The Princess and the Accountant by Robert E. Rogoff

by Carol4 Comments
"The Princess and the Accountant" by Robert E. Rogoff In this short story, Rogoff takes a common fairy tale element, the quest to marry the princess, and reimagines it with a science fiction twist. Ralph is an accountant with the Royal Distribution Agency and has been for three centuries, when he tells his manager he's quitting. He feels it's his destiny to marry the princess, even though he has a middle-class genome, and the time has finally come for him to go to the palace. Many people try to stop him along the path, including the police, a war fighter a journalist, even a female tenant farmer who asks him to join her for a drink. He tells each his story and is allowed to pass. "If this is your destiny, then it cannot be denied." It turns out it's true, destiny cannot be denied. However, remember this isn't a traditional fairy tale. It isn't everyone's destiny to marry the princess. The sci-fi aspects...
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The Goldilocks Problem by Gregory Benford

by Carol4 Comments
"The Goldilocks Problem" by Gregory Benford I've been reading a lot of fairy tales lately, both the original versions and modern interpretations. A couple of weeks ago, I talked a little about "The Three Bears" so when I ran across this short story, I had to read it. Benford takes the the classic and transforms it into a story about planet and life creation. Three gods are each given a planet by Omega, the creator. Like the bowls of porridge, one turns out too hot, one too cold, and one just right. Such stately rhythms graced the waltz of the worlds, but only on Gamma's did the music play on. And it's only on Gamma's world, the just right world, that life truly takes hold. Omega stroked Gamma, imparted fresh vision—and on the green face of Gamma's World, a slow kindling began. In what is to gods a mere tick of time - and to Gamma, a nothingness, for it stands outside of Time—crafty cognition...
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“Squish” by Daniel M. Hoyt

by Carol3 Comments
"Squish" by Daniel M. Hoyt The year is 2136. In this short story, the main character, Meyer, is an investigator hired to find the imposter among the many clones his boss, Benton Reege, has made of himself. These clones are stationed throughout the solar system and each is in charge of various research or industrial facilities. As Meyer makes the rounds, with his brain being "squished" into new biobods at each stop, he realizes that more is going on than he was told. This is an quick tour of the solar system, with little bits about the different planets and asteroids. For example, in this fictional future the technological advances are astounding, but they still can't make biobods that could actually live on the surface of Venus. "That could be solved if we could grow Venusian bodies that don’t crush halfway to the surface — it’s 92 times Earth’s pressure.  We can lick the temperature problem.  It’s...
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Death by Scrabble by Charlie Fish

by Carol7 Comments
"Death by Scrabble" by Charlie Fish I love boardgames, that's no secret. So when I ran across this short story over at East of the Web, I had to read it. I'm not going to say it's a work of literary genius but it definitely made me laugh. I do love a quirky sense of humor. A couple is playing Scrabble on a hot, sticky day. The man is miserable. He hates his wife. He's sure that if she were dead he would be doing something better than playing a stupid game of scrabble, a game he's pretty sure he's not even going to win. If she wasn't around, I'd be doing something interesting right now. I'd be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. I'd be starring in the latest Hollywood blockbuster. I'd be sailing the Vendee Globe on a 60-foot clipper called the New Horizons - I don't know, but I'd be doing something. He begins thinking of words like murder, kill,...
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The Stir Outside the Cafe Royal by Clarence Rook

by Carol5 Comments
"The Stir Outside the Café Royal" by Clarence Rook I love a good detective story, although this one doesn't quite fit the bill for me. There is not much actual detecting, no showing how the clues are followed. I know nothing about the author other than that he died in 1915. Colonel Mathurin was one of the aristocrats of crime; at least Mathurin was the name under which he had accomplished a daring bank robbery in Detroit which had involved the violent death of the manager, though it was generally believed by the police that the Rossiter who was at the bottom of some long-firm frauds in Melbourne was none other than Mathurin under another name, and that the designer and chief gainer in a sensational murder case in the Midlands was the same mysterious and ubiquitous personage. The story tells how on pleasant, sunny day in London a young American woman, alone in the city, manages to trick this criminal into entering...
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The Bowling Story by Jen Michalski

by Carol8 Comments
"The Bowling Story" by Jen Michalski I haven't been bowling in a while, but it is something David, Amber and I enjoy. We're not great, David's better than I am by far, but it's fun. So the title is what attracted me to this story in The New Yinzer. I'm also glad I found The New Yinzer's website. To be honest, I didn't know Pittsburgh even had a literary magazine. The story is about two couples, designated by letters, woman A, man B, that kind of thing. Actually, it's not a story about the couples so much as a story about the story about the couples. I didn't explain that well. It's an interesting style, though. I can't really describe it better. The bowling story will begin and end in a bowling alley. There is a man, there is a woman, or maybe there are two couples. A team. There is no baby, although one of the women may be pregnant and not...
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