Ghost’s Story” by James Rumpel
Plot: One day in 2009, Neil Burton perished in a hail of snow peas. He’d been trying to re-arrange thousand-pound crates of vegetables with his forklift while eating a sandwich, and things didn’t go well. The angel who met him at his demise explained his time was up, so regardless of what he’d done thatContinue reading “Review of “A Ghost’s Story” by James Rumpel”
Review of “The Nature of Time” by Preston Dennett
Plot: Dr. Harry Topper Ph.D., professor of Philosophy (retired), is annoyed with his lifelong friend, Dr. Jack Trask. It’s so unlike Jack, perhaps the most fastidious man on the planet, to be late—and so late! Twenty minutes he’s been waiting at their regular table in the diner! Something must be wrong. The sight of Trask,Continue reading “Review of “The Nature of Time” by Preston Dennett”
Review of “Dig Faster” by J.B. Toner
Plot: Ghost-hunter Tom Monaghan stops for coffee in a small roadside diner in Maine on his way to Boston. His ears prick up overhearing snatches of conversation among the local: “mutilated bodies,” “some kinda spooks,” and “I heard it was the Devil hisself!” Sometimes you just get lucky, Monaghan says. After getting directions, he headsContinue reading “Review of “Dig Faster” by J.B. Toner”
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 “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 “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 “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”
Review of “Dark Father” by Mary E. Lowd
Plot: The narrator is the daughter of the warlord Erith Danaya. She, her mother, and her twin toddlers have been trying to escape him. They are functional captives on his starship as he travels from world to world. Shortly before the action of the story, the narrator has hidden her mother and her children inContinue reading “Review of “Dark Father” by Mary E. Lowd”
Reviews of Old and New Stories. Mostly Old 