Review - Curse of the Dragon

Curse of the Dragon
by Richard Fierce
Date: 2023
Publisher: Dragonfire Press
Reading level: YA
Book type: short story
Pages: 15
Format: e-book
Source: BookFunnel

One misstep can change a life. When Mina stumbles upon an abandoned dragon cave, she finds more than she bargained for. This is a prequel short story that leads into the series Marked by the Dragon. It doesn't have spoilers, but rather expands what the main series mentions.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This short story is a unicorn indeed: a self-published work that's technically competent. The author clearly has a good command of grammar and punctuation (or he has an editor who does). Unfortunately, the story itself is rather weak, marred by a few continuity issues and a lot of... well, nothing happening.

The first half is literally a twelve-year-old girl wandering about, trying to be helpful. The second half is where the action starts and ends, but in a 15-page story, that doesn't leave a lot of room for plot development. Basically, this is just a snippet of backstory that explains how the main character in the Marked by the Dragon series got her start.

It's possible that the main books in the series are stronger. But, given that so much time in an already short story is spent on irrelevant wandering, I'm a bit wary. The first full book in the series is free, though, so if you're really into dragons, you might want to check it out. However, I'm not sure if this prequel short story is really necessary.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing & Editing: 4/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall Rating: 2.71 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Holiday Spirit

Holiday Spirit
by Tyler J Gray
Date: 2021
Publisher: Archive of Our Own
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 7703 words
Format: e-book
Source: Archive of Our Own

Christmas morning kids open their presents, only to scream in horror. Someone has ruined Christmas. Who? Why? Where is Santa Claus?

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This is a bit of a confused (and confusing) story about a horrid Christmas morning, a centuries-old grudge, and the magic of belief. It... doesn't work.

I'll give the author an A for effort, but there are just so many problems with this. It's a story about believing in Santa Claus, and yet there are graphic descriptions of violent and some rather scary monsters. (Don't even get me started on the spiders.) I'm not sure who the audience is supposed to be; it seems like a story that should be for children, but it's completely inappropriate for them due to the graphic content.

The writing is also technically pretty bad. Most of the punctuation is wrong. Getting through it all was a bit of a slog.

I think the author was trying to make a statement here about the Christmas spirit and commercialism and believing in something good and pure... but the whole storyline that involved beating animals with sticks and somebody losing their hands didn't seem all that Christmas-like to me.

I did, however, love one bit at the beginning, though it probably wasn't intended to be so badass. Upon being beset by spiders on Christmas morning, the parents have the following exchange:

“What are we going to do!” mom yells.

Dad thinks for a few seconds, rubbing his chin and blowing a dangling hair out of his eyes.

“Bomb the house?”

Well, that escalated quickly. (They were talking about a bug bomb, but I still like to imagine they were talking about dynamite or something. With some spiders, that's the only reasonable course of action.)

Overall, this needs work. The heavy-handed messaging, violence, and poor editing combine to make this a bit of a chore to read. But I'm still chuckling over the mental image of this couple blowing up their house over a few spiders, so I did get some enjoyment out of it.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 1/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2.14 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Christmas Tale

Christmas Tale
by Mark Lawrence
Date: unknown
Publisher: Mark Lawrence
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 3
Format: e-book
Source: author's website

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This is just a short little snippet from the author's website. It's not even a story. It's just the beginning of a scene. It could've been really funny, had it been followed through with... but as it is, it's just a bit of nothing. A couple of Satan's minions recruit a couple of demons to make Christmas especially aggravating. That's the premise. Unfortunately, it's also the whole story. Just when we find out what the plot's going to be, the story ends.

I guess you could view this as an exercise in minimalism. Or you could interpret it as self-contained. But I think I probably would've gotten more out of reading a few Goodreads synopses! Really. This is a good start, but I was hoping for a lot more.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 2/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2.29 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - During the Dance

During the Dance
by Mark Lawrence
Date: 2004
Publisher: Mark Lawrence
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 9
Format: e-book
Source: author's website

A short story about a child with a gift for seeing past the world.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I hadn't read anything by this author before. This short story didn't really help me make up my mind as to whether I want to try one of his novels, either. It was just okay, with some questionable comma use and an ending that seems more hokey than profound. But I didn't hate it, so I might try something else of his in the future.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 2/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2.57 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Snow, Glass, Apples

Snow, Glass, Apples
by Neil Gaiman
Date: 1995
Publisher: Neil Gaiman
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 56
Format: e-book
Source: The Dreaming

A young princess … her skin as white as snow … her hair as black as coal ... her lips as red as blood … an innocent young girl victimized by her evil stepmother.

Or is she?

Neil Gaiman’s “Snow, Glass, Apples” turns the traditional “Snow White” fairytale on its head and tells the story from the point of view of the “wicked” stepmother, who knows the truth about this less-than-innocent girl and attempts to save the kingdom from her unnatural and monstrous stepdaughter.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

That was oddly disturbing.

It's an interesting take on the "Snow White" story, to be sure. But, for me, it goes just a little too far. The necrophiliac prince is clever, but the subsequent rape of a child (she's only thirteen) pushed this from "disturbing" to "disgusting" for me. (If it had been less graphic and more implied, I might not have been bothered by it as much. But there's too much description, including mention of the little girl being "pounded". What? No... I don't want to read that.)

Twisting the tale around to make the "wicked queen" a sympathetic character was an interesting choice, and it works, for the most part. There is definitely something wrong with the little princess. And while the queen's actions are perfectly logical, given the sort of supernatural creature she was dealing with, I don't think the story really needed--or benefitted--from all the sexual stuff involving the child. Imply it, fine; but don't actually talk about genitalia and stuff oozing from between people's legs.

I would've appreciated a content warning with this one. Because Gaiman has also written for children, there might be confusion and unintentional trauma if people pick up what they think is an innocuous fairy tale retelling.

Plot: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Loss of Signal

Loss of Signal
by S. B. Divya
Date: 2018
Publisher: Tor Books
Reading level: YA
Book type: short story
Pages: 16
Format: e-book
Source: Tor.com

Toby Benson has a chance to make history. The first mind to circle the moon without a body in tow. It's a golden opportunity, perhaps the only chance for a 19-year-old whose body failed him to become immortal. But as he reaches the dark side of the moon and loses signal from Earth, the cold of space threatens to overwhelm him, in S.B. Divya's engrossing Tor.com Original short story, Loss of Signal.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This "short story" has an intriguing premise, but it reads to me more like a scene from a longer work than a self-contained story.

I have a lot of questions after reading this. How did they get Toby's mind inside a spaceship? (He implies that they don't have very advanced artificial intelligences... and yet they can somehow trap a human consciousness inside a computer? What, exactly, is the level of technology in this world?) How is he able to see the features on the moon without the sun? (He mentions seeing them, and then talks about the sun reappearing.) I'm not sure if the science in this science fiction is that sound. I'm also not sure if that's the point.

Toby doesn't have a body. Is he still human? He sure seems like it. What, then, is the meaning of his existence? And what's the good of living forever if he still experiences all the human emotions? Emotions that will, inevitably, be triggered by loss and existential terror as time passes and everything he knows changes...

Maybe I'm reading too much into this. Let's just say this is a competently written scene. I kind of wish it were part of a longer work--a novella, or even a full-length novel--because the premise is interesting and Toby might be an interesting character... if we had more time to get to know him.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 4/5
Writing & Editing: 4/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.43 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - A Lifestyle

A Lifestyle
by Fernando Sorrentino
Date: 2003
Publisher: East of the Web
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 6
Format: e-book
Source: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/

A 24-year-old banker finds himself in an unusual predicament forcing him to make some lifestyle changes to survive.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

The first thing I read from this author was the bizarre Chastisement By the Lambs. So I wasn't sure what to expect here. A Lifestyle is a rather absurd story that requires one to suspend disbelief.

A man, on his way to work, breaks off his key in the lock, essentially trapping himself in his own apartment. He tries various things to get free, including calling a locksmith (who refuses to help and subsequently blacklists the guy so no locksmith in the city will help), dropping typewritten pages off the balcony, and yelling (though he's ten floors up, so that doesn't work). Eventually, he resorts to growing his own food and collecting rainwater, resigned to his life locked in his apartment.

There are a couple of things that bothered me about this one. First is his co-workers' reaction... or lack thereof. He calls his workplace and explains the situation. So the people there know why he isn't coming in to work. But do they do anything about it? No. They don't send a rescue party. They don't call the fire department to break the door down with an axe. They apparently do nothing and forget about their former co-worker as he spends the next few decades of his life stuck in his suite. The second thing that irked me was how the guy fed himself. Sorrentino must be a great lover of meat. Chastisement By the Lambs was a wasted opportunity to make a statement about animal agriculture (instead of the lambs rampaging for revenge for being eaten, they just seemed to target wealthy folks for no apparent reason). Here, the narrator goes even further in trying to justify a carnivorous lifestyle by breeding insects and rodents for food... even though he's also growing a perfectly decent plant-based protein (lentils) on his balcony. (He only had fire on days sunny enough that he could use his magnifying glass to light one. So I shudder to think how many times he ate raw rats.)

This story isn't as bad as Chastisement By the Lambs, but it's still pretty ridiculous. I don't know if the author's just trying to be edgy or what... but the premises of his stories are just a little too nonsensical for me to really enjoy.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2.57 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - The Future of Work: Compulsory

The Future of Work: Compulsory (The Murderbot Diaries #0.5)
by Martha Wells
Date: 2018
Publisher: Wired.com
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 4
Format: e-book
Source: Wired.com

Martha Wells is a New York Times best-selling author of 23 works of science fiction and fantasy. This story is a prequel to The Murderbot Diaries, her Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning novella series.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I still have a soft spot for Murderbot, even though the series of novellas got progressively more disappointing for me. This short story--well, more of just a scene, really--is a nice little treat for fans. It features Murderbot's amusing quips and displays parts of the world that Wells has built in the main series.

But it's just so short. As such, it's not really suitable except for anyone other than existing fans. Newcomers would have so many questions, and although they might get a glimpse of what makes Murderbot's character so special, it's not a complete picture. So, despite this being a prequel to the main series, I would highly recommend reading at least the first novella, All Systems Red, before this story.

Quotable moment:

It’s not like I haven’t thought about killing the humans since I hacked my governor module. But then I started exploring the company servers and discovered hundreds of hours of downloadable entertainment media, and I figured, what’s the hurry? I can always kill the humans after the next series ends.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 4/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.14 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - The White Wood

The White Wood
by M. G. Buehrlen
Date: 2018
Publisher: author
Reading level: YA
Book type: short story
Pages: 2
Format: e-book
Source: "The White Wood"

(read it at the author's website)

This short story, available on the author's website, reads a bit like a fairy tale. For me, it's reminiscent of "Hansel and Gretel", or even Leigh Bardugo's "The Witch of Duva". It's very short, though, and just tantalizing enough to leave me wanting more... and feeling a little disappointed that this is all there is.

Buehrlen's writing is decent and easy to read. I was hoping this little tidbit would help tide me over until she releases the next book in her Alex Wayfare series. But I'm still just as hungry as ever!

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - The Aged Mother

The Aged Mother
by Matsuo Bashō
Date: 17th century
Publisher: n/a
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 2
Format: e-book
Source: "The Aged Mother"

Also known as The Story of the Aged Mother, this Japanese folktale tells the story of an unkind ruler who issues cruel orders, including one demand that all old folks are to be abandoned and left to die. Basho tells a poignant story about a mother and her son and their love for one another.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

That governor is such a dick. Kill all the old people because he's uncomfortable with the idea of aging? Harsh, dude.

So this youth tries to obey the orders and carries his mother on his back up to the top of a mountain, intending to leave her there (out of sight, out of mind, I guess). But the mother's more worried about her kid getting lost on the way back down, so as they climb, she's snapping off branches and leaving them in little piles so her son has a trail to follow back home. When he sees what his mother has done for him, he realizes he can't just leave her there to die (you would hope he would've realized that sooner, but at least he finally got it), so he takes her home and stuffs her in a closet under the floorboards for the next few months.

Then the governor gets stupid again and demands that his subjects present him with a rope of ashes. Everyone freaks out because nobody knows how to make such a thing... except for the old lady under the floor. She gives her son instructions, he makes a rope of ashes, and the governor is amazed. The kid--perhaps stupidly--can't contain himself and blurts out that his old mother told him how to do it... at which point the governor, who hasn't shown any sort of intelligence or compassion up to that point, realizes that, hey, maybe old people are good for something after all! So he abolishes the law about leaving old people on mountains to die. (Presumably, the old lady got to come out from under the floor... but story doesn't actually say.)

This story very much has the feel of a folktale. I can't say that I really enjoyed it. The translation I read was pretty rough, and the story itself is just... well, kind of cruel. I know there have been despots over the centuries, but this guy's edicts just seemed so arbitrary. Did he follow his own rules and off his own parents? How old was he himself? (In other words, should he have been left out on a mountain himself?) In any case, he was entirely unpleasant... so much so that I question his quick turnaround at the end.

This isn't my favourite short story. It's interesting to read something this old, but I don't know if I'd want to bother reading it again. (If the subject matter weren't so awful, this style of story might almost make a better children's picture book. But I don't know if we want to give little kids the idea that it's okay to abandon granny on the top of a mountain.)

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 2/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2.43 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - The Dinner Party

The Dinner Party
by Mona Gardner
Date: 1941
Publisher: Saturday Review
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 2
Format: e-book
Source: "The Dinner Party"

An argument breaks out over whether women can keep calm in a crisis.

(see it on Goodreads)

This story starts out sounding really dated and sexist, with an argument about whether women can stay calm in a crisis, or if flipping out is something that's hardwired into them. By the end of this very short story, however, it becomes clear that it's a little bit of a feminist piece.

Oh, and if you can't stand the thought of snakes, you might want to skip this one.

Quotable moment:

"A woman's unfailing reaction in any crisis," the colonel says, "is to scream. And while a man may feel like it, yet he has that ounce more of control than a woman has. And that last ounce is what counts."

Plot: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 4/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall Rating: 3.71 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - The Pedestrian

The Pedestrian
by Ray Bradbury
Date: 1951
Publisher: The Reporter
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 4
Format: e-book
Source: "The Pedestrian"

A short story by Ray Bradbury, the prequel to "Fahrenheit 451".

First published in The Reporter, August 7 1951.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Sometimes it's interesting to read old science fiction to see what the author got wrong... or right. In the case of "The Pedestrian", it's a mixed bag. Bradbury nails the social isolation and addiction factors that can go along with technology. In this story, only one man is out and about after dark taking walks; everyone else is closed up tight in their homes, watching TV. (The author probably didn't even anticipate how things like phones and other devices would isolate us from each other even more than television!) There's what appears to be a self-driving car. On the other hand, though, there are weird references to black-and-white TV, phonograph static, and punch-cards that run AI... so the story is very much a product of its time.

I'm not sure I entirely understand Leonard's motivations for his actions (or lack thereof). Was it to show how bad the dystopia has gotten that he feels resistance would be futile? Or does it just not occur to him to fight back? (I'm sure English teachers would have a field day getting students to analyze this one.) I'm reading more for enjoyment, though, and in this case, to see how the technological imagination of the author has held up over the years.

While I didn't love this story, I didn't hate it, either. It's purely average for me.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Answer

Answer
by Fredric Brown
Date: 1954
Publisher: unknown
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 1
Format: e-book
Source: read it here

"Dwan Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the subether bore throughout the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing.

He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe -- ninety-six billion planets -- into the supercircuit that would connect them all into one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies."

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Oops.

I really don't want to say much more than that. The Goodreads synopsis is about a third of the entire text as it is.

