. Spinning .

First published in Fantasy and Science Fiction, this story by Bruce McAllister would qualify as mystery, adventure as easily as sci fi.  Oddly enough, though it is written in first person pov, there is a subtitle of The Retired Operative Speaks to a Class. What this indicates to me is that the ending may be happy or sad, but the protagonist definitely is alive at the end of the story.

The concept is not new, but it is handled in a unique manner in that the narrator is supposedly a good guy whose patriotism leads him to accept a government position that involves germ warfare.  It’s a rather dry and factual accounting of his job performance, as one would expect of anyone in this line of work.  There is the conflict not of the danger he holds within his responsibility, nor of getting caught or endangering himself or his family.  The conflict switches from man against society to man against his own nature, again, not that odd considering the topic.

There’s a low-key resolution in his leaving this line of work after a spasm of conscience leads him to save a small boy and his family in a small village where he is scheduled to do his thing.  But there is a lack of drama in the retelling, and the story comes off with that vague sense of otherworldliness that one gets when listening to someone relate life experiences that are so foreign to our own lives.

Interesting premise, handled in an interesting way.

This short story by Aryn Kyle starts out with immediate tension, one that is well known and understood in some form by most readers: change, leaving the comfort of the known to be the new member of an already established group.  There is more at work here though for Glynnis, in getting used to a new school; she is from England and the switch to American ways compounds the necessary adjustments.  And there is something more insidious in the strained relationship between her parents.  Her mother is pretty much a whack job and Glynnis is heavily influenced by her.

Kyle draws a very compelling picture of Glynnis’ unstable mother, the relationships between friends and lovers, and the manipulative people in our lives who we too often compromise our values to please.  This is the case with Glynnis as she turns on a weaker classmate in order to salvage her own status.  We truly hope that at the last minute she will realize what she is doing and in fact as she realizes her mother’s problems are deeper and damaging than imagined, Glynnis makes some unexpected choices.

Very nicely written, enough action and tension to hold our interest even as the main theme of pleasing others and crossing that line between what we know is right and wrong is the focus of the story.

Written by Stellar Kim, this short story is also written in a different style format, in the naming of incidents to separate the paragraphs into a more aloof, documentary told story.  This mimics in fact the first person narrator’s need to separate himself from a woman he meets who has terminal cancer.

This method also enables the story to go back into the explanation of his own state of mind, the death of his wife, and his coping and caring for their young son by himself.  There is a determination to the voice to transcend any situation that threatens him again.  I got this sensation from the story and it falls beautifully into place by the end.  As a radiologist, he is the first to notice the mass in a patient’s breast, follows her through her radiation therapy, and without really dating–avoiding it as she seems to seek his companionship  and would like it to develop into a relationship–he does care for her and acts in the capacity of a friend.

Stellar Kim does have a nice way of tying things together, the little details; newly single, the narrator dated an underwear model. The patient, Alycia, is a bit overweight and a far cry from a model, and while she has a good attitude and fights the disease as best she can, she does hold some hurts inside from never feeling pretty.  After her death, the narrators is asked to bring her clothes to the funeral home and realizing there is no underwear, goes to Victoria’s Secret and buys her something special.  For as she struggled against the disease that wasted her, he found her to be beautiful.

Whether he kept himself closed to her for his son’s sake, as he finally admits to her, or for his own, the reader cannot help but be sympathetic to his decision.  It is a tough place to be, to protect yourself and your son from the pain of another tragic loss, or to help someone better enjoy the last months of their own life.

Nicely done, well written, a very intense story without any overdone emotion.

This one’s edgy.  Roy Kesey has written a story about passengers in an airport forced to wait what turns out to be days while a lot of strange stuff goes on.  The writing style, short, quick, action-paced sentences get us through the story with a quick look around at who’s doing what, who’s coping, who’s going off the deep end. 

Clearning a linear timeline meant to focus us totally on what is happening here and now.  There is nothing from any of the character’s pasts that have impact on the events except in the normal way that anyone, at X time in their life, is so because of what came before.

As children play, people fight, set their territories with taped lines and in game play, separate into teams by nationality.  The ridiculous becomes expected: the constant assurances by the airport personnel that the fog holding them there is about to disperse and the flight will leave any moment.  This, despite days, raiding of all the restaurants and stands, soldiers outside, etc.  Eventually there is a rebellion and people are killed,some have escaped but likely not made it safely out.  I went back to an earlier passage which give us a micro version of the situation.

Lunch is worrisome: restaurant prices have trebled and there is no ham to be found. Afterwards, children remove toys from bags.  The boys have plastic soldiers, the girls have Barbie dolls, and they all play together at war.  The dolls wear stiletto heels, are ten times the size of the soldiers, leave death and destruction in their wakes. (p. 198)

The writing style is boom, boom, boom; not necessarily quick, but something is always happening–or so it seems.  Even the descriptions are presented in this factual manner and it takes away any sense of emotional drama and replaces it with two things: anticipation and realization that this story is not just of these particular characters–and that is why they are nameless.  It is a peek inside the mind and heart of every man put into a trying situation.