SUCKER by Neil Asher

If you have five minutes, you have time to enjoy Sucker, the short story that Neil Asher posted on his blog The Skinner on April 28, 2008, as gift to his loyal fans.

You’re wasting your time reading my little review when you could be reading his story. However, you must like what I have to say. So…

Sucker is the story of guy, a fat guy that does not like to be called fat, especially by his wife. We enter into their marriage on the day when he has decided that he has had enough. He puts a mashed potato filled fork into her eye. He then retrieves his favorite knife and begins to prepare her for the meat locker. I guess the saying would go: if you can’t live with her, eat her.

Then the door rings. Nice! Enter the Tyson Vacuum salesman. He had an appointment to meet with the wife and demonstrate the awesome power of its suction. He will not take no for an answer, he must demonstrate. He had an appointment after all.

I’m not going to ruin the rest. You will have to read it for you self. You can read it by clicking here: Sucker.

What I like about Asher’s short fiction is that he has the amazing ability to stay completely immersed in the scene, the moment, and show the action with very little summary or none at all. I have something to learn from that.

Enjoy!

Asher, Neil. Sucker. The Skinner

NATURAL SELECTION by Dave Freedman

I read this book a few years ago but have been thinking about it a lot in the last few days. One of my favorite subgenres of science fiction is what I like to call the eco-thriller. Eco-thrillers are any movie in which the plot can be reduced to Man vs. Nature. The reason that this book has been on my mind is that I 115 pages into The Swarm by Frank Schatzing (I will put up a Part 1 review when I finish the first 300 some odd pages).

Natural Selection is a monster book. It is about Manta Rays that learn and begin to feed on humans because their natural food source has been depleted. It seems so unreal at times, but that is the fun part about books like theses.

I think that what I like most about eco-thrillers is all the science that gets handed down to the reader. At times it can be a little over whelming, but the pay off is rewarding enough to keep at it. Also, I only care enough about most of the characters that I don’t mind when a few of them start to disappear, become snacks for the Manta Rays. I was actually looking forward to a few of them dying. However, the first main character to die does not take place until the last third of the book.

I don’t want to ruin this book for you. I want you to run out and read it. It is a good summer read. Not only did I learn a lot about real Manta Rays, the ocean, and environmentalism, but I was thoroughly entertained the entire time. I liked this book so much that I’m going to give it to a friend, Mr. Horrorpants, on Friday.

Freedman, Dave. “Natural Selection.” New York: Hyperion, 2007

Introducing Soulless Letters

I started The Soulless Machine Review a year ago this month. I have had a lot of fun. So much fun that I decided to branch out a little with a second blog.

I want to separate somewhat my political rants from my reviews. I don’t have to do this. I just want to try something different.

I was inspired by Henry Rollins, who writes open letters as bit on his TV show, The Henry Rollins Show. His letters and his political anger inspire me. I don’t know if I will ever write letters that match his fervor, but I will take a more active approach to letting my anger, or should I say, my concern out on to the page.

My first letter went live to day, enjoy.

DEAR DR. HOWARD DEAN,

It should have been you. Dr. Howard Dean, you should have been the Democratic nominee for president in 2004 instead of John Kerry. When I watch the video (posted above) I see the excitement that I was caught up in during the primary. I see the candidate that could have brought passion to the White House, passion for the hard working people of the United States. I revisit that video when I feel that my beloved government is spinning out of control. It gives me great hope to know that you are… (more)

NIGHTSTAND by Daniel Woodrell

Thank you Esquire for continuing to include the occasional short fiction story in your magazine. Someday, I hope, my work will find its way into your pages.

Woodrell’s story is one that I hope does not come true; however, it seems all too possible for two psychologically damaged veterans to meet in this way. One has tried to put the Vietnam War behind him for good while the other is still struggling with his experiences in Iraq.

I have not been to war. I’ve not been a part of the military. I feel very lucky that others have heard the call. My father told me never to enlist. He wanted something different for his son. He did not want me to be flown over seas and have to experience the American War Machine. He felt that his time in Vietnam was enough for his family so that his children would not have to serve. Thank you Dad.

Pelham is a Vietnam veteran. He and his second wife, who does not remember the war expect as something that was on TV, were sleeping when a naked man woke them up with his growling. Pelham snaps and quickly dispatches the intruder as his wife runs into the next room. This is how the story opens. It immediately catches your attention and propels you through to the end.

Every thing that comes next in the story is painfully rendered in beautiful language: the discovery of who the intruder’s identity, the funeral, the articles in the local papers, the opinions of the neighbors, the reconciliation of two high school friends, and the return of Pelham’s Vietnam mania.

The story does not attempt to provide answers or alternatives to help those who have been to war. It only seeks to help provide insight into the minds of those who have returned less then whole.

The June 2008 issue of Esquire should still be on the stands. I suggest running out to get a copy before it is gone. You don’t want to miss this story.

Woodrell, Daniel. “Nightstand” Esquire. June 2008, vol 149, no 6. p. 145 – 149

TRUANCY by Isamu Fukui

I just finished Truancy while sitting in my car waiting form my final visit with my thesis advisor. I have passed out of Thesis I and I’ve registered for Thesis II in the Fall. I’m so close to being done that I can taste it.

