#43 Spooky > Likes and Comments

With it being Halloween this week in the U.S., is there a horror or thriller sci fi you enjoyed reading?

Recently, I’ve enjoyed Barbara Truelove’s Of Monsters and Mainframes. It has a terrible sample on Audible. But the book and the audiobook are both worth a look.

This isn't really science fiction, but it's by an author known for his science fiction: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

It's a shorter piece, but the one I remember the most is The Jaunt by Stephen King. The ending was terrifying, I thought.

Rosemarie, i agree. Bradbury can give you a chill. I loved October Country.

Again, not really science fiction, but The Witness for the Dead and The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison feature talking to the dead, ghosts, ogres and other weirdness. I like them a lot. The third in the “Cemeteries of Amalo” trilogy, The Tomb of Dragons, wasn’t bad but didn’t please me quite as much.

not a horror per se but a Halloween-vibed A Night in the Lonesome October

Deborah L. Davitt's 'Sensor Ghosts' worked for me. I followed Peter's link in the short-story thread and read it today. It's a recovery mission on Titan: an apparently intact vessel, an absent crew, and instruments whose explanations aren't quite reassuring.

What I liked was the friction between the two people doing the recovery and Control, who can monitor their pulse from far away. Beatriu is trying to hold on to a railing while somebody asks for a status report. The procedures are meant to keep her alive, but having every vital sign accounted for does very little for the feeling that someone is standing behind her. The warmth between the partners gives that unease something human to threaten.

The complete story is free at Lightspeed (about 4,100 words):
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi...