Review of “Bullies” by Damien Krsteski

Plot:

For months, Jon has been tracking down the game identities of the boys who have been bullying him in school. He promises them cheatware, which is supposed to enhance the prizes they win. In exchange, they lock him out so their paths with never cross, either in Brutal Assault or any other portals in the virtual reality “Welt.” Of course, the cheatware is actually Jon’s revenge, with which he hopes to incapacitate the real-life bullies.

Thoughts:

Author Damien Krsteski has created an intriguing alternate world within an alternate world. Jon uses “smart specs,” which include an AI therapist. The smart specs tell him when he’s late for his history class and where the class is located. When he leaves school because he says he isn’t feeling well, the smart specs tell the school and his parents. They also purchase a tram ticket for him.

Nothing goes according to plan, of course, or the story would be boring. I did not find the ending satisfying. Nevertheless, this was an engaging little read. I liked it.

Bio:

According to his blurb, author Damien Krsteski is originally from the Balkans but now lives and works in Germany. (Hence calls the alternative world “Welt.”) He writes fiction and develops software. His work has appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Metaphorosis, Future Fire, and other places.

The story can be read here.

Title: “Bullies”
Author: Damien Krsteski
First published: Theme of Absence, April 3, 2020

Review of “The Bat Whispers” (1930)

Plot:

Master criminal the Bat has the police flummoxed. He steals jewelry and pummels (sometimes kills) owners regardless of the precautions they and law enforcement take, often leaving taunting notes. He even issues warnings ahead of time. What a gentleman. After one especially brutal robbery, the Bat announces his retirement to the country. He’s giving the cops a breather.

Of course, he’s not retiring. Someone has robbed the bank in rural Oakdale while its president, Mr. Fleming, is in Europe. The prime suspect is bank clerk Brook (William Bakewell), who disappeared right after the robbery.

The Fleming country house, full of the requisite secret passages and movable portraits, is leased to the indomitable Miss Cornelia van Gorder (Grayce Hampton). With her is her terrified maid, Lizzie Allen (Maude Eburne). The caretaker (Spencer Charters) tells them about the strange noises in the house and the flickering lights, all courtesy of the ghosts.

Miss van Gorder isn’t having any of it. Her niece, Dale van Gorder (Una Merkel) comes for a visit and brings a young man she recommends as a gardener who is, in fact, her boyfriend, Brook, the missing bank clerk. Cornelia interviews him to test his gardening knowledge. He has none, and apparently has a limited vocabulary as well, making for one of the cuter exchanges in the film. Cornelia hires him anyway, just to see what he’s about.

Dr. Venrees (Gustav von Seyffertitz) arrives, saying that he’s heard from Mr. Fleming in Europe, telling him Cornelia has to vacate the house as he’ll be returning to deal with the bank robbery… or is he? And other than Dr. Venrees’ word, how does the viewer know Mr. Fleming is coming back?

The audience knows that Brook and Dale (see what the writers did there?) are looking for the missing bank money. They want to clear his name. They believe the real thief has hidden the loot in a secret room in the house. Unfortunately, they’ve got competition from just about half the county, including… the Bat!

Thoughts:

This is a cute little haunted house mystery, but the character of the Bat is not a sympathetic one. He kills people for jewelry because he finds killing amusing. Not many people in this movie are sympathetic. There is the imperious and sinister Dr. Venrees, who leaves a door unlocked after a rock with a threatening note tied to it is hurled through the window, even though Cornelia asks him to lock it. He later goes back and deliberately unlocks it again. Whom is he letting into the house?

There is the mysterious and morose caretaker. Has anyone but he seen these ghosts? When Dale calls the bank president’s nephew Richard (Hugh Huntley) to the house, hoping for help, why does he act so strangely?

The body count isn’t as high as some Sunday night murder mysteries, but it’s greater than zero.

This film was restored by UCLA Film and Television Archive. The print quality for a film ninety years old is excellent. The audio is a little goofy, however, making the dialogue hard to catch at points. Turning the volume up leaves one at the mercy of an earth-shattering—if rainless—thunderstorm. (Because of course there’s a storm). This is a shame because the dialogue is delightful and entertaining.

Early on, when Cornelia and Lizzie are discussing the house and the “ghosts,” Cornelia asks for a Ouija board. Lizzie tells her there’s Bible on top of it, “keeping it quiet.” She also tells Cornelia, after the latter has insulted her: “I stuck by you when you was a Theosophist and a suffragettist, and I’ve seen you through socialism, Fletcherism, and rheumatism, but when it comes to spookism, I’m through!”

The Bat Whispers was originally a stage play based on a 1908 book, The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart. It also uses fairly sophisticated camera technique for the day. For example, the viewer see action from the perspective of the back seat of a speeding patrol car. This is routine today but, I imagine reasonably difficult with the movie cameras of 1930. There is a lot of action in silhouette, so the viewer knows what happened—maybe—but whom did it involve? At the very end, once the Bat is unmasked, he swings down from the top of the stage and promises the audience that as long as they keep his identity secret, he won’t haunt their houses, kill them, and rob them. Lovely.

