Malasz

100 by 100 is a collection of 100 stories that are each 100 words long. Mathematically, that makes each worth 1/10 of a picture. Some of these 0.1 pictures are scary, some are funny, some are funny and scary, while others are just odd. Reading this book reminds me of beer (or wine) tastings. When you finish sampling one and wish to try another, it is recommended that you cleanse your palate with some water. You're resetting your taste buds so that your new taste experience won't be unduly influenced by the previous sample. This book is like that. When switching from one novel to another, this book would serve as a great literary palate cleanser. It's refreshes your brain and has the bonus side effect of entertaining it as well. Most of the stories have a twist at the end. But as I think about it, how else can one neatly wrap up a story that's only one hundred words long? The author quickly sets up the premise and then (bam!) there's the ending. I found that 93% of t...

Brady Koch's Guns, Gods & Robots is a short story collection whose tales fall into one of those three categories. Three out of the seven stories had been released as standalones, but now they've been combined into one collection. The collection opens with "Numbers 16:32", which was originally released as a standalone story, and I reviewed it here . The original blurb: Joseph's Sunday morning routine of church, beer and solitude is interrupted by a ragged screaming coming from the far side of his farm land. What he finds there will challenge his resolve in ways he hasn't faced since losing his wife or facing the horrors of the Korean War. I re-read the story and discovered that it had been slightly re-worked and edited. There was a definite improvement which increased my enjoyment of the tale. It makes for a solid opening to the collection. "X-mas for a Half-Life": The story starts off with a typical "Dear Santa" letter, but the kicker...

In this anthology, Mathias Freese has composed twenty-seven short stories about the Holocaust . They're an attempt to gain some form of understanding about it. In the Preface, Freese states: "All literary depictions of the Holocaust end as failures..." and "Every artist who struggles with the Holocaust must begin with an acceptance of failure, and that must be worked through before art begins." If I'm interpreting him correctly, the reason why all attempts end as failures is because no mere words on a page can ever truly convey what it was like to have been there. But nothing short of a fully immersive virtual reality program (and none has been created yet) ever could, so why set the bar so high? I'm not sure why Mr. Freese wrote this book. A tribute to the dead? The survivors? He states that: "No piece of art...can ever expunge the Holocaust." To which I rather flippantly say, "Well, duh." If this was ever his intent, it's a foo...

Anne Charnock announced the title of her next book and how it came about. Mike Reeves-McMillan announced that a story of his has been selected for the Terry Pratchett In Memory anthology. Proceeds go to benefit research into finding a cure for Alzheimer's. Rob Steiner has been busy lately. Two of his stories have recently appeared in Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show : " The Oath Breaker's Daemon " and " The Cloaca Maxima ". He also published the third story in his Codex Antonius series, Muses of the Republic . Michael J. Sullivan started a Kickstarter campaign to fund a third Riyria Chronicles novel entitled The Death of Dulgath . The campaign was successfully funded in just under 48 hours . I find it interesting that after signing a major book deal , he still feels the need to self-publish.

Bastion is a science fiction magazine. Normally we don't review zines, but I don't see why not. They're similar to anthologies in that they contain multiple authors working around a central theme. In this case, that central theme is simple: science fiction. But as I look deeper, I see memory as a common thread. Another important point is that this issue was not submitted to us. I saw that Rob Steiner was one of the authors in this issue, so I went out and bought it. I'm reviewing it on GoodReads so I may as well post it here too. Small press zines are like indie authors: Publicity is better than obscurity. The issue opens with "Good Times" by Alexander Jones. Memories are the latest drug. Someone has created the technology where one can extract memories from one person and inject them into another. The experience is like living through them firsthand. Like all drugs, there's always the risk of overdose. I really liked this story. While the characters in...

Shared Nightmares is a collection of short stories whose central theme revolves around dreams, but more accurately, nightmares. That's about the only thing these stories have in common as the authors tell us tales that span all matter of genres. While horror is the overriding element, some authors make use of other elements: science fiction, historical fiction, and urban fantasy. Some stories rely on visceral action, while others suspense. Fortunately, none of these stories wander down Elm Street, and for that, I'm grateful. Please indulge me as I offer brief comments about each story. The anthology opens with “Father’s Day” by Larry Correia. Aliens have invaded Earth and are attacking us through our dreams. And we're losing. Correia does a stand up job with his protagonist, as he fights a bureaucracy in order to protect his daughter. In “Dreamcatcher”, Sarah Hoyt warns us that things in the dream-world wants to become real. There are guardians who keep the nightmares at b...

Joseph's Sunday morning routine of church, beer and solitude is interrupted by a ragged screaming coming from the far side of his farm land. What he finds there will challenge his resolve in ways he hasn't faced since losing his wife or facing the horrors of the Korean War. Numbers 16:32 is a long short story (25 pages), which makes it a novelette. It gets off to a slow start as Koch focuses on character building. I stuck with it as Koch successfully forged a connection between this reader and Joseph, the protagonist. Once Joseph sets out to find the source of the screaming, the pace of the story picks up and stays steady right up to the end. Joseph's actions and dialogue ring true. As a Korean War veteran and widower living out his remaining years on a farm out in the Midwest, you really get a sense for the loneliness that he keeps bottled up. There's no self-pity with this man. He's seen far too much to bother with any of that. Once the reader's connection wi...

