Science Fiction: Welcome to my Worlds

his rib against the arm. “I think it’s…” he began in a hoarse whisper, then stopped.

“Where is it!”

He could feel her leaning forward and his old Commando training took over. His arm was a striking snake, grabbing her neck in a chokehold and snapping her head to his lap. She fell to her knees then tried to scratch at his eyes with her long fingernails. “They are already gone,” he spoke quietly into her ear. “Move again and I will snap your neck.”

She got very still. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Try me. I have nothing to lose. Now why are you in my house?”

"The... painting." She managed to get the words out past his hand around her throat.
He loosened his grip slightly so she could speak but kept his other hand firmly wrapped in her hair. "I have no paintings woman. I've been blind for over twenty years. Why would I collect art?" Isaac could feel her shrug against his knee.

"Investment."

"I don't need..." he started, then decided it would be foolish to tell her anything about his finances. "I have no paintings. Whoever told you I did has gotten you in a

Then, just as suddenly, he realized that it was no daydream. It was a vision. He hadn’t had one of those since he’d been blinded in the war. Since the last time his life was in danger, he realized. As it was right now. He could feel the presence of his own death very near. It smelled like the heavy ozone of a hovering thundercloud.

Isaac couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing. He might be in a wheelchair but his lungs were still strong, and the house rang with peels of his mirth. He’d spent the whole of last week planning methods of suicide. What good was life without his sweet wife Angela, after all? Together they’d been strong, even when both were in ill health. Alone he was nothing. Less than nothing.

“Shut up old man!”

The woman slapped him, her long fingernails savagely scoring his face. His hand went instinctively to the sting, coming away wet with his blood. What kind of woman slaps a blind man?

“I don’t have time for your hysterics. Where is the painting?”

He didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, but he was really beginning to dislike her tone. “Hidden where you’ll never find it, I hope.” This time her slap rocked him in the chair bruising

Seer
by Don
(Previously published in Romancing The Ozarks anthology.)

Isaac heard a noise at the door and went to let the cleaning lady in. One wheel of his chair made a ‘click’, ‘click’ as it rolled over the marble of the entryway. Must have picked up something on the wheel, he decided. He could have her look at it while she was here. Abruptly the chair stopped moving, throwing him forward, and he heard the footrest strike something. But nothing should be there. He was very careful about clutter. No one else had been here since Dora was in last week to clean.

He reached out with caution to see what the chair collided with. The door. It was open. He hadn’t opened it… and Dora didn’t have a key. Then he touched the doorknob and it was as if a lightning flash went off in his mind illuminating, for a fraction of a second, a striking female figure with unnaturally red hair wearing a clingy black jumpsuit and, he was quite sure, nothing under it but her. What a stupid time for daydreams. There was an intruder in the house…

“I’m old enough to be on MVU**SD#TTH.”

Nate frowned, wondering if there was something wrong with his hearing, or if the other was slipping a sprocket with the nonsense syllables. “And how old is that?”

“637 of this planet’s cycles.”

Nate saw his grin spread across the little girl’s face. For some reason her heart was racing in her chest with an irregular double-thump beat. Then it hit him and the grin faded. It wasn’t irregular; she had two hearts. “You aren’t exactly—human—are you?”

“Human? Of course not!” Then, as she took control, a look of horror came across the angelic face. “You’re human!”


Night Watch / Day Watch (Two-Movie Collection)

It was not my intention to write a Harry Potter review at this time-- or any other time-- even though I dearly love the series by J.K. Rowling. After all, my purpose is to acquaint people with excellent books they might not be familiar with, for one reason or another, and the only one's who haven't read the Harry Potter books, or seen the movies, probably have been either in a deep coma the last several years or dislike them (without bothering to read them first) because of some form of religious fanaticism.

Sometimes circumstances conspire to change our minds. I was browsing through some Usenet newsgroups dedicated to books and ran across a title I'd never heard of before: Harry Potter and the Psychic Serpent. Since I'd already read all the books and seen all the movies (I did mention I'm a fan) I knew this was not part of the original series. I downloaded the file at the time and put it in my ever-lengthy things-to-read list. That was something like six months ago.