The science fiction feels a little dated. By the time we get to the point where we're connecting every computer in the universe together, I kind of doubt that we're going to be doing it using solder. In any case, the "answer" to the first question asked of this supercomputer is intriguing, awesome, and terrifying.

Take a few seconds and give this one a read.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.33 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - The Eyes Have It

The Eyes Have It
by Philip K. Dick
Date: 1953
Publisher: AmericanLiterature.com
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 4
Format: e-book
Source: AmericanLiterature.com/

Mrs. Louise Mallard, afflicted with a heart condition, reflects on the death of her husband from the safety of her locked room.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

So... somebody noticed those weird, disembodied eyeballs decades before I was even born! Whew. I'm glad I wasn't just imagining it.

This story is kind of hilarious to readers like me who can't figure out why certain writers seem to enjoy putting their characters' eyeballs through a literary version of CrossFit. Here's an excerpt from a review I wrote back in 2009, Blue Moon by Alyson Noël:

... the word you're looking for is "gaze"... not "eyes". When I see eyes grazing, raking, resting, and roaming, my mind conjures up strange images of freed eyeballs doing all kinds of things they really shouldn't be doing. How exactly do eyes rake something, anyway? That sounds painful.

The Eyes Have It takes this premise even further, and the narrator gets absolutely freaked out by the mention of people giving their hearts and taking each other's hands. English truly is a strange language; it's a wonder non-native speakers ever learn the nuances!

This is a short, but enjoyable, story. I think I may have read some Philip K. Dick years ago, but I don't recall ever reading The Eyes Have It. I kind of wish I'd done so sooner; now I don't feel so alone in being annoyed by acrobatic eyeballs in literature.

Quotable moment:

...his eyes slowly roved about the room.

Vague chills assailed me. I tried to picture the eyes. Did they roll like dimes? The passage indicated not; they seemed to move through the air, not over the surface. Rather rapidly, apparently. No one in the story was surprised. That's what tipped me off.

Plot: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 4/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall Rating: 3.71 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - The Story of an Hour

The Story of an Hour
by Kate Chopin
Date: 1894
Publisher: Flash Fiction Online
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 4
Format: e-book
Source: Flash Fiction Online

Mrs. Louise Mallard, afflicted with a heart condition, reflects on the death of her husband from the safety of her locked room.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Poor Louise was living in the wrong time period. What the woman needed was a good divorce!

The story being so short, it's difficult to say much about it without giving away too much (especially the ending). I did somewhat enjoy it, though... or, at the very least, I appreciated it. The writing is that old-fashioned sort that sounds quite odd to our modern ears, even though the subject matter in this case seems almost modern. Louise's thoughts about her marriage (or lack thereof, going forward) are interesting.

I'd recommend having a look at this one, even if you're not a huge fan of older literature. It only takes a few minutes to read, and it's a thought-provoking little piece.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.33 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Schrödinger's Baby

Schrödinger's Baby
by Charlie Fish
Date: 2013
Publisher: East of the Web
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 10
Format: e-book
Source: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/

(see it on Goodreads)

The title promises something more interesting than what this story actually is. It almost reads like a writing assignment given by a therapist to a new parent, wherein they have to work through their fears by writing them down. This is in East of the Web's humour section, but I don't really see anything funny about this. The parts that are probably supposed to be funny come off as a little bit racist, and the ending is unbelievable, to say the least.

Basically, a new father goes next door to the store to buy milk, taking the baby monitor with him but leaving the actual baby behind on her sensor-filled mat. Of course, the idiot locks himself out, and then the monitor goes haywire, leading him to wonder if his baby is alive or dead; he won't know until he gets back into the house to check (hence, Schrödinger's baby).

