Pulphouse #12, June/July 2021“Jesting Pilate” by Lee Allred
“Exchange Policy” by Scott William Carter
“Laugh Track” by David H. Hendrickson
“Family Bonds” by R. W. Wallace
“A Magical Negro” by Ezekiel James Boston
“Be Very, Very Afraid” by Jerry Oltion
“Death by Vodka” by Robert J. McCarter
“Virtual Oracle” by Leigh Saunders
“Machine in the Ghost” by Rob Vagle
“Gordie Culligan vs Dr. Longbeach and the HVAC of Doom” by J. Steven York
Reviewed by Chuck Rothman
Pulphouse has been serving up fiction since the 90s. Its new incarnation contains a mix of mystery fiction, historical fiction, and others, with ten new SF/fantasy works.
“Jesting Pilate” by Lee Allred is set in London during the reign of James I, where playwright Jacob Talmage spots something wrong about the king, and is imprisoned for pointing it out. The cause is discovered to be a sinister supernatural source, and Talmage may be the only one to defeat it. I liked the alternate history aspect, especially the conceit that Shakespeare wrote the works of Sir Francis Bacon. Overall, a fast-paced adventure.
Scott William Carter‘s “Exchange Policy” is part of a theme that emerges in the stories in this issue: ghosts or their equivalent. Mitch’s wife Molly has died, but he’s been given an android replacement. The only problem is she is too perfect a model, the programming has eliminated the parts of her personality that were disagreeable to Mitch. They aren’t sure how to react to this, and Mitch has to find a way to make it work out. I did like the concept that people we love can be disagreeable sometimes.
“Laugh Track” by David H Hendrickson is an idea story where the alien Veracitati, for some reason, adjust things so that whenever someone lied, those listening would laugh. Of course, humans being what they are, they begin to work around it. There’s not much here other than presenting the idea, but it’s a clever one and the result is a satisfying story.
R.W. Wallace’s “Family Bonds” is part of a series, but stands on its own. Set in a cemetery, it features Robert Villmur, a ghost who works to achieve peace for the other ghosts there to resolve their issues before moving on. The catch is that Robert cannot leave the cemetery, though with his partner Clothilde, his is able to find the truth. A new resident, Bernadette Humbert, is there and doesn’t know why. And Clothilde has gone into hiding. It’s a combination of mystery and ghost story, with a strong ending and the possibility that there will be more stories about the ghosts involved.
“A Magical Negro” by Ezekiel James Boston features Magical Negro, who was once Hank Black, from a racist comic strip from the past. Magical is amazed and delighted with the freedom he has in the real world working as a custodian, but is being drawn back into a comic strip world, something he seriously does not want to happen. Interesting take on race in comics, and with a neat solution to solve the problem.
Jerry Oltion seems to appear in every issue of Pulphouse, in whatever form it takes. “Be Very, Very Afraid” is flash fiction about Maria, who is on an airplane and who sees danger in every passenger. A fine delineation of paranoia.
“Death by Vodka” by Robert J. McCarter is another ghost story, where Hal, who is dead, communicates with his wife from the afterlife. Hal was an estate planner and died in a car accident after hearing about the deaths of two of his clients. I’m not sure of what the story is trying to get at and didn’t really care for it.
“Virtual Oracle” by Leigh Saunders starts at a cocktail party, where Mrs. Ashworth, a rich widow, sees a mystic who is there as entertainment. She is presented with his card, containing a URL, and lets curiosity get the better of her and looks it up. It starts giving cryptic advice which turns out to be true and Ashworth slowly begins to understand this is something strange. Then she’s given advice that is further than where she wants to go. Or so she thinks. Nice handling of the idea and the mystery.
Another story with a ghost is Rob Vagle‘s “Machine in the Ghost” where Amanda sees a ghost in a maglev train station. She is dissatisfied with her life, and when the ghost promises to show her her fate, she is tempted. Another story I felt was too oblique for my taste.
“Gordie Culligan vs. Dr. Longbeach and the HVAC of Doom” by J. Steven York plays on the conceit that HVAC repair people are the ones saving the world from disaster. Gordie Culligan is one of them and is called out on what sounds like a routine problem, but which soon shows to be a world-threatening danger. It’s a fast romp, and a contrast between the more serious stories in the issue. It did some good things with the conceit, but is just so-so fluff.
The genre stories here are all well written, but several just didn’t resonate with me. But they (and some of the non-SF/F genre stories not listed in the table of contents above) are solid reads.
Chuck Rothman’s novels Staroamer’s Fate and Syron’s Fate are available from Fantastic Books. His story, “Her Old Man” was recently reprinted in Horror for the Throne.