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”
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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 “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 “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”
Review of “The Spiral Staircase” (1946)
Plot: In turn-of-the-century New England, a mute woman named Helen (Dorothy McGuire) attends a (silent) film shown at a local inn. While she’s there, an unnamed woman (Myrna Dell) who limps (“a cripple”), an inn resident, is strangled by a man who’d hidden in her closet. This follows the murder of another woman, a “simple-mindedContinue reading “Review of “The Spiral Staircase” (1946)”
Review of “U-Phone XV Presents Insta-Post” by James Rumpel
Plot: Rachel Shommer and her fiancé, Jeremy Nybor, eagerly await the release of U-Phone XV’s instant posting feature. It will allow the user to post thoughts without the hassle of typing. All anyone has to do is merely think, and their thoughts are posted. “My first insta-post will be one saying how much I loveContinue reading “Review of “U-Phone XV Presents Insta-Post” by James Rumpel”
Review of “This is How the Rain Falls” by M.K. Hutchins
Image by Roman Grac from Pixabay Plot: The narrator used to love the rain, but then the boy attacked, beat, and robbed her in the rain. Ten years later, she’s at a bus stop, watching bus after bus pass by. She doesn’t want to risk getting caught in the rain, even for a little while.Continue reading “Review of “This is How the Rain Falls” by M.K. Hutchins”
Review of “The Deadly Mantis” (1957)
Image from IMDB Saturday pizza and bad movie night with a Svengoolie rerun we’d never seen Plot: Somewhere in the South Seas, a volcano erupts. Nothing happens in isolation, of course. As they told us in junior high science class, lo, many years ago, “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” So,Continue reading “Review of “The Deadly Mantis” (1957)”
Review of “Hero” by Harris Coverley
Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay Plot: Everyone appears to be dead and unburied except for the narrator, who, it becomes clear, did not kill anyone. He (?) finds ways to fill the time. He drains a stagnant lake (“they’re all stagnant anyway,” he tells the reader) just to see what’s on the bottom. HeContinue reading “Review of “Hero” by Harris Coverley”
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,Continue reading “Review of “Mad Science” by Jo Mularczyk”
