Review of “Mad Science” by Jo Mularczyk

Plot:

Julia finds herself standing in the church she knew in childhood, the successful result of the working of her newly-developed displacement nodule. The device allows a person to be transported anywhere instantaneously. It’s small enough to fit into Julia’s hand and responds to voice commands.

Julia is not sure why she’s in the church, but she’s eager to check out her new means of transportation. “The Eiffel Tower,” she tells the nodule.

The nodule heats up in her palms. It radiates tiny jolts of electricity throughout her body. The church fades, and soon she looks up at the famous landmark on a bright sunny Parisian morning. She imagines herself materializing in the middle of a physics convention taking place in London and wiping the smug looks off the face of those who once jeered at her.

Thoughts:

Poor Julia. The author has gone out of her way to make her unlikeable. She’s arrogant and mean-spirited. She spends nearly the entire story seeking revenge on the scientific elite for belittling her experimentation into instantaneous transportation. She’ll show them!

Her undoing is of her own making, of course. This is a cute little story. Just the same, I couldn’t help feeling a bit sorry for Julia.

Bio:

According to her website, author Jo Mularczyk writes not only fiction but provides corporate writing services and writes on education issues. She’s written fiction for both children and adults. Her work has appeared in Zinewest 2018, Four W Thirty, and Short and Twisted, among others. She lives in the northwestern suburbs of Sydney with her husband and three children. She spends a great deal of time at tennis courts watching her children.

The story can be read here.

Title: “Mad Science”
Author: Jo Mularczyk
First published: Daily Science Fiction, March 16, 2020

Review of “Teenagers from Outer Space”

Plot:

Aliens have come to earth to find a place to graze their dangerous and fast-growing “gargons,” lobster-like critters they use for food. A pesky dog barks at their flying saucer when it lands, so crew member Thor (Bryan Grant—not the god) whips out his ray gun and zaps him. Poor Sparky is left as only a skeleton. Another crew member, named Derek (David Love), notices the dog tag with an inscription, which could only have been made by an intelligent beings. He objects to Thor’s killing the creature and to the idea of using a planet where intelligent beings live to graze their predatory gargons. He’s told to get in line. Why should he care about the lives of “foreign beings”? Aren’t his group the “superior race”? (Superior to whom?) He escapes.

Among the earthlings, he meets the extra-friendly Gramps Morgan (Harvey B. Dunn) and his granddaughter, Betty (Dawn Bender), who think he’s come to rent a room from them. He’s pursued by trigger-happy Thor, who leaves a pile of articulated skeletons in his wake.

Thoughts:

Killing poor Sparky lets the viewer know that Thor is a thoroughly rotten bad’un. He’s unredeemable. Snidely Whiplash gets invited to your birthday party before Thor does. Derek, on the other hand has read a book. He knows of times when their people had families, brothers and sisters, when they weren’t robots.

The dialogue hits the ear as stilted and artificial. The alien invaders seem incapable of forming a contraction, as if they were speaking a language they’re unfamiliar with, even among themselves. The actors act, painfully and hollowly, following a plot that might have been feasible at certain points along the road.

While I will never watch this movie again, not for love or money, I can’t say that this wasn’t fun. The sight of the goofy lobster monster alone was worth the price of admission. And if the attachment for strings shows at times at the top of the skull? Well, how else do you hold up a skeleton?

According to Wikipedia, this was originally released as a double-feature with something called Gigantis Fire Monster. Because it’s been in public domain for so long, it’s since received treatment from Mystery Science Theater and Elvira’s Movie Macabre. It also appeared under titles like The Gargon Terror, The Boy from Outer Space, and The Ray Gun Terror.

Cast

David Love … Derek
Dawn Bender … Betty Morgan (as Dawn Anderson)
Bryan Grant … Thor
Harvey B. Dunn … Gramps Morgan
Tom Graeff … Joe Rogers (as Tom Lockyear)
King Moody … Spacecraft Captain (as Robert King Moody)

Director: Tom Graeff
Writer: Tom Graeff

Title: Teenagers from Outer Space
Released: June 3, 1959
Viewed: March 14, 2020

Review of “Elevators and Aliens” by Eddie D. Moore

Plot:

Marty is looking over blueprints and sipping bourbon at the bar of the Bayside Hotel on Proxmia b. Most people visit the Bayside for the salty air and a walk on the beach. Humans have been living on Proxmia b for a little less than five hundred years. Communication with earth ceased off after the first ship landed.

Today, Marty is watching the non-human Gliesians, who look surprisingly like humans, but with marked differences. Don’t tell them that, however. Gilesians regard humans as stupid and reckless. It was the Gilesians who informed the humans that earth is no longer habitable, after all.

Thoughts:

This is an interesting setting. I liked the idea of two similar peoples, both on a planet that’s not home to them. One views itself as superior to the other, the rube of the galaxy.

The Gilesians have mastered English, even the technical aspects of it. A Gilesian (who does not deign to give his name to a mere human) asks to see Marty’s blueprints and has no trouble reading them.

Of course, he’s revealed to be a jackass.

However, this jackassification is hard to catch. The story reads like a joke with a buried punchline.

Bio:

According to the blurb on his blog, author Eddie D. Moore travels a lot for work and spends much of that time listening to audio books. The rest of the time, he spends dreaming of stories to write. His stories have been published by Jouth Webzine, Saturday Night Reader, Every Day Fiction, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Adventure Worlds.

The story can be read here.

Title: “Elevators and Aliens”
Author: Eddie D. Moore
First published: Theme of Absence, March 14, 2020

Review of “Snowfall” by Richard Bertram Peterson

Plot:

A young child presses her face against the window and sees it’s snowing outside. Snow at Christmas! Excited, she jumps up and down and screams with excitement.

Her mother joins her and looks out at the snow. A small tree stands in the corner of the room.

“Mommy! Can I go out and play in the snow?”

“Yes, dear, you can go outside. But first let’s put on your special clothes.”

Thoughts:

The girl looks out a triple-paned window. Their apartment is hermetically sealed. The Christmas tree is made of carbon composite, as trees have become rare.

The people who have not departed Earth for a terraformed Mars rarely leave their homes because outside is now a hostile place, though stories are told of times when the Earth was “lush with verdant forests and domed with azure skies.”

This tale is more of a sermon than a story, however, with an ending visible from the first paragraph. I hasten to add it is not bad. There is depth to it in the portrayal of the mother. She allows her daughter to enjoy the day, shielding her from the tragedy she feels.

I cannot say this is among my favorite stories. At the same time, I will not dismiss it.

Bio:

According to his blurb, author Richard Bertram Peterson lives in California. He has several published works of fiction and creative nonfiction. This is his first published work of speculative fiction.

The story can be read here.

Title: “Snowfall”
Author: Richard Bertram Peterson
First published: Daily Science Fiction, March 9, 2020

Review of “Dust to Dust” by Tom Howard

Plot:

Spy novelist Alex Poe has returned to his home town of Bidderville. He first left Bidderville thirty years earlier when he was eighteen. His last trip back was twenty years before now for his mother’s funeral.

Today he’s returned for another funeral and a favor. He’s come to visit his great-aunt Phaedra. Her trailer is the one with the “Fortune Teller” sign in front of it. He brought a sample of his late friend Jimmy’s ashes and tells his great-aunt he wants to know if maybe Jimmy’s wife killed him.

Thoughts:

The creepy atmosphere of this story offers a welcome respite from the run-of-the-mill horror stories Theme of Absence has been running. The reader is drawn immediately to Alex. It’s easy to understand his grief for his friend, Jimmy, who died too young.

But Aunt Phaedra… she dons on a wig when she hears a knock at the door. She doesn’t recognize Alex, her niece’s son. She charges ten dollars—even for family— and likes to play Canasta. What kind of psychic is she?

When he first arrives, Alex notes a round table with a crystal ball on it that wasn’t there when he was a teenager.

Aunt Phaedra snorts. “The rubes expect a little mumbo jumbo for ten bucks,” she tells him.

Is Aunt Phaedra a phony, a cold-reading charlatan? Or is the reality more complicated?

If the ending is not a complete surprise, this story is engaging for its mood and its quirkiness. There is an underlying element of sadness that adds depth and humanity to the story.

I liked it a lot.

Bio:

According to his blurb, author Tom Howard writes science fiction and fantasy and lives in Little Rock, Arkansas. In an author interview with Theme of Absence, Howard says he’s been writing for ten years. “Dust to Dust” marks his 104th sold work.

The story can be read here.