Imagine a future where orphan children are adopted by international corporations and forced into indentured servitude, where zombie viruses are spread through heterosexual intercourse, where Osama bin Laden is cloned by the thousands for public execution. Welcome to the world of JUSTICE, INC. No one is safe. Nothing is sacred. And all sales are final. Justice, Inc. is a collection of short stories written by Dale Bridges and published by Monkey Puzzle Press . It is due to be released on June 20th. All in all, this is a solid collection of 21st century American satire. "In the Beginning: An Introduction" sets the tone for the collection with Bridges explaining how he came to write these stories. If it's divine inspiration, there's certainly a bit of playful smirking—and possibly spirits—involved. There are bits of flash fiction that serve as appetizers for the normal length stories. While "Texting the Apocalypse" doesn't have any direct links to "...

Mondays With Mephistopheles: 9am-Rhys is a short story written by Dan O'Brien. It covers one session Dr. Abraham Rogers—he insists his patients call him Abe—has with one patient, Rhys. You can probably guess from the title that Abe's patients aren't the regular human kind. However, through this session we learn that even supernatural beings have their hangups and need the help of a psychologist. Abe and Rhys have a clever exchange. Abe tries his best to get Rhys to come out of his shell while Rhys resists. Rhys counters with his acerbic outlook on humanity and modern culture, particularly with its unhealthy obsession with his kind. O'Brien's writing is solid. His characterization is splendid. But all that being said, this piece doesn't work for me as a standalone story. It reads like a chapter in a book. There is no resolution; the session ends and so does the story. I re-read the story twice just to make sure I didn't miss anything. While I liked the story...

Henry is a background kind of guy. He keeps his life simple, eschewing any kind of a career, observing the working-class lives around him. These stories , written in the first or third person, show Henry dealing with his problems, often by trying out roles. His parents both died young; he has them on his mind a great deal. He keeps meeting nasty priests; one comes on to him, and another is observed wearing Henry's late father's shirt, stolen from the donation box. He closely observes some gay men, but does not feel any temptation. Henry's acute sense of color irritates some folks; the grown-up former bully in his neighborhood is incensed by Henry's painting his house in an unusual color scheme, and exacts revenge over and over. The reader begins to feel claustrophobic, but cannot stop reading, having become all too enmeshed in the protagonist's passive-aggressive inner world, where thought equals deed. Finally, Henry lashes out violently at an easy target. Or does h...

This Jealous Earth by Scott Dominic Carpenter. Midwestern Gothic Press. It is interesting that one of these sharply written short stories, “The Spirit of the Dog,” takes place in a uranium mine. Instead of looking for sparkly bits of gold, the miners run around with Geiger counters after a preliminary blast, looking for little bursts of radiation. Most of these stories involve connections: their breaking, their forming, their resilience, their failure. Just as the forces binding particles in the atomic nucleus are enormously strong, many of the characters in these pieces are drawn, despite themselves, to their imperfect families, to their treasured pets. The opposite occurs in “The Spirit of the Dog”; the various miners pit themselves against the new, pretty engineer. Their individual stubborn egos form a sort of misogynist hive mind whose evil ideas drive everyone apart. The egos of squabbling or drunk parents get in the way, but their kids band together for mischief or otherwise st...

Full Disclosure: Yes, Libby Cone is a fellow reviewer here at the New Podler Review of Books. She'd told me about the story over the summer and I was intrigued. She sent me the finished story a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed it so much that I offered to review it. You can shout "shenanigans" if you want, but I believe future reviewers will bear me out. In "Quantum Fashionistas", we're introduced to Sharon, a middle-aged actuary for an insurance company. The twist here is that the company works across multiple universes. Yes, breakthroughs in quantum physics have enabled travel from one universe to another, provided one can afford the cost. Sharon is one of a select few people who can handle multiverse travel without losing her wits. Still, she's replaceable and constantly frets about her pension. While on assignment in sigma-Germany, she gets a call from her boss explaining that they have a special assignment for her. Unfortunately it involves time tr...

I first heard about Jeremy Robert Johnson (JRJ) from Girl on Demand's POD-dy Mouth blog back in 2006. Her enthusiastic review of his short story collection, Angel Dust Apocalypse , led me to my first indie book purchase. I was not disappointed . After writing two short novels, Siren Promised (co-written with Alan Clark and nominated for a Bram Stoker award) and The Extinction Journals , he focused on his publishing company, Swallowdown Press. Unlike most indie authors who form a publishing company under false pretense of being anything other than a vehicle for the author's own work, JRJ actually publishes the work of other indie authors that he enjoys (Forrest Armstrong, J. David Osborne, and Cody Goodfellow to name a few). We Live Inside You is JRJ's second short story collection, featuring his work published between 2006 and 2011. When I found out that JRJ finally got around to publishing another collection of his short stories, I had to pick up a copy. From the cover...