Perhaps parents will get more out of this one than I did. I can sympathize with Daniel's situation, but I didn't find it funny (or all that interesting to read about), and the characters were all a little bit ridiculous to be taken seriously. Fish relies on stereotypes here, and while that might've worked if the story were actually entertaining, it's difficult to overlook some of the things that are bordering on offensive.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 1/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 1/5

Overall Rating: 1.71 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Fireflies

Fireflies
by Cory Archie
Date: 2011
Publisher: Underground Voices
Reading level: YA
Book type: short story
Pages: 4
Format: e-book
Source: Underground Voices Magazine

(see this book on Goodreads)

This isn't a story so much as a short scene written to set off a striking bit of imagery. There are hints of character development, but the story's really too short for that to go anywhere. We get an idea of the world the characters are living in, but there's really no story, other than the main character moving through the city to find her friend.

The writing isn't terrible, but the editing could use some work. It was a bit confusing at times trying to figure out who was speaking, due to the lack of dialogue tags. There was even one instance where a second character started speaking in the same paragraph, which further added to the confusion. Let's not forget Noel... who became Noah partway through the story. It definitely needs to be polished a little more.

This could've been the beginning of something intriguing. Alas, that's all it is: a beginning.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing & Editing: 2/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2.14 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - The Egg

The Egg
by Andy Weir
Date: 2009
Publisher: Andy Weir / Galactanet
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 3
Format: e-book
Source: author's website

A short story about the universe.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I think I've read this short story at some point. It seems awfully familiar. (Maybe I read it in another life...)

This is so short that I don't really want to say that much about the story. People can read and judge for themselves. Personally, I didn't find it that profound or astonishing, probably because I've read a lot of non-fiction titles in the same vein. So the story was just okay for me.

However, I do want to mention the editing. The story is on the author's website, and it seems to be suffering from some sort of autocorrect problem in the dialogue. Every time the man asks a question, his pronoun gets capitalized. I wasn't sure at first if it was intentional, but there were other instances later that made me realize it wasn't. Because the story is so short, there's absolutely no excuse for that error that repeats throughout the text. It would take just a few minutes to go through and clean it up, and the story would be that much better as a result.

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 2/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall Rating: 2.86 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - They're Made Out of Meat

They're Made Out of Meat
by Terry Bisson
Date: 1990
Publisher: Omni
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 5
Format: e-book
Source: author's website

Nebula Nomination for Best Short Story 1991.

"I’m honored that this often shows up on the internet. Here’s the correct version, as published in Omni, 1990." -- Terry Bisson

(synopsis from Goodreads)

They can even sing by squirting air through their meat.

That's got to be one of the best lines, ever.

I think I read this at some point, because it seemed really familiar. But I never reviewed it, so I'll do that now.

Since it's only around 5 pages, there's really no reason not to take a look at this funny, clever short story in which a couple of alien beings have a conversation about... well, us. We're made out of meat, and they just can't seem to wrap their brains around that fact. I guess, if you think about it, a biological organism might seem pretty weird to a purely energy-based lifeform or AI. Still, we can't help being made out of meat. Why should there be so much prejudice against us?

This is a fun little story with a couple of entertaining characters. Head on over to the author's website to check it out.

Quotable moment:

"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."

"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."

"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 4/5
Pace: 4/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Originality: 5/5

Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall Rating: 3.86 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - High and Lifted Up

High and Lifted Up
by Mike Krath
Date: 2003
Publisher: East of the Web
Reading level: C
Book type: short story
Pages: 3
Format: e-book
Source: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/

A children's story about a boy who turns into a leaf.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I have to wonder if the title is in reference to the state of the author when he wrote this. A boy turns into a leaf (or does he?) and flies through the air with his leaf friends as they head toward a dump, while his mother chases him in the car and warns him not to go near the smoke.

Huh?

Maybe there's some deep, hidden meaning in here that we're supposed to tease out. But since it was shelved in the children's section, I chose to read it as a simple story for kids. As such, it doesn't work. It's just too weird and stupid, and not written well enough that I'd want to put it into kids' hands.

Flying high... sneaking away from parents to hang out with friends... smoke... Is there some metaphor for pot-fuelled teenage rebellion that I'm missing here?

Plot: 1/5
Characters: 1/5
Pace: 1/5
Writing & Editing: 2/5
Originality: 1/5

Enjoyment: 0/5

Overall Rating: 0.86 out of 5 ladybugs