James Pyles's Blog, page 161
March 21, 2018
Planetary Anthology: Venus – A Book Review
I’m delighted to be the first person (on Amazon) to review the Planetary Anthology: Venus. I’ve been aware of the Superversive SF movement and their publications for a few years now, but this is the first opportunity I’ve had to review any of their works apart from God, Robot. Each anthology in the series takes the […]
The Price of Adventure
“Sign seems a bit kloogie.” “Maybe we should turn around, Randy.” “Where’s the adventure in backpacking if you worry about every little sign, Marcia?” “I’m just saying…” “Come on. The sun will go down in an hour.” He grinned and then marched forward. “I knew this was a bad idea,” she muttered and hurried to […]
March 20, 2018
Lift
“They’re gaining, Tomas. We need more lift. Hurry.” “I’m trying Irma. It’s easy to imagine more balloons but hard to make them pull us up.” Twelve-year-old Irma Ruiz was mimicking the motions of her Papa, remembering how he drove his antediluvian Rambler, putting her hands at the ten and two o’ clock positions on the […]
March 19, 2018
The Mask Crumbles
Their High School Drama club had adopted this section of the path through the forest near their campus to clean up every quarter. Derek, the most unpopular student in class, brought up the rear while everyone else had already picked up the more easily found garbage and litter and moved on. Cynthia and Stephanie decided […]
The Agency
“Who are you, where am I, and where the hell is my solicitor?” “Right now Ms. Parker, my name and your location aren’t important and frankly neither are your so-called rights. Our records indicate you are guilty of virtually every computer crime we have a law for, so you might want to be a bit […]
Curse of the Mini-Mummy
“Oh you’re not actually indulging him in this obsession, are you?” Jean saw the three toy Egyptian mummies, one with the sarcophagus open revealing an unwrapped head. “Ever since you showed Jimmy those stupid old movies, he can’t get enough of them.” “Relax. It’s just a phase. I went through it when I was his age. […]
March 17, 2018
Show Me The Way To Go Home
Down, down, down Landon fell into the seemingly bottomless pit. The light from above got smaller and further way until he was totally in the dark and still falling, screaming at the top of his lungs. And then he hit something but it wasn’t the ground. The lights suddenly came up and he was bouncing up and […]
Treasure Hunter
Deidra Maher whored her way through France and Spain to earn passage across Morocco, Algeria, and finally to Mali. Since inheriting the cipher from her great-granduncle as his only living relative, she spent the next five years accomplishing what he had failed to do in twenty. Shon Knowles certainly had a keen mind but not a […]
March 16, 2018
The Beggarman Goes Hunting
Indian Territory – Oklahoma – 1880 The fact that he was a former slave was obvious because he was a black man of a certain age, but his clothes and his manner also marked him for a beggar and a thief on the run from the law, or at least that’s what it seemed. Most […]
March 15, 2018
Sojourn in Direhaven
Shay, the spectacular golden dragon, alighted in a wooded valley an hour after dawn. The dragonrider Dani along with the five Davidson children, were clinging to her back still shivering from their hasty flight in the frigid heights above the clouds. After their escape from the Hall of the Mountain Kings, pursued by the deadly […]