Truancy is a really good novel. There are some things that could have been handled better, but over all this going to be a read that I recommend to friends. It has enough action to keep the pages flipping and just enough philosophy and world building to flesh the story out.

A lot happens in this book. I’m still just starting to get my head around it all. Most of the time, I ruin books and short stories by giving away too much of the plot. I don’t really want to do that this time. I think that you’ll want to enjoy it all on your own. Instead, I think that I will go though some of the ideas that characters are struggling with in the novel.

School. What is school? Why go to school? Why is school important? What is the fundamental purpose of school? Why should we want to go to school? Why do we want to send the next generation to school? What should be taught in school? These are the questions that I had to ask myself over and over again while reading Truancy.

The answer that the book as a whole gives, through the plot and the characters, is that school, any way you look at it, is about control. Schools help condition the next generation to become citizens of the larger culture. They teach consequences for things like tardiness – something that a future employer will also not like. They help to break our wild and selfish ways. They prepare us for a world where someone (parents, teachers, bosses) will always hold sway over us. Everyone is accountable to someone else. These are the lessons that come along side of algebra, biology, literature, art.

What is the alterative to an ordered school system? I don’t know. However, the book puts forward two ideas about how to bring about change. These ideas are represented by two people that Tack, the main character, runs into. Zyid is the Leader of the Truancy, a rebellion comprised of students who have either been expelled or left school on their own. Zyid believes, well, he says it best:

“We were taught that we could earn anything that we wanted so long as we sacrificed enough of our dignity to do so. We sold ourselves to the Educators, Takan, from the moment we stepped into the classrooms.” Zyid’s face darkened. “Security and happiness are by no means guaranteed to graduates, but the educators would have us believe that they are. They school us into believing that their way is the only way” (320).

That has to be my favorite quote from the entire book. Zyid represents the aggressive angle. The Truancy uses, gorilla, terrorist methods to fight against the Educators. Zyid hands out orders for assassinations and bombings. The body count is enormous.

However, there is another that proposed diffrent path to elicit change. His name is Umasi and he is pacifist. He teaches that change will come in time. Someday, enough students will have graduated who feel the educational system is broken and needs to fixed, and when that day arrives the old system will be replaced.

The problem is that Ziyd sees a system where the graduates become the Educators they hated in school. Just like the hazing of freshmen on Freshmen Friday, the one day where teachers look the other way, while the upper classes hand out a significant beat down. You would think that when freshmen become part of the upper class that they would remember what it was like to be a freshman. But his is not how the world works. They want their turn to mean.

I’m very impressed that this book was written by a high school student. I had all of the feelings that are in this book while I was in school. I just did not have the words.

Who should read it? In short everyone that has been through an oppressive American style school system. The Truancy provides enough critical reflection to help wake up the next generation and help them to at least ask: Why is all this education really important anyway?

My advice, find this book and read it. My feeling is that the Truancy might very well be the beginning of a new social revolution.

For more fun check out the three part review over at Fantasy Debut:
Truancy - Initial Impressions
Truancy: Hard to Put Down
Truancy: Final Review

Take a look at the really cool website: The Truancy.

Stuyvesant student Isamu Fukui is in a class by himself
BY NICOLE LYN PESCE
Saturday, March 8th 2008, 4:00 AM

Fukui, Isamu. Truancy. New York: TOR, 2008

THE ROAD GOES EVER (NEVER) ON by Gray A. Braunbeck

This is an odd story that play its self out as a framing device for the collection of short stories. It runs pages (Ever On) 23 – 25 and (Never On) 305 – 306. The pages are connected with ellipses that are meant to imply that the stories in-between are connected in some way, in this case they are extended memories of those that the main character meets along the road in purgatory (If I’m wrong about this, I apologize. I’ve only read the two parts of this story and have not gotten to the others).

What I really like about this story is the road signs that appear: BLOODY AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT 300 YARDS and CAGE BUILT OUT OF CHILDREN’S BONES ON RIGHT 50 FEET AHEAD. These are creepy. They are also what I would think to expect to see along the roadside just out side of Hell.

It is not much of a story on its own. It is more like a moment in time, a good creepy, I’m glad I’m not that guy moment. It ends with the main character walking into the deep dark unknown. I think that this ending is supposed to give some kind of comfort after the walk of fire. I don’t know, again, I’ve not read enough of the other stories and this one just does not seem to stand on its own.

What is odd is that I was thinking about returning this book to the library today. It is due. However, the more I think about this story, the more I want to read at least one of the stories that fill the middle.

So (I love technology) I logged onto my account fro home and renewed the book. This edition also has a fold out of several full color illustration that inform the stories. I hope to find and read the ones about the clowns; Oooo, Oooo, and the one about the giant fossil of a human with wings that looks like it is 100 feet tall.

Check back this month for more from Escaping Purgatory.

Clark, Allen M. & Braunbeck, Gray A. “The Road Goes Ever On.” Escaping Purgatory. Eugene, Oregon: IFD Publishing, 2001. p 23 - 25

Clark, Allen M. & Braunbeck, Gray A. “The Road Goes Never On.” Escaping Purgatory. Eugene, Oregon: IFD Publishing, 2001. p 305 - 306