Last week, I was looking in my Sony ebook reader-- I have several shelves of paper books too but the reader is great for found items like this-- for something to read and came across the Harry Potter and the Psychic Serpent file. I looked at the intro seeing that it was, indeed, a work of fan fiction by B.L. (Barb) Purdom. There is so much pro fiction I've never gotten around to in my many years of reading Fantasy and SF that I've never gotten started trying to read fan fiction. And I really don't like short stories much anyway. They're, um, just too short. But this was a NOVEL LENGTH piece written in the Harry Potter universe... so I decided to give it a shot. I'm very glad I did.

The beginning of the book was a little slow and awkward but it picked up fairly quickly once Harry Potter went again into Hogwarts. I should probably mention that Purdom wrote the book in the same format that Rowling used, starting him out interacting with the Dursley's over summer vacation then taking him back to magic school for his real adventures. Harry Potter and the Psychic Serpent was written as though it were the fifth book in the series taking Harry, Ron, and Hermionie through their preparations for OWL's testing.

I was fascinated to see that Hermione is Harry's girlfriend in this book. It has always been obvious to me that Hermione and Harry are MUCH more suited to each other than she and Ron. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that relationship changes later from hints I've gotten, even though I've only started reading Purdom's second book. For the first time Ginny Weasley reveals herself in this novel as someone Harry might plausibly be interested in, though, rather that the somewhat cardboard character she appears in Rowling's books. I'm sure reading Psychic Serpent was a welcome preoccupation for fans while J.K. Rowling was working on the fifth book.

Perhaps the best way to look at Psychic Serpent (and the two other novels Purdom has written to follow) would be as a sort of alternate Harry Potter Universe. I think it is pretty obvious that she tried to come as close as possible to matching her characters to those of J.K. Rowling. In fact, Purdom has done a masterful job of matching her Harry Potter with the original. I could find no noticeable difference there at all.

Differences do show up, though, in both Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Ron seems more quick tempered and less amusing than the original. I'll admit that I was a little thrown by the way Hermione seemed so okay with deceiving Ron about the relationship she was having with Harry. It seemed very much out of her usual character somehow. I understand the concept of building conflict, but I would have expected her to fess up and take the consequences of that immediately. I was also surprised at a physical difference in Hermione. She had never come across as a 'stacked sweater girl' either in the Rowling series or the movies to me. :)

I should probably hastily add that I do NOT have a problem with the more open adolescent sexuality of the characters revealed in this novel. Their attitudes and interactions with each other are far more realistic in that respect than the original novels were able to be because of prudish publishing constraints.

I've mentioned before that truly excellent books are always about the characters, regardless of whatever else they may contain. I was about three-quarters of the way through Harry Potter and the Psychic Serpent before I realized something truly amazing. In spite of the slow start it was, in a very important way, actually BETTER than the original series. Purdom's freedom to 'flesh out' the characters resulted not just in a 'racier' more interesting plot, but in characters that came across as much more real than the limitations and expectations of the publishing world could allow. She is very good at making you CARE about the characters. Rowling had previously been able to show that bad things happen to kids too, but she was never able to embrace the reality of adolescent relationships. We were all teenagers sometime... even though we might like to forget about it.

Something that should be obvious from my writing this review may need to be spelled out for some. B. L. Purdom has talent, and a lot of it. This book is not typical fan fiction in that it is polished and professional as any I've ever read, including J. K. Rowling. Even though it is written in someone else's world, it certainly stands on its own in quality.

The author's passion distinguishes her in addition to her talent. Who could write, not one but three or four complete novels, KNOWING that she could never sell them-- only doing it for the sheer love of the topic. I couldn't. I wouldn't. I'll be the first to admit my passion just isn't that great. But I do love the Harry Potter novels and I love B.L. Purdom's addition to them as well. I very much hope she will continue writing in universes of her own creation. I'd love to read them.

Now the question becomes: Since Harry Potter and the Psychic Serpent has not been traditionally published, how would you go about reading it? You won't find it on Amazon.com or in any bookstore that I know about. As I mentioned, I found it posted on a Usenet e-book newsgroup. If you do Usenet, you might hang out there and hope (or request) that it be reposted. Or you can just go to 4shared and download it or to Schnoogle or Wattpad on the web and read it there along with the sequels, Harry Potter and the Time of Good Intentions and Harry Potter and the Triangle Prophecy.

Whatever you do, don't miss it.

a strong student of history, but it looked like there was a six inch tall apatosaurus coming out from under the bed munching contentedly on the remains of a potato chip. Nate heard a gargling noise but he was pretty sure that wasn’t him.

It was really kinda cute. Nate reached down to see if it would let him pet it—and immediately straightened up and staggered back into the wall. “Now what?”

“Didn’t I just tell you to be careful? Don’t you realize this means there is an anomaly in the CVB*JY#ZDE? You have no idea where that thing came from or what it’s capable of.”

“An anomaly in the what? Look, it’s six inches tall!”

“How big were the beetles that ate you?”

“Mmm. About three-quarters of an inch.” He supposed that was a valid point. But there was only one of the mini-dinos. “How did you know…?” Then he saw his reflection in the bureau mirror. “Andromeda’s Ghost! You’re a little girl!”

The innocent looking face that stared back at him with violet eyes and shoulder length blonde hair couldn’t have been more than ten or twelve, if that. If things hadn’t been so hectic he’d probably have noticed the oddity of her size before now.


The Triangle DVD

inside.

The room’s furnishings consisted only of a Spartan bed, a nightstand with mirror, and a small lightly-padded chair. As soon as they were inside the innocuous room
the other rounded on Nate, sealing the door behind them.

“If you ever do something like that again I’ll have you Voided. Didn’t I tell you I don’t want to be a Rider? Didn’t you learn anything by getting killed? You have to be more careful!”

Nate was sure he’d feel suitably chastened—if he had the slightest clue what the other was talking about. “What…?”

“You deflected my aim! You spoiled the shot on the robot!”

“It looked like you were about to shoot a defenseless woman,” Nate protested.

“That ‘defenseless’ woman could have killed us with one hand!”

“How was I supposed to know it was a robot?”

“Didn’t you feel the…”

“Gleep.”

Nate looked toward the sound, glad for an interruption. He could feel his jaw drop but wasn’t sure whether it was him or the other doing it. He’d never been


Flowers for Algernon DVD

for the shift, but glowed dull red like overheated metal and the woman sagged to the ground. Something like a heat shimmer ran over her. For a second it looked as though she was covered with a layer of silvery liquid mercury, and then she wasn’t a woman anymore.

“A robot,” Nate breathed. A very good one too, from the look of it. A.I. robots were still very expensive. The Silverstones owned one that functioned as a maid and house cleaner at the Manor but it was nowhere near as sophisticated as this. He’d never even heard of anything like the human disguise he’d seen collapse. It could have been just a hologram, but he was sure he’d seen the robot settle as though it had a material, or at least a force field component. “Whoever you are, you certainly have interesting enemies.”

His slender feminine hands opened the blue door without his volition. There was no lock visible but the hands twisted, pressed and caressed the handle and area surrounding it in a series of moves too quick for him to entirely follow. There were five quick clicks in a row and a pressure in his head he hadn’t been consciously aware of abruptly ceased. Something more high-tech here than belonged on this world, he suspected. If he’d been here in his own body he was fairly sure he’d never have made it


Cocoon / Cocoon - The Return DVD

of his antagonist vaporized. Lower legs and head and shoulders that remained thudded to the pavement.

He looked at the gun and the hand and the remaining body parts in astonishment. “Damn, these people are serious. What did you do?”

There was no reply as he lost control again and began to run toward a rusty blue door. Getting trapped inside a building with people coming after them didn’t seem like a particularly good idea, but he couldn’t even speak now so there was nothing he could do.

“We’ll be safe if we can make it into the building.”

Then a figure stepped out of the shadow of a doorframe in their path. A woman. A very striking woman. She was obviously unarmed, wearing only a short shift that didn’t conceal much of her, much less a weapon. “Stop please. I only want to talk to you.”

Alarmed, Nate saw that the slender hand still holding the gun was aiming it at the woman and tensing to fire. “No! She’s unarmed. What are you doing?” He struggled for control with every ounce of his will and managed to deflect the aim slightly, but not enough. The gun fired, and there was a loud POP as if from a bursting bubble.

A small portable forcefield around the woman flared and disappeared. Her midsection didn’t vaporize, except


Star Trek: The Motion Pictures DVD Collection (Motion Picture/ Wrath of Khan/ Search for Spock/ Voyage Home/ Final Frontier/ Undiscovered Country/ Generations/ First Contact/ Insurrection/ Nemesis)

anyway. He’d always been kind of a maverick, not ready to take up the family traditions, but after everything that had been happening he was beginning to feel a real need to see them again. “Look, I don’t know how we came to be sharing a body but…”

“It’s my body. You died, didn’t you?”

