Eggp > Recent Status Updates

01. Disappearing Act, 2 stars. America becomes a nation of experts devoted to war, the arts die out.
02. Oddy and Id, 3 stars. Boy unknowingly bends reality to his desires, professors persuade him to their cause.
03. Star Light, Star Bright, 3 stars. Teacher teams up with conmen to track down genius children.
04. 5,271,009, 2 stars. Artist goes infantile, supernatural art collector wants to cure him of his fantasies.

03. The Last Act, 3 stars. Widow is inconsolable after her husband's death, eventually meets up with an old boyfriend out of curiosity.
04. Bitch, 3 stars. Casanova wannabe finances a scientist to make a violent aphrodisiac, plans go awry.

01. The Visitor, 3 stars. Casanova wannabe gets stranded in the desert, his wealthy rescuer invites him to spend the night in the family castle.
02. The Great Switcheroo, 2 stars. Husband cooks up a plan to swap unwilling wives with his neighbor.

Wiki: "He did it almost unconsciously as a kind of private pelmanism, and it absorbed him entirely."

Pelmanism (system) > Concentration (game)

05. A Moonlight Fable, 2 stars. Mother makes her son a beautiful suit, he covets & ruins it.
06. The Diamond Maker, 2 stars. Scruffy guy with a sob story tries to sell diamonds for a pittance.
07. The Lord of the Dynamos, 1 star. Dark skinned worker worships a big machine, by far the worst.
08. The Country of the Blind, 3 stars. Sighted man falls into a secluded valley, his attempts to be a tyrant fail miserably.

01. The Door in the Wall, 3 stars. Man glimpses a secret door to a garden scene at various times throughout his life.
02. The Star, 2 stars. Racist dude imagines what a near miss collision with earth would look like.
03. A Dream of Armageddon, 3 stars. Man has a series of vivid dreams about a future war.
04. The Cone, 2 stars. Husband discovers is wife and BFF are lovers.

Wiki: "The whole side of Cotopaxi slipped out in one vast convulsion, and a tumult of lava poured out so high and broad and swift and liquid that in one day it reached the sea."

04. A Lack of Demons, 4 stars. Exorcism story exacerbates haunting problem, champagne breaks up relationships.
05. The Panda Principle, 3 stars. Kid wanders off in fog, reader confronts author but struggles to come to terms with what's going on.
06. The Quarantine, 2 stars. Reader/author tries to rewrite the past, the obvious is obvious.

01. The Smell of Paprika, 3 stars. Failed former author purchases the first short story by a writer everyone is talking about, experiences derealization.
02. Into the Rain, 4 stars. Second story is about a lost cat and stormy relationship, the in-world reality continues to adjust.
03. Spot the Difference, 4 stars. One of a widower's twins has a powerful invisible friend, story author is finally tracked down.

Wiki: "Active magnetars are extremely rare, and most of the time they just sit where they are."

Word: "He hurkled gummily to himself, signifying amusement..."

1. To draw the limbs and parts of the body closely together, esp. with pain or cold; to contract the body like a beast in a storm; to cower, crouch, squat; to shrink, shudder. Said also of the limbs: To be contracted or drawn together.

2. To crouch down upon; to brood over.

Word: "...your froward imagination..."

1. Disposed to go counter to what is demanded or what is reasonable; perverse, difficult to deal with, hard to please; refractory, ungovernable; also, in a wider sense, bad, evilly-disposed, naughty. (The opposite of toward.)

2. Of things: Adverse, unfavourable, untoward; difficult to deal with, refractory. Of shape: Ill-formed, ugly.

18. The Wife's Tale, 4 stars. Placid husband begins acting strange, comes home at all hours with strange smells on him.
19. Some Approaches to the Problem of the Shortage of Time, 3 stars. Time is literally running out, various theories as to why are presented.
20. Sur, 3 stars. Bunch of unprepared women with no outdoors experience travel in Antarctica.

14. The Pathways of Desire, 3 stars. Alien planet is suspiciously lacking in unique culture/language/religion.
15. Gwilan's Harp, 2 stars. Woman's heirloom harp is destroyed, moves on with life.
16. Malheur County, 3 stars. Woman endures loss, raises grandchild with son-in-law.
17. The Water Is Wide, 3 stars. Ailing widower has nervous breakdown, wants out of the nursing home.

09. The White Donkey, 1 star. Girl pets a donkey, until she can't.
10. The Phoenix, 3 stars. Horny old lady tends to a sick librarian.
11. Intracom, 2 stars. Ship's crew goes gently insane with a hungry alien on board.
12. The Eye Altering, 3 stars. Colonists despise their ugly new home, overlook the obvious.
13. Mazes, 3 stars. Lack of communication between scientist and test subject ends tragically.