Title: “Dust to Dust”
Author: Tom Howard
First published: Theme of Absence, March 6, 2020

Review of “Historical Fiction” by Joshua Fagan

Plot:

The narrator is a writer, looking for ideas to write about the 2030s. His writer’s desk (he has a writer’s desk? Lucky guy!) is full of sticky notes, all inscribed with reminders to write about this time period. But what? It seems like all the best ideas have been used and beaten to death. The successes of his writer friends make him wonder what he’s doing wrong. The cursor on the blank screen seems to taunt him.

An idea suddenly occurs to him. After hours of research, he knows he can use it, and runs into the living room to tell his wife and kids while they’re eating breakfast.

Thoughts:

The reader can see the ending from a mile away, but there are cute moments, such as the dismissiveness of the narrator’s kids when he breaks his big news. The exchanges between the narrator and his wife are affectionate and cute as well. She, at least, believes in him. With one exception, why the particular idea the narrator chooses is superior to the ones he discards is not clear.

This is a cute little tale. It is lightweight and written for the reader who is also a writer.

Bio:

According to his blurb, author Joshua Fagan wanted to be a scientist, but math got in the way. Instead, he turned to writing science fiction and fantasy. He loves stories “about confused, relatable people who have to deal with everyday problems while also fighting aliens and robots.”

The story can be read here.

Title: Historical Fiction
Author: Joshua Fagan
First published: Daily Science Fiction, February 25, 2020

Review of “The Monolith Monsters” (1957)

 

Saturday Pizza and Bad Movie Night:

Plot:

After a meteorite shatters unnoticed across a remote spot in the desert, geologist Ben Gilbert (Phil Harvey) comes across an odd rock in his travels in the desert and brings it back to the office. He can’t figure out what it is. He turns in for the night, leaving a window open. The wind kicks up. While he’s snoozing, the wind blows a beaker of distilled water onto the mystery rock. It starts sizzling.

Ben’s partner, Dave Williams (Grant Miller), returns the next days, to find the lab a wreck, littered with odd black rock. Where’s Ben? Dave finally finds him—in his pajamas, turned to stone.

Thoughts:

There’s a lot of hooey in this film, but what makes it different is there’s no evil intent in the danger. The rocks are just doing their rock thing. They’re not out to conquer the universe or destroy mankind or capitalism. Another nice aspect is the viewer is in what makes the rocks tick before the characters are. The viewers have seen what happens when water hits them. When little Ginny Simpson (Linda Sheley) sets her rock, picked up on a field trip, in a tub full of water outside her family farmhouse, the viewer knows the bad stuff is going to hit the fan. Dave and local newspaperman Martin Cochrane (Les Tremayne) are still pondering the rocks. Over their shoulders, a storm breaks. The viewer can scream, “All those rocks in the desert! Dudes! Get a move on!”

Again, the solution may be, well, hooey, but at least it was logically consistent. It’s crystal growth gone wild.

According to IMDB, this film borrowed footage from 1938’s Born to be Wild and 1953’s It Came from Outer Space.

Viewed via February 29, 2020 via Svengoolie.

 

Cast:

Grant Williams … Dave Miller
Lola Albright … Cathy Barrett
Les Tremayne … Martin Cochrane
Trevor Bardette … Prof. Arthur Flanders
Phil Harvey … Ben Gilbert
William Flaherty … Police Chief Dan Corey

Directed by John Sherwood

Writing Credits Norman Jolley …(screenplay) and Robert M. Fresco …(screenplay)
Jack Arnold …(story) and Robert M. Fresco …(story)

Title: The Monolith Monsters
1957

Review of “Fresh Air and Ice Cream” by Rick McQuiston

Plot:

Bobby has spent so much time in front of the television playing video games, his face has grown gaunt. He finally talked his mom into buying him the game Extinguish the Light.

A brilliant flash of light nearly blinds him. It’s only his mom, pulling back the curtain. She tells him she wants him to get some fresh air.

“It’s a beautiful day,” she says. “Look. There’s other kids, and an ice cream truck.” [sic]

Bobby drops the controller. His mom further entices him off the couch with a five-dollar bill for a trip to the ice cream truck. Once his knees acquiesce, he gets up and flies out the front door, but stops at the porch. He sees the kids in line at the ice cream truck, but something strikes him as off. He can’t put his finger on it.