“I suppose so.” Nate really didn’t want to dwell on the whole being eaten by beetles experience, but it seemed pretty likely since they were inside him gnawing on his vital organs when he lost consciousness.

“Well then, you were careless and now you’re a Rider. Get used to it.” It was said with finality as if that explained everything.

“But…?”

“We don’t have time for this now! All of them are going to wake up in a few minutes. I don’t want to become a Rider. And you should know that, the second time around, your chances are less than half as good of landing a Host. Find a…”

Nate saw the needle beam rake the wall out of the corner of his eye. Instinctively, he dove and rolled grabbing the first weapon that came to hand. Without thinking, he fired back at the source. In a second the heavy gun grew warm in his hand and the entire mid-section


The Core (Widescreen Edition)

in operation. “Yes, of course.”

“Good. I won’t be able to do an area stun again for several hours yet and we may run into more hostile humans so be ready with it. I may be otherwise occupied.”

The delicate right hand and arm only were now under his control. He gripped the weapon experimentally and noticed it was made for the left hand. “I could use it better with the other hand,” Nate began, then “Hmm.”

“What’s wrong?”

“This is a smartgun. It won’t work for anyone but the owner, without modifications.

“Can you fix it?”

“Given time and tools—which it seems we don’t have—sure.”

Nate lost control of the arm again as it flung the gun away to bounce off one of the buildings. He spun on his heel, started back toward the bodies, then abruptly stopped and sagged.

“Find one that will work. Hurry, we don’t have much time.” The other’s voice said from his mouth.

The body that wasn’t his was again under his complete control. Everything was just happening too fast. He needed some answers. He needed to get back to Silverstone Manor and let everyone know he was okay. Sort of okay,


Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead DVD

A disgusted noise came from his mouth. “Why do I have to get stuck with a moron for a Rider?” The delicate hands wiped themselves off on a not-entirely-disgusting rag dangling from the edge of the garbage bin, removed a nondescript canvas bag from the plastic sack and abruptly Nate was moving deeper into the alley, away from the open courtyard.

This just kept getting weirder. Nate now had absolutely no control over where he was going. He felt his new body running full-out and, after only a minute or two, started passing clumps of armed people lying motionless on the ground. “Are they dead?”

“If they were dead I wouldn’t need to run, would I?” Having no ready answer for that, Nate kept silent. Soon they reached an area where the bodies thinned out. He skidded to a stop in the headlong flight, still under control of the unknown other. One of the slender hands reached down and pulled a small gun from the hand of a woman in a pale green uniform with insignia unknown to him.

“Can you use this?” The voice that came out of his new mouth but sounded nothing like him asked.

A quick glance told Nate it was a compact energy weapon of newer design than he would have expected to find in these primitive surroundings, but seemed fairly standard


The Fifth Element (Ultimate Edition) DVD

martial arts systems, but there was nothing to fight. The jumpsuit he was wearing had several pockets but no weapons anyway, he discovered, after giving them a quick search. Taking a deep breath, he started cautiously toward the open courtyard again—and froze in mid-step. He was completely paralyzed. Try as he might, he couldn’t even blink an eye.

“I told you not to go that way.” The voice sounded a bit exasperated this time. “There may still be someone conscious over there. My range isn’t unlimited yet, you know.”

Nate didn’t know. Right now there seemed to be a whole multitude of things he had absolutely no idea about. Like why did the other voice also seem to be coming out of his new mouth? Questions welled up in his mind.

“Not now. We have to get out of here.” Ignoring the stench, the hands that weren’t his pulled him up so he was balancing on his waist on the rounded rim of the garbage container, scooped the top layer of filth and muck to the side, and grabbed a large plastic sack, tossing it out.

“You’re not going to eat something out of that…” Nate started to protest.

“Do I look like an idiot?”

“Uhh. I don’t really know,” Nate began honestly without thinking.


Harry Potter Years 1-5 Limited Edition Gift Set [HD DVD]

close out the smell. It was night but three small moons-- not even the same planet then, he noted-- gave sufficient light to make out the crudely jammed together mud-brick buildings. To his left there was a door made of a dull looking metal while the alley narrowed further and continued in the distance. To his right the alley opened into a slightly brighter courtyard. He headed toward it hoping to get a better idea of his surroundings.

