DEAD RECKONING AND OTHER STORIES by Dino Parenti
This premier collection by Dino Parenti, published by Crystal Lake Publishing, showcases sixteen beautifully written stories that delve into the darker aspects of American life in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The stories are grouped by theme and time period, from the seventies to present day and into a post-apocalyptic future and include a number of different genres, science fiction, horror, mystery and western, to name a few.
Among the stories that stood out for me is “On the Fickle Nature of Germination,” which chronicles the journey of a deadly virus from the ice fields of Patagonia to the far corners of the world when two scientists discover the frozen remains of a couple who died in each other’s arms. Ironically the narrator and her husband were trying to start a family when they misguidedly thawed out the dead lovers, dubbed Lady and Gentleman. What begins as a touching, almost romantic tale turns into something very different when Lady and Gentleman are found to have succumbed to a virulent plague now unleashed upon the planet.
Outstanding even in a collection of so many superb stories is “Stratum,” whose protagonist plans to exit the International Space Station for a close up ‘look’ at the impactor meteor Perses, now on a collision course with earth. His mission is to launch a group of Remembrance Spheres that will offer insight to future space travelers about what life on earth was like before being extinguished by Perses, but his personal quest may interfere.
“The Mother-of-Pearl Way,” a quietly harrowing story of a post-apocalypse earth, begins with an almost fairytale quality. A young girl witnessing the aftermath of a ritual fight-to-the-death asks her wise grandfather, “Why do we keep doing this?” and then risks her life to create a better future for her people.
Finally, the title story “Dead Reckoning” depicts a brutal battle of wills between a suicidal priest and a vigilante cop driven to murder by a flaccid legal system. Parenti skillfully unspools their conflicted pasts as the two men endure a torturous trek through Death Valley.
To sum up: DEAD RECKONING AND OTHER STORIES is speculative fiction at its finest, a brilliant collection that deserves to be savored, contemplated, and read again.
Among the stories that stood out for me is “On the Fickle Nature of Germination,” which chronicles the journey of a deadly virus from the ice fields of Patagonia to the far corners of the world when two scientists discover the frozen remains of a couple who died in each other’s arms. Ironically the narrator and her husband were trying to start a family when they misguidedly thawed out the dead lovers, dubbed Lady and Gentleman. What begins as a touching, almost romantic tale turns into something very different when Lady and Gentleman are found to have succumbed to a virulent plague now unleashed upon the planet.
Outstanding even in a collection of so many superb stories is “Stratum,” whose protagonist plans to exit the International Space Station for a close up ‘look’ at the impactor meteor Perses, now on a collision course with earth. His mission is to launch a group of Remembrance Spheres that will offer insight to future space travelers about what life on earth was like before being extinguished by Perses, but his personal quest may interfere.
“The Mother-of-Pearl Way,” a quietly harrowing story of a post-apocalypse earth, begins with an almost fairytale quality. A young girl witnessing the aftermath of a ritual fight-to-the-death asks her wise grandfather, “Why do we keep doing this?” and then risks her life to create a better future for her people.
Finally, the title story “Dead Reckoning” depicts a brutal battle of wills between a suicidal priest and a vigilante cop driven to murder by a flaccid legal system. Parenti skillfully unspools their conflicted pasts as the two men endure a torturous trek through Death Valley.
To sum up: DEAD RECKONING AND OTHER STORIES is speculative fiction at its finest, a brilliant collection that deserves to be savored, contemplated, and read again.
No comments have been added yet.
