James Pyles's Blog, page 159

The New Neighborhood

“I’ll get it.” Ron Moore, his wife Layna, and their almost three-year-old daughter Emily had just moved into the new house in the suburbs the week before, but this was the first time anyone had come to visit. “Hi. May I help you?” “Seth Kennedy. I’m your next door neighbor. Just thought I’d drop by […]

The New Apprentice

Landon stood majestically on top of the wind-swept plateau dressed in archaic and stereotypical magician’s apparel. The robe draped over his slight nine-year-old frame from neck to ankle was colored a deep violet with bright yellow crescent moons and five-pointed stars dappled generously across the fabric. His head was adorned with a tall, conical hat […]

The Kaala Experiment

“Oh, crap.” “What is it, Lynn?” At the helm of the Research Submarine Nereid, Marcus Clark scanned the immediate vicinity through the view port while everyone else in the cabin looked toward the navigator. “It’s not the Megalodon we encountered yesterday. Not much bigger, but it reads differently.” “Something even more minatory?” “Cut with the […]

The Last Rose of Babylon

The great Bavel had been destroyed long ago and it was time to leave its ruins. She had been hiding among the worshipers of the Church of the East because it was the only place left to go. Like her mother and her mother’s mother before her, Warda concealed the truth of her identity and […]

Raising Lazarus: A Book Review

I just finished reading Aidan Reid’s novel Raising Lazarus and I must say I am impressed. I’ve read other works of his including “Sigil”, “Pathfinders”, and his short story “Spectrum”, and I think “Raising Lazarus” is his best authoring effort to date. There will probably be a few “spoilers” in my review, so if you […]

The Praying Man

“Daddy, who’s that man by the river? He looks strange.” “Just some of the local color, Janet. Don’t pay attention to him. They all beg.” “George, stop being racist. We’re here at Gurara Falls for a vacation. Nigeria is his country, not yours.” George Dukes rolled his eyes. Thousands of miles from home and she […]

Blood Libel

Klaus Buchner was running for his life. One minute, he was a guest at his friend Josef Steinbauer’s home expecting to experience his first Passover seder since he was a child. Now these insane fools were chasing him, screaming terrible insults in archaic German. Where did this damned desert come from? Why couldn’t he get a […]

The Devil from the Fire

The horse came back alone. Every morning at dawn, Mr. Sebastian Cooke saddled and mounted his stallion and rode the perimeter of the ranch. His father and grandfather before him had owned and worked this unlikely land, an island over a thousand nautical miles east of New Guinea. In the year of our Lord 1879, […]

What Secrets We Keep

“You can’t escape us. This is only a temporary victory. Do you think we’ll really let you get to safety alive?” Dani was standing on a cliff overlooking a dense wood with the mist covered valley beyond it. It was dawn and the pale blue sky was streaked with clouds, painted in long, ragged strokes. She was dressed […]

Satisfaction

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted more, a bigger house, a faster car, more money, I wanted it all. It wasn’t just “keeping up with the Joneses,” because I didn’t care what others did or didn’t have. It was inside me. No matter what I had, I always felt incomplete. If […]