"Don't go that way."

Nate spun around, but saw no one. And, oddly, he noticed now, there seemed to be no sounds coming from anywhere. This was hardly a megaplex, but certainly big enough and crowded enough with buildings that someone should be stirring somewhere. "Who is it? Where are you?"

"Right here stupid."

He whirled in place again, but still saw no sign of anyone or heard even minor rustling sounds that might be made by someone sneaking away. “Mind playing tricks,” he muttered. Maybe he’d been drugged. His subconscious was shrieking an alarm, but he had no idea if it was because he was about to be attacked or something else that arose from his increasing feelings of unease.
As the Silverstone heir, he’d been trained in countless forms of armed combat and nearly as many unarmed


Deep Impact (Special Collector's Edition)

Chapter One

Nate woke on a very hard surface with his face pressed against slivers of broken glass. Considering that his last memory was of being eaten by a horde of Rigellian desert beetles, he wasn't quite as put off by that as he might have been—until he saw his hand. The delicate small-boned feminine appendage definitely wasn’t his.

Nate swiped at the glass sticking to his face, bringing it down like a clatter of hailstones onto the rough pavement, and got another surprise. His face felt smooth—very smooth. He remembered having the stubble of a beard. His delicate hand explored the unfamiliar face, building a picture in his mind like a 3-D scanner, a piece at a time. A woman’s face! Feeling flooded in from the rest of his body in confirmation. Too light, too supple, too… not male. Visions of radical surgery combined with the sharp remembrance of beetles devouring his flesh made Nate’s heart pound erratically as he jumped to his feet. He needed to find a mirror and see what was going on.

No desert. No beetles. He was in a filthy alley next to a big trash container that reeked of decaying garbage. He could feel the unfamiliar nose trying to wrinkle up and


Back to the Future - The Complete Trilogy (Widescreen Edition)

Father’s stasis capsule in one hour.”

A shorter pause, then, “We will be ready.”

Nate fought to repress a triumphant grin. It only took him forty five minutes to wake a startled junior engineer, load an empty stasis capsule with sand-filled bags approximating the mass of his father, and get it back to the ship. The befuddled look on the engineer’s face alone was priceless. He was really going to enjoy this.

When the ship was clear of the atmosphere of Silverstone, Nate dropped his next bomb. “Anon One, initiate random destination. Allow one week travel parameter at maximum speed.”

There was another pause then, “Random, sir? Maximum speed? Is that wise?”

“Must you question every order?” Nate was beginning to long for the company of Chives. At least he did what he was told, even if he obviously didn’t approve.

“Your father will survive if we emerge in the core of a star but you and I will not. Please confirm the command.”

“Er… Use all necessary safety protocols, of course.”

“Of course, sir.”


The X-Files: I Want to Believe (Single-Disc Edition)

manipulate. After all, why would it expect dishonesty from someone with high-level Silverstone authorization, even if he wasn’t quite the top?

“Cancel query. Time is pressing. Prepare Anon One for liftoff in one hour.”

“Present authorization.”

Nate knew that was coming. “Alpha One authorization is not currently possible. A threat has been made to his life so Father has been placed in a keyed stasis capsule as a protective measure. We must remove him to an undisclosed system a quickly as possible for his safety. I came directly to you because he always says you are the fastest and most loyal of the fleet.” A little butter-up never hurt even for disembodied A.I.’s, Nate figured.

There was a pause of several seconds. For an A.I. it must have been practically an eternity of agonizing thought. “I must perform a retinal scan to verify…”

“It is too dangerous to nullify the stasis even for the milliseconds required for a retinal scan. He must be moved off-planet as quickly as possible. My authority is second only to my Father.” True enough, since his Mom had died almost six years ago. “I invoke emergency over-ride of previous commands on my Alpha Three authorization. Make the ship ready to depart immediately. I will return with


The Road Warrior DVD

“I’ve already given you my authorization.” Was this A.I. a moron?

“Alpha One authorization required.”

Ohhh. A glimmer of light was beginning to dawn now. He’d been looking for the most average, least noticeable ship in the fleet and, apparently, his Father had at least occasional use for such a vessel himself. The sly old fox. Maybe he wasn’t quite the boring stuffed shirt Nate had always assumed.

