Eggp > Recent Status Updates

07. The Father-Thing, 3 stars. Dad behaves oddly at dinner.
08. Strange Eden, 3 stars. Surveyor explores small earth-like planet with lots of big kitties.
09. Tony and the Beetles, 3 stars. Bad/good news about the war.
10. Null-O, 4 stars. Logical kid finds more like him.
11. To Serve the Master, 4 stars. Mail carrier helps an injured stranger.
12. Exhibit Piece, 2 stars. The good old days, when life was simple.

40. The Valley of Fear, 2 stars. Locked castle murder mystery takes us back in time to the wild west. The butler did not do it, sorry Dan.

Wiki: "Finally he lit his pipe, and sitting in the inglenook of the old village inn he talked slowly and at random about his case..."

Wiki: "He was only eight years old, and the problem bothering him would have confounded Hillel."

01. Fair Game, 4 stars. Smarty pants is under surveillance.
02. The Hanging Stranger, 4 stars. Distressed man causes a scene.
03. The Eyes Have It, 3 stars. Extremely literal man is repulsed by novel.
04. The Golden Man, 3 stars. Mutant stud is captured.
05. The Turning Wheel, 2 stars. Government official sees how the dregs live.
06. The Last of the Masters, 3 stars. Anarchy rules, with one hold out.

Wiki: "You haven’t noticed Mycroft’s nonuniform shoes? ... They’re Ahimsa shoes."

This is not a joy to read.

Word: "I can tell what your feelings are; I’m sensitive, doctor, even if I’m the pyknic body-type."

1. A short, thickset person characterised by thick neck, large abdomen and relatively short limbs; a mesomorph.

Word: "God would be canaille too in Boston in Massachusetts."

1. The lowest class of people; the rabble; the vulgar.
2. (French) Rascal, blackguard, scoundrel, scum.

Word: "There was a brief pause, long enough for me to feel a chilly sensation creep over me; the adumbration of emptiness, loss ... of what life would be like without her."

1. A faint sketch; an outline, a brief representation.
2. The shadow or outline of a figure.
3. (literature) A vague indication of what is to come.

Wiki: "Persistent rumours concerned the existence of a self-detonating cobalt bomb, timed, at a pre-set, unknown moment, to destroy all life, while leaving inanimate objects intact."

Wiki: "The wearer's head was uncovered: her bright hair shimmered like silver fire, an ignis fatuus glimmering in the forest."

Word: "I heard the faint swish of water against the sides, the plangent crying of sea birds, that sad northern sound."

1. Having a loud, mournful sound.
2. Having an expressive and especially plaintive quality.
3. Beating, dashing, as waves.

Word: "...the roasted toss ’em boys still asizzle in their juices."

Glossary of Archaic and Provincial Words:

Definition in book: "...spearing roasted toss ’em boys—a title rarely used in these modern days except by sportsmen who recalled the gambler’s game of setting dogs upon chickens to bet upon which dog would “toss” the greatest number."

Wiki: "It had been a joyful day for frogs and mudhens. For the human breed, however, the low gray clouds and chill rain coiled chains around the soul."

Wiki: "A cluster of pulsating lights dropped vertically from above and the tannoy barked down the night like the voice of a robot god."

13. Rainy Sunday, 4 stars. Aunt recruits niece to pick up men for her.
14. Holler, 3 stars. Man takes care of girlfriend's ailing father.
15. I Start Over, 3 stars. Fat man is miserable about his family situation.
16. Blessed, 4 stars. Thief becomes disabled, life gets nasty.
17. Honolulu, 4 stars. Dementia is a cruel bastard.
18. The Fights, 4 stars. Newly sober son can't quite bring himself to make amends.

07. Schott's Bridge, 4 stars. Lonely teen is desperate for a friend.
08. Lard, 3 stars. Father bullies son to lose his virginity.
09. Fish Sticks, 3 stars. Reminiscing about dead cousin's adventures.
10. Bactine, 2 stars. Huffing substances with cousin.
11. Discipline, 3 stars. Father pushes son to be a better bodybuilder.
12. Assailants, 4 stars. Unhappily married man is a lousy father.

Wiki: "Still, being the type of person I was, I’d apparently let him talk me into huffing several cans of Bactine, and then I was sick, and my brain felt like a frozen bleach bottle."

01. Real Life, 4 stars. Drunk dad gets in fist fight, bullies son.
02. Dynamite Hole, 3 stars. Draft dodger spies on two people knocking boots.
03. Knockemstiff, 4 stars. Local man pines for the girl that's getting out of town.
04. Hair's Fate, 4 stars. Boy runs away after an unwanted haircut.
05. Pills, 2 stars. Robbing a neighbor to fund California trip.
06. Giganthomachy, 3 stars. Two boys destroy an anthill.

Wiki: "Then she’d go outside and stare at the empty white sky that hung over the holler like a sheet."

24. VIEW 5: Felix Gilman - Constable Chalch and the Ten Thousand Heroes, 2 stars. Lazy policeman can't be bothered.
25. VIEW 6: Hal Duncan - Golden Lads All Must..., 3 stars. Pretty boy wants to be a professional singer.
26. VIEW 7: Conrad Williams - Forfend the Heavens' Rending, 3 stars. Girl comes to the aid of wounded man.

20. VIEW 1: Paul DiFilippo - Death in a Dirty Dhoti, 4 stars. Man with bad intentions comes to town.
21. VIEW 2: Cat Rambo - Cornflowers Beside the Unuttered, 4 stars. Trying to help a strange old woman.
22. VIEW 3: Sarah Monette - All God's Chillun Got Wings, 4 stars. Man works the rumor mill.
23. VIEW 4: Daniel Abraham - Locust-Mind, 3 stars. Priest struggles to stay focused.

Wiki: "Walking now through the close streets of the Tsongtrik banlieue, his mind was filled with the constant, wordless mantra..."

Wiki: "Finally the fit passed and the salp spun in its chamber, bruised but relieved to find the membrane surrounding it intact."

19. Martin Šust, Michael Haulica, Hannes Riffel, Jukka Halme, & Konrad Walewski - European Editor Perspectives on the New Weird, 2 stars. The movement may or may not be real, may or may not transcend genre, genres may or may not exist/be good/be bad, may or may not actually be new or weird, you should definitely buy it though.

15. Alistair Rennie - The Gutter Sees the Light That Never Shines, 3 stars. Various assassins try to kill each other.
16. Michael Cisco - "New Weird": I Think We're the Scene, 2 stars. Genres = BAD!
17. Darja Malcolm-Clarke - Tracking Phantoms, 2 stars. This genre = GOOD (and gross)!
18. K.J. Bishop - Whose Words You Wear, 1 star. Genres are BAD, but this one is new&weird, or is it?!

10. Brian Evenson - Watson's Boy, 2 stars. Son collects keys, dad disapproves.
11. K.J. Bishop - The Art of Dying, 2 stars. Celebrity decides to die dramatically.
12. Jeffrey Ford - At Reparata, 4 stars. Utopian kingdom loses a queen.
13. Leena Krohn - Excerpt from Tainaron
14. Steph Swainston - The Ride of the Gabbleratchet, 3 stars. Being pursued by a cluster of beasties.

Wiki: "...sliding down the chute and splashing into the water where Living Fossil fish swam..."

Wiki: "Once, however, she had had a special edition of the Sarum Rule printed in rubric and presented to every clergyman in the diocese; and the gilt album in which their letters of thanks were pasted formed the chief ornament of her drawing-room table."