Pulphouse #18, June/July 2022
“The Problematic Navigation of the Vessel Clayton Booker” by J. Steven York (reprint, not reviewed)
“The Forgiving Execution” by Rob Vagle (reprint, not reviewed)
“How Fred the Opossum Mobilized the Microbes and Saved the Universe” by Mary Jo Rabe
“Cards on the Table” by Adam-Troy Castro (nongenre, not reviewed)
“Big Green Man” by Don Webb
“The Wall” by Lisa S. Silverthorne
“He Who Howls” by O’Neil De Noux (reprint, not reviewed)
“The Train in the Ladies’ Room” by Kent Patterson
“The Secret of Catnip” by Stefon Mears (reprint, not reviewed)
“Ashes to Ashes” by Jerry Oltion
“The Short Life and Horny Times of a Teenage Mantis” by David H. Hendrickson
“The Pillow of Disappointment and What Was Found Beneath it” by Scott Edelman
“Love the Way She Saw It” by C.H. Hung
“Erwin or Ralph” by Ray Vukcevich (reprint, not reviewed)
“Gossamer Ghosts” by Robert J. McCarter
“Far From Home” by R.W. Wallace
“The Devil Went Down to the Sunset Strip” by Dayle A. Dermatis (reprint, not reviewed)
“Like a Hole in the Head” by Jason A. Adams
“Shadows on the Moon” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (reprint, not reviewed)
“The Last Julian” by Annie Reed (reprint, not reviewed)
“Voyage of the Dog-Propelled Starship” by Robert Jeschonek (reprint, not reviewed)
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
Science fiction and fantasy dominate the original fiction in this issue. Even the single new mainstream story might be thought of as borderline horror fiction, although it contains no speculative elements.
The title of “How Fred the Opossum Mobilized the Microbes and Saved the Universe” by Mary Jo Rabe serves as the story’s own synopsis. The marsupial does indeed communicate with microorganisms, as well as with subatomic particles and even dark energy, to stop a parallel universe from destroying our own.
The combination of physics and pure whimsy makes for a unique tale, even if the result is lighter than a feather. Those fond of talking animal fantasies may best appreciate it.
In “Big Green Man” by Don Webb, a notebook reveals that a desert tourist trap houses a genuine Martian, of the type described in the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. This involves a small number of people with a special power, as well as the effect of a psychoactive drug.
Although the story offers a scientific explanation for its weird events, the result seems more like pure fantasy, mostly designed to appeal to nostalgic science fiction readers. The use of the notebook, a kind of story-within-the-story, adds little to what is otherwise straightforward narration.
“The Wall” by Lisa S. Silverthorne takes place in the near future, on the border between Mexico and the United States. The narrator and her family make use of technology to evade the equally high-tech devices that guard the wall between the two nations, as they seek to cross the heavily protected borderline.
It is, of course, impossible not to think of recent political controversies concerning immigration while reading this story. Thus, one’s opinions on the subject may have a strong influence on how one responds to it. With that in mind, this brief, intense work, which seems to have been written in anger, creates a great deal of tension, and features highly plausible future technology.
The title of “The Train in the Ladies’ Room” by Kent Patterson is quite literal. A security guard at a shopping mall not only discovers a locomotive inside a rest room, but multiple dead bodies appearing from nowhere. These strange phenomena involve a mythical railroad and those who ride the rails. An occultist specializing in supernatural trains attempts to resolve the situation.
The mood of this story is both comic and serious, often switching from one to another in a jarring fashion. Railroad buffs are likely to enjoy it, but others may not find it quite so delightful.
In “Ashes to Ashes” by Jerry Oltion, magic causes a man’s car to never stop running, even after he destroys it. Recycled parts of the vehicle come back to haunt him, and not even his own death prevents what remains of the automobile from tracking him down.
Like many stories in the magazine, this one can be thought of as high concept fiction; the premise is easy to describe and dominates the piece. The fact that the man dies before the car performs its final action makes the conclusion something of an anticlimax.
As with other works in this issue, the title of “The Short Life and Horny Times of a Teenage Mantis” by David H. Hendrickson provides an accurate description of the story’s content. The adolescent insect yearns to mate with a beautiful female of his species, only to witness a rival win her heart first. His status as a lowly runt among his fellows proves to be an advantage.
This lighthearted piece can be read as a spoof of teenage lust. As such, it provides mild amusement. The plot depends on the protagonist not knowing, at first, what happens to a male mantis during mating. Even in a comedy, it seems unlikely that he would not have already been aware of this.
In “The Pillow of Disappointment and What Was Found Beneath It” by Scott Edelman, the main character has perfect baby teeth that never fall out and never grow any larger. All efforts to remove the tiny teeth fail. This prevents him from receiving gifts from the Tooth Fairy, as well as giving him a grotesque appearance when he is an adult. Only in the afterlife does he understand what his purpose is going to be.
The author is to be commended for writing a story featuring the Tooth Fairy that doesn’t descend into pure silliness, and which avoids sentimentality. That said, some readers are likely to find it difficult to suspend their disbelief.
“Love the Way She Saw It” by C.H. Hung features a painter who is secretly colorblind. After an automobile accident blinds her, experimental treatment restores her sight, including normal color vision. The result is bittersweet, changing her relationship with her art and with her lover.
This emotionally powerful work exemplifies Theodore Sturgeon’s definition of science fiction as “a story built around human beings, with a human problem, and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content.” The speculative medical procedure is not only essential to the plot, but is completely believable. Even readers with no interest in science fiction will be able to appreciate it as a work of literature.
“Gossamer Ghosts” by Robert J. McCarter takes place after aliens arrive on Earth. A terrorist attack drives the extraterrestrials away. They respond by covering the planet with myriad thread-like objects, which cause the living to perceive the spirits of the dead, and to experience their deaths.
The highly original premise is made to seem real through the use of telling details. The way in which it changes the life of the narrator, a man whose ex-wife dies of cancer, carries a powerful impact. Some writers might have used the concept only to create a gruesome horror story, but instead the result is a more subtle and complex work.
“Far From Home” by R.W. Wallace is the latest in a series of stories about a pair of ghosts, confined to their cemetery, who help newly arrived spirits deal with unfinished business. In this tale, they become involved with the ghost of a man who was buried under another man’s name. Their investigation leads to the unraveling of shady business deals and family secrets.
I’ve read a few of these stories, and their quality is generally quite high. I have to confess that this entry did not strike me as being quite up to the same standard of excellence, although it is certainly not bad at all. I did not find the resolution to be as fully satisfying as that found in other works in the series. (Perhaps that is because the person who killed the dead man not only escapes justice, but never appears in the story at all. To be fair, the author is clearly more concerned with other things.)
The narrator of “Like a Hole in the Head” by Jason A. Adams works on a garbage truck. He witnesses suspicious characters leaving the scene of a murder and reports it to the police. The reward for his good deed is to be shot dead, but he continues to haunt his truck.
This is pretty much the entire plot of the story, which is mostly notable for the narrator’s very dark sense of humor. The end suggests that he might be able to track down his killer, but this is left open. The result is a sense that the author has more to say, leaving the reader frustrated.
Victoria Silverwolf previously reviewed one of the reprinted stories.