Adrenaline raced through his veins. This was going to be a better adventure than he’d thought. Doing something you knew you weren’t supposed to was always more fun. But how to convince the ship to let him take it out? If it wouldn’t give him information on what the ship had been used for without authorization from his Father, then it surely wasn’t going to let him fly it out of the spaceport without his permission.

While the ship A.I. waited patiently for him to present authorization, Nate’s mind raced furiously considering, and discarding, possibility after possibility. He was no diplomat, because he’d never had the patience to master the art of tact, but he was usually quite good at persuading others to do what he wanted if he really put his mind to it. Hopefully an A.I. would be even easier to


The Time Machine DVD

outside, but he’d bet it was fast enough to do the job and almost certain not to have a back-talking A.I. nanny. It would do.

The ship identification code was smaller than usual and Nate had to walk halfway around the ship to locate it. He spoke into the voice receptor beside the airlock, “Ship Anon One open airlock for boarding. Authorization Silverstone Alpha Three.

A crisp robotic voice replied. “Voice print verified. Prepare for retinal scan.”

Nate was so startled he blinked as the low power laser beam probed his eye, causing an error beep that made him jump. Even his personal ship didn’t bother with that level of security. The hatch slid open and his flaring nostrils caught the scent of stale air with a faint whiff of a trace of ammonia. But the revealed view of the inside of the nondescript ship left him entirely speechless. It was far from average and gleaming new. Some of the equipment he didn’t even recognize. This was no freighter or even a normal corporate vessel.

“What is this ship?”

“Designation: Anon One.”

“I know that. What is it used for?”

“Present authorization.”


Knowing DVD

harness and, it felt like, bruising his eyeballs as they tried to pop out of his skull. Smart aleck A.I. He certainly hadn’t told it to do that. It could use some lessons in manners from his butler Chives. Nate raised his arm and almost spoke the words to summon the old family robot… then thought better of it. Chives would certainly try to talk him out of his adventure while he was at it. Not worth it.

Nate swung himself out of the flyer… and cracked his chin on the door as his legs collapsed under him. Whooo. That was fun, but probably not something he’d want to do again for a while.

Still a bit unsteady on his feet, he stumbled down the line of ships. He looked at his sleek and flashy personal ship and then, only a little regretful, decided to take one of the others. His would just be too conspicuous… not to mention having a built in A.I. ‘nanny’ that was worse than Chives. After all, they were all technically his. Or his Father’s anyway.

He didn’t want anything too clunky but… His eye was caught by a ship that was practically the soul of average. Not too old or too new. Not too big or too small. It could pass as a freighter, a passenger ship, or even a corporate cruiser. You couldn’t really tell from the


Firefly: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]

Rider
by Don (copyright 2009)

Prologue

What Nate really needed was a radical change of scenery and he was pretty sure how he could get it. “Transport,” he said in the general direction of his armband. Ten seconds later a silver egg-shaped hovercraft whooshed to a stop beside him.


The hatch clicked shut cutting off the hail of one of his female admirers. “Nathaniel, darling. I’ve been looking for…”


“Spaceport. Emergency speed over-ride. Maximum.” Real fun beckoned and he knew she just wanted him to help her make high-status rugrats anyway. The women of Silverstone were so predictable.

“Sir, that will violate several…” the car began its expected protest.

“Authorization, Silverstone Alpha Three. Execute now.” A crash harness snapped around Nate and he fought off the blackness as the acceleration drained the blood from his brain. He forced oxygen into his lungs in gasping heaves, in spite of the crushing heaviness on his chest.

The flyer slammed to a halt throwing him against the


Firefly - The Complete Series DVD

She pointed to the woman beside him and gave him a big thumbs-up. “What?” A man walked by passing right through Mandy. He looked a little startled, took a suspicious glance around, looked behind him not seeing her, then shrugged and went on.

Seeing Ryan’s puzzlement, Mandy pointed at him, then at the woman beside him. She made a big hoop with her arms then made exaggerated kissing motions.

“Oh!” Ryan mouthed a silent ‘thanks’. He resolved right then to use some of his new money to help Mandy… or at least girls like her that were still living. He turned back to the woman who bumped into him. Well she was cute and Mandy seemed to know about these things.

“Something wrong?”

He took a long look at her and grinned. “Something very right, I hope.”


Serenity (Collector's Edition) DVD

were now at his disposal—not even counting all the property he owned in New York.

But the one thing he thought he had, that had made him so happy, was now gone forever. He couldn’t just take Mandy’s word about Linda, even though she’d been right about Uncle Al and the money. So the same day the money was transferred to his bank he told Linda that he was giving it all to charity. She’d stalked out in a huff and he probably still had the imprint of her hand on his face. But at least he knew how shallow, or nonexistent, her feelings for him had really been. He grinned. She would be so pissed when she found he lied. But even if everything Linda had said to him had been a big lie, it still left a huge void in his life. He was right back where he started, without anyone.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…” The woman who bumped into him was practically breathless from hurrying. She was cute if not the beauty Linda was. She took deep breaths to catch up, catching his eye even more, and seemed torn between continuing on and stopping to apologize. “I’m just really in a hurry.” Then she took another look at him, seeming to like what she saw. “Do I know you?”

“I don’t think so, but…” Ryan almost stumbled into a lamppost. The ghost girl Mandy stood about ten feet away.


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Disclaimer: My Science Fiction Reviews are about the BEST SF Novels... not necessarily the latest.

I want to begin by saying that if Robert Heinlein is the Grandmaster of Science Fiction then certainly Marion Zimmer Bradley is Grandmistress. Though now deceased, as is Heinlein, MZB wrote many good books during her career and the Darkover series, to me, represents the very best of her efforts. The entire series is excellent and I highly recommend reading them all. Even among the best of the best, though, there are always one or two which stand above the rest.

For me, the one that stands out most is The Forbidden Tower. I should probably mention that even though the Darkover books are technically a 'series' there is really no need to read them in any particular order. Some diehard fans will insist you should read them in order of publication, others that you should read them in the chronological timeline of the novels but, really, Marion Zimmer Bradley wrote the books so that they may be read in any order with perfect clarity. The Forbidden Tower is neither chronologically first or first published but, if you like it you should have no trouble understanding where it fits into the grand scheme of Darkover after you read a few more.

As previously mentioned, it is not my purpose in these reviews to give you a running account of the plot but, rather, to let you know why I feel the book is worth your time to read. If you would like a detailed summary, though, dig in.

Suffice it to say, for my purposes, that the world of Darkover was originally settled by Terrans, many of which had a predisposition toward psionic talents. Darkover was left alone for many years during which a feudal culture evolved and selective breeding increased these talents. Under the feudal system the psionic science they called 'laran' became clouded over with many superstitions. Eventually, laran, came to be regarded by commoners and the gifted elite (Comyn) alike as sorcery and its wielders held in awe and reverence and sometimes in fear as well.

During the period of The Forbidden Tower, superstition regarding the use of laran is still rampant. It is believed that Keepers (the most capable leaders of psionic circles) must be women and they must be virgins as well. Strict rules of laran use are enforced requiring that it only be used within the confines of a special structure, a Tower whose physical structure is reinforced by mental shields and screens to protect those who wield the enormous power of laran amplified by matrix crystals.

Damon Ridenow is a rebel who tries to bring logic and reason into a superstitious system. He builds his own Tower on the astral plane... without having built a physical tower to anchor it. His 'heretical' daring, of course, gets him into a world of trouble.

It is Damon Ridenow's struggle of light against dark, of reason against ignorance and superstition that makes this novel such a great read. As with all of Marion Zimmer Bradley's characters, Damon comes alive in the book and you feel with him his impatience with the way things are done in this feudal society. And contrasted with that is the Terran Andrew for whom Darkover has become a home and his struggles to adapt not only to the culture but to his new Darkovan lover who is bound by the traditional web of Darkovan thought.

The Forbidden Tower is Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover at it's best. Gotta love it. Do note also that, if you like Sci-Fi conventions, there is an annual Darkovercon. I attended one many years ago and enjoyed it. Perhaps I'll see you there sometime.

Mandy shrugged. “I just know. The longer I’m here the more things come to me.”
Frustrated and unsure of what to do, he snapped, “Why are you still here? Aren’t ghosts supposed to move on? Sixty years seems like a long time to still be hanging around.”

Instantly he was sorry he’d spoken so harshly. Her eyes filled with tears that ran down her cheeks and soaked into her ragged nightgown as they dripped. She looked so real and so very sad and forlorn. More gently he asked, “Wouldn’t you be happier if you didn’t have to be reminded of a life you can’t have?”