Thoughts:

Yeah, lazy, greedy Bobby is screwed. The reader knows from the first paragraph, his fate is sealed. These straight horror stories are modern-day morality tales, comforting us with assurances that we won’t suffer the same bad end ‘cause we’re not like that jerk who got eaten or fried or fell into a black hole or fill-in-the-blank. We’re not like lazy, greedy Bobby, gaunt of face, whose knees threaten to buckle when we try to get off the couch. We don’t abandon our favorite pastime in for of a bit of money. (…or maybe there’s a bit of Bobby in all of us?)

But that’s not all there is to this story. If the reader is paying attention, there is a lesson for others, as well.

I’d like to read just once where even the most deserving rotten human scoundrel gave one of these monsters indigestion or made it so loaded/flatulent he had to skip the next monster convention.

Bio:

According to his blurb, author Rick McQuiston is a father of two, and loves anything horror-related. He’s had over 400 publications, including five novels, ten anthologies, one book of novellas, and edited an anthology of Michigan authors.

The story can be read here.

Title: Fresh Air and Ice Cream
Author: Rick McQuiston
First published: Theme of Absence, February 28, 2020

Review of YouTube Short “Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss”

Plot:

This amusing and enjoyable short depicts the fireworks that erupt when the Ronderos’ son Jerry (Anthony James Hernandez) comes home from college for a visit. Mom Veronica (“Ronnie”), played by Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez, lays down the law to her husband Guillermo (Juan Carlos Hernandez): no talking, not even whispering, about politics.

…Which means, of course, there will be a knock-down, drag-out fight, and among this Cuban-American family, that requires be a rehashing of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Guille describes how the “cabrón Kennedy” blew the whole thing. Jerry isn’t so sure Kennedy’s actions made much difference, that it was doomed from the beginning.

Thoughts:

However, this film examination is not facile. These people love each other. Despite their differences, they still care for one another. Jerry brings home treats for his folks, items that delight them. He’s greeted with, “How’s school? Are you eating enough?”

It’s fun to watch the family members interact with each other. There’s no malice. The different characters become angry and annoyed at each other. In less capable hands, their portrayals could have been cardboard clowns. However, even when they’re at their most ridiculous, these characters remain human beings with depth.

The opening and closing scenes are shot over Ray Charles’ “America the Beautiful.” The viewer will also hear the rousing Carmen Miranda song “Mama, yo Quiero” and the romantic “Cuando Sali de Cuba,” a song that speaks of the sadness of leaving home forever. These choices reflect the mood of the piece: humor, fun, and a little sadness as we try to get on with one another.

The film can be watched  here.

The film  lasts about twenty-two minutes.

Title: Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss
Starring:
Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez as Veronica “Ronnie” Rondero
Juan Carlos Hernandez as Guillermo “Guille” Rondero:
Anthony James Hernandez as Jerry Rondero

Directed and Edited by: Juan Carlos Hernandez
Produced by: Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez
Sound by: Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez
Written by: Alex Diaz-Granados, based on his original screen concept, Happy Days Are Here Again

Review of “Dreams Do Come True” by Peggy Gerber

Plot:

Sofia was painfully shy as a child. They called her condition selective mutism. She tells the reader that when someone would come up to her and her mom when they were out walking, she’d dart behind her mom’s legs. Her dolls and stuffed toys were her friends, but she wasn’t lonely. They had lovely tea parties, played princess, and planned her wedding to Prince Charming.

Nevertheless, the school principal threatened expulsion if her parents didn’t take her to a therapist.

“Thank God for that, because therapy changed my life,” Sofia tells the reader.

Thoughts:

The happily ever after story can’t be all that is sound like, of course. This is handled so deftly that even though the reader knows it’s coming, it’s hard to see. Only in re-reading can the subtle clues noticed.

I don’t know whether the author intended this or not, but this brief tale speaks of the difficulty of bringing fairy tale romances to real life. A friend of mine once asked, “Why can’t it ever be like it is in the books?” This story, I think, reflects that, at least in part.

I liked this sad little tale.

Bio:

According to her blurb, author Peggy Gerber is a poet and science fiction writer from New Jersey. She is also a co-founder of Champagne Writers.

The story can be read here.

Title: “Dreams Do Come True”
Author: Peggy Gerber
First published: Daily Science Fiction, February 24, 2020