05. SQ, 3 stars. Psychological test determining mental fitness is adopted worldwide, leaving most of the population committed.
06. Small Change, 2 stars. Woman is helpless after her aunt dies.
07. The First Report of the Shipwrecked Foreigner to the Kadanh of Derb, 2 stars. Venice is covered in pigeon shit.
08. The Diary of the Rose, 4 stars. Doctor analyzes a man who expects to have his mind wiped at any moment.

01. The Author of the Acacia Seeds, 3 stars. Everything writes poetry, if you can be bothered learning to read it.
02. The New Atlantis, 3 stars. Couple struggles to get by in a flooded dystopian future.
03. Schrödinger's Cat, 1 star. Things get hot, dog-man wants to box cat-cat for definitive answers.
04. Two Delays on the Northern Line, 3 stars. Man takes a train to tend to recently deceased relatives' affairs.

Wiki: "It was the signal for the concessionaires to stop their irreverent bawling of brummagem wares, to close their shutters."

04. Twilight at the Towers, 3 stars. British spy thinks Russian operative wanting to defect is legit, but his bosses suspect them both.
05. A Postcript: On Jerusalem Street, 3 stars. A hired killer steals the skin of the fake psychic from B01S01 for a collector, but the stories never healed up.

01. The Last Illusion, 3 stars. Private detective is hired to watch a magician's corpse, every demon and their uncle wants his body.
02. The Life of Death, 4 stars. Woman comes back from cancer without her womb, obsesses over a church demolition.
03. How Spoilers Bleed, 3 stars. Europeans come to the jungle to steal land and slaughter locals, become tender and extra juicy.

03. Babel's Children, 3 stars. Wandering tourist stumbles into a compound of crazy men that refuse to let her leave.
04. In The Flesh, 3 stars. Prisoner gets a new cell mate, a creepy weakling obsessed with his dead grandpa.

Wiki: "This last concession to her comfort was a curates' egg, however."

01. The Forbidden, 3 stars. Nosey rich girl pries into the horror stories of murders in the slums for party banter.
02. The Madonna, 3 stars. Two men encounter the same posse of women, undergo the same changes, but react differently.

04. Down, Satan!, 3 stars. Rich guy tries to lure god/satan to himself with an elaborate hell mock-up.
05. The Age of Desire, 2 stars. Successful? science experiment causes man (and monkey) to try to fuck anything and everything to death.

01. The Inhuman Condition, 3 stars. Hoodlums beat up and rob a bum, the least violent is intrigued by a knotted rope puzzle.
02. The Body Politic, 4 stars. Husband's hands have been bothering him, especially during the night. He didn't consider that it might be mutual.
03. Revelations, 3 stars. Evangelist bullies his long-suffering wife to make himself feel righteous, rendezvousing motel ghosts get involved.

Wiki: "... Dr. Amp offered a ferocious running critique against a world turning mad, a commonsense prophet offering a nightly jeremiad that railed against the ignorant, the privileged, and the false."

(sub for the 65% read)

07. Cixin Liu - Devourer, 3 stars. Alien race of hungry godzilla-people are on their way to gobble up earth's resources and tasty meat people.
08. Roger Zelazny - For a Breath I Tarry, 2 stars. Competing deities robots make a pact to tempt a lesser machine into manhood.
234 pp

(sub for the 65% read)

04. George Langelaan - The Fly, 3 stars. Scientist teleports himself carelessly and becomes part cat/fly.
05. Isaac Asimov - Nightfall, 3 stars. Multi-sun system has a total eclipse that inevitably drives people to pyromaniac insanity.
06. Karen Russell - The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis, 3 stars. Teens find a straw effigy in the park of a boy they used to bully relentlessly.
153/234 pp

(sub for the 65% read)

01. Sarah Monette - The Testimony of Dragon's Teeth, 3 stars. Successful poet dies of mystery illness, Booth discovers the cause hidden in his papers.
02. Sarah Monette - To Die for Moonlight, 3 stars. Cursed family wants Booth to marry in to cancel each other out.
03. Rebeccca Roanhorse - Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience, 4 stars. Guy struggles with dignity vs. paycheck.
50/234 pp

05. Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny, 3 stars. Three generations wasted on robo-parenting.
07. The Great Silence, 3 stars. Humans overlook parrots, too busy looking off planet for intelligent life.
08. Omphalos, 3 stars. Creationist's faith is shaken when the belief that earth is special is questioned.
09. Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom, 3 stars. Access to parallel selves is addictive/abused by greedy people.