She nodded then whispered, “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“To leave here I have to forgive my Father.” Her tearful blue eyes locked with Ryan’s in an appeal for understanding. “I can’t. Not yet.”

* * *

Ryan pushed through the glass doors of the bank, blinking back the bright sunlight as he moved onto the crowded sidewalk. He felt like whistling and he felt like crying all at the same time. His uncle Albert hadn’t been merely wealthy… he was obscenely rich. 500 million dollars


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estate. And how, if he went through with his rushed marriage plans next week, Ryan would be bilked out of the inherited fortune by Linda before a year had passed. Mandy said Linda had learned about this through a friend with some intermittent psychic abilities.

Stunned, he could only stare at Mandy as she floated up to perch back on the bureau. What she was saying wasn’t fantasy. He did have a rich Uncle Al who lived in New York. He remembered that his Mother used to talk about him once in a while. But… “Why would he leave me money? I’ve never even met the man!”

“Your Mother and he were—close—at one time.”

His Mother and Uncle Al? “You mean…” Mandy’s disapproving look seemed totally out of place on a six year old girl. But, then, she wasn’t really six exactly, he thought, remembering the older woman who represented how much time had passed for her in the ghostly realm. Head spinning, he remembered something else she’d said. “I need to warn him!” The clock numbers on the ceiling told him it was now 8:42. If the heart attack wasn’t supposed to happen until after three he should have plenty of time to call Albert so he could get to a doctor.

“No. There is nothing you can do. It’s his time.”

“How do you know that?”


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Disclaimer: My Science Fiction reviews are about the BEST SF novels... not necessarily the latest out.

I first read Stranger in a Strange Land many years ago when it was originally published in the 60's. To this day, it remains my top pick for 'Best Science Fiction Novel of all time.' I've reread it at least five times over the years since its first publication and, at one time, I had three copies of different editions. Ironically, I now seem to have none. Let that be a lesson to booklenders everywhere. :)

If you would like to read a Stranger in a Strange Land book review with a completely different viewpoint than mine that, in my not so humble opinion, completely misses the essence of this wonderful book, feel free. It concentrates almost solely on how some of the technology in the book misses the mark according to current knowledge. But it really doesn't matter that we know now things like the complete absence of intelligent life on mars from our explorations with rovers on the surface.

What does matter is that the characters of Valentine Michael Smith, the human who has been raised in an alien environment, and Jubal Harshaw, a cantankerous old goat undoubtedly modeled on Heinlein himself, step out of the pages and become real as you read their story. Contrary to popular belief, Science Fiction-- at least really excellent Science Fiction-- isn't just about the techy background.

In fact, as with any genre, it's all about the people. Sure, the concepts involved and the science fiction background lend color and interest. My opinion has always been that Science Fiction has everything any other genre has-- including mainstream-- and more. I'm not going to mention any names, but there are certainly authors who have succeeded in mainstream, seemingly, by just 'dumbing down' their SF writing and making it blander to appeal to a broader audience. But that's another story.

Speaking of concepts, in addition to the strength of the story and the characters, there is, of course, the underlying questioning of the structure of organized religion which is at the heart of the story. The really not-so-naive Smith wonders at the reverence accorded 'spoiled meat', ie. corpses and delves into some of the not-so-savory seamy side of religion. Even though people are considerably more jaded now, so these ideas are not nearly as controversial as when the novel first came out, there is certainly still considerable food for thought.

I think it is almost ironic that this novel-- which did an excellent job pointing out the shortcomings and even the 'evils' of organized religion-- was directly responsible for spawning one of the most hierarchical and overly-organized of neopagan religions, The Church of All Worlds. To be clear, I certainly do not disapprove of polyamory or communal 'nesting', only of more organization than seems really necessary.

Some people reading this may think this a rather strange way to write a book review. My purpose here is not to give you a detailed description, but rather to let you know why I think the book is worth your time to read. But, if you'd like a good synopsis, they are certainly available.

In my opinion, Robert Heinlein was and-- even though deceased-- still is, the Grand Master of Science Fiction. He only wrote one really bad SF novel in his career-- Starship Troopers-- and, not surprisingly, that is the only one to date that has been made into a movie, as far as I know.

If you haven't read Stranger I hope you'll give it a try. You'll be glad you did.

“You are trying my patience, young man,” she said icily. “You can have no inkling yet of what this existence is like. I am trying to help you if you will