On Spec “Cleaning House” by Jeb Gaudet
“Better Luck Next Time” by Andrew Rucker Jones
“The Other Half” by Cale Plett
“In Exchange” by Shih-Li Kow
“Frozen Charlotte” by KT Wagner
“Salvation of the Innocents” by Karl El-Koura
“John Barleycorn Must Die, and Your Little Dog Toto, Too” by Jon Lasser
“Ogres in the Mist” by Brian M. Milton
“Routine Resupply” by Heather Fraser
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
Nine new stories appear in this issue, with a wide variety of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
In “Cleaning House” by Jeb Gaudet, a man must constantly perform household chores or be destroyed by monsters made of dust and dirt. When an illness prevents him from doing this for a couple of days, the threat becomes even greater.
The author manages to make a premise that might have been comic or satiric, as an allegory of the unending burden of housework, a source of horror. Flashbacks to conversations with the man’s dead grandmother are effective, even if the reason for their curse is never made clear.
The male narrator of “Better Luck Next Time” by Andrew Rucker Jones and his female acquaintance go through reincarnation multiple times, descending from snakes to frogs to flies to bacteria. Only during a final new life together does the clueless narrator understand why she is always with him, and what lesson he is supposed to learn.
The mood is very light, and the story can be described as a romantic comedy. (Although the female’s love for the male is not explicitly mentioned until the end, this should be obvious to most readers from the start.) As such, it makes for a pleasant little trifle.
In “The Other Half” by Cale Plett, teenagers enter the ruins of a church that burned down, killing a child inside. They make a horrible discovery, and realize that one of them is now in very great danger.
This is a gruesome horror story that also manages to say something about love (in more than one sense of the word) and relationships. Some readers may find parts of it overly gory. The motives of the supernatural being that emerges from the church are confusing, as is its back story.
“In Exchange” by Shih-Li Kow takes the form of a letter from a physician living in one of two formerly warring nations to another in the other nation, and a reply. During the war, it was possible to put the consciousness of an old, experienced fighter into a young body. The letters reveal more about the process.
The first letter ends in a very dramatic and emotionally powerful way. The second letter is an anticlimax, and the story would have been more effective without it.
“Frozen Charlotte” by KT Wagner features a pair of mysterious half-sisters, their distant father, and their sympathetic servant. The ending explains their strange nature.
Set in what seems to be the 19th century, this story has the mood of gothic horror. The climax changes it into another kind of fantasy. The conclusion seems rushed, particularly after a leisurely narrative with a slowly building sense of tension.
In “Salvation of the Innocents” by Karl El-Koura, time travel is used to rescue infants from the slaughter ordered by Herod the Great, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. (The story assumes this was an actual historical event, but does not otherwise take any position on religious faith.) People in the future rarely have children, due to the aftereffects of a war, and this is an attempt to assure the survival of humanity. The main character is one such time traveler, who suffers a crisis of conscience about what he does and about his relationship with his lover, who is also his superior.
The premise is certainly provocative enough, but the way it is developed is not as compelling. One might wonder why the time travelers don’t rescue children from imminent death in other periods of history as well. The conclusion verges on sentimentality.
In “John Barleycorn Must Die, and Your Little Dog Toto, Too” by Jon Lasser, two women on a generation starship discuss whether they should have a child. This is a quiet, slice-of-life story, mostly about the cycle of life and death. Readers may wish that it went on a little longer, to develop the theme to a greater extent.
“Ogres in the Mist” by Brian M. Milton takes place in a fantasy world where gnomes are the servants of elves, who have absolute power over them and who are often cruel. The king of the elves sends an elderly gnome on a seemingly hopeless mission to capture an ogre. The intent is for the gnome to be killed, saving the king the cost of his retirement. A young gnome is sent with him, to report back to the king. She comes up with the solution to their dilemma.
Despite the threat to the main character, this story has a peaceful, pastoral mood. Even the giant, dangerous ogres are more admired than feared by the gnomes. The presence of the young gnome is, perhaps, a little too convenient a plot contrivance.
The narrator of “Routine Resupply” by Heather Fraser has been alone on a planet with a deadly environment for many years. Those assigned to be observers in this manner are misfits, either voluntarily living apart from the rest of humanity or being forced out. A capsule arrives one day, changing the narrator’s situation drastically.
Without giving away too much about the story’s major plot twist, it can be said that it involves a change in the narrator’s attitude. This adds a touch of hope to the bleak mood. Although the work is emotionally effective, I found myself wondering if this extreme form of isolation is really plausible.
Victoria Silverwolf has been watching some pretty bad movies on YouTube lately.