The movie was later remade into the 1959’s The Bat with Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead. In his autobiography, Batman and Me, comic book writer Bob Kane noted that The Bat Whispers was one of the inspirations for, yes, the character of Batman.

This movie is not everybody’s cup of tea. Sometimes this stuff takes a little work to get through. And, given that there is not much redeemable about the Bat, some would not enjoy it even without the technical obstacles. Having said that, I confess I liked this film. It’s funny, poking fun at melodrama in many respects. Of course, there’s a happy ending for the lovers. Cornelia remains unflappable. And the timid little maid who appears foolish and jumps out of her skin at the drop of a hat achieves what all the men with their guns fail to.

If social distancing is making you a little stir crazy, this is worth a look-see. Beer/vodka and pizza optional.

The movie can be watched in its entirety here.

Title: The Bat Whispers
Director: Roland West
Writers: Mary Roberts Rinehart (based upon a stage play by) and Avery Hopwood (based upon a stage play by)
Released: November 13, 1930
length: 1 hour, 24 minutes

Review of “Reflections” by Lamont Turner

Plot:

Two men, one dressed in black and the other dressed in white, sit on silver chairs at a silver table. The whole room is silver, in fact. Other than the table and chairs, however, there are no furnishings in the room.

The man wearing black types on a tablet, looking up occasionally at the man in white, who glowers at him.

The man in black asks, “What is your name?”

His companion responds by pounding his fist on the table. “You know my name. How many times are we going to perform this charade?”

“Please answer the question.”

The man in white gives not only his name, but details about his family and his education—the kind of stuff phishing emails ask for.

Thoughts:

This at first appears to be the sort of interrogation tactics associated with totalitarian regimes designed not to elicit information but to break the spirit of the person being interrogated. The man in black—the interviewer—remains cool, unemotional, and demanding throughout. He gives the man in white no information as to why they are there, what his own purpose is, or what he’s recording on his tablet.

Why are they there? Is the man in white a political prisoner? Is he a criminal? Is he a mental patient? The first seems to be likely at first. Doctor Benedict Stevenson—or, Subject 59—had been working on organic 3-D modeling. The reader begins to wonder if he’s gone a little loopy when he talks about not just modeling organs but modeling… minds. He posits if you map out every neuron, you are creating memories.

While the ending is not a complete surprise, this was an entertaining and engaging little story. I enjoyed it. The image of the silver room in the beginning was striking. The narrative dealt with such topics as the question of what it means to be human and simple compassion.

Bio:

According to his blurb, author Lamont Turner’s work has appeared in Death And Butterflies and Scary Snippets anthologies, and Abandoned Towers, Jitter, Serial, and The Realm Beyond magazines.

The story can be read here.

Title: “Reflections”
Author: Lamont Turner
First published: Themes of Absence, March 28, 2020

Review of “Bookstore” by Jeremiah Minihan

Plot:

The unnamed narrator of this story likes to browse the small independent used bookstore near his work. He’s been there many times before, chatted with the short, gray guy at the front desk. He’s sure Bill—that’s the name of the guy at the counter—has been here for years. He’s always wearing the same faded brown sweated, winter or summer.

Today, things are different, though. Maybe he took a wrong turn. Or maybe he’s had a minor stroke. He’s stuck, lost, but he’s too ashamed to call out to Bill. He turned by the military section with its tall shelves, though he thought he’d passed it already. He turned left, toward brighter lights. He knew he was getting closer to the counter and Bill.

When he gets to the counter, the man he meets is not Bill and has never heard of Bill.

Thoughts:

I confess a certain liking for the idea of getting lost in an old bookstore. I also am partial to old buildings with a bit of history in them. This story combines those two elements. There is also an element of the Twilight Zone here: where does the narrator go while he’s wandering along the aisles of the bookstore? What happens? It’s odd that he is concerned but never panics regardless of how weird things get. He gives off a brand of genteel trepidation, but doesn’t bother losing his cool.

While I didn’t find the ending entirely satisfactory, I did enjoy reading this little tale and vicariously getting lost in an old bookstore.

Bio:

According to his blurb, author Jeremiah Minihan lives in Rochester, New Hampshire with his wife Peggy and their Boston terrier, Belle.

He has worked as a software developer and project manager in the insurance and banking industries. He taught high school English in Virginia.

He writes short stories and essays, and has previously published short stories in Pif Magazine, Dark Dossier, Yellow Mama, Blood Moon Rising, Literally Stories, and CommuterLit.

The story can be read here.

Title: “Bookstore”
Author: Jeremiah Minihan
First published: Theme of Absence, March 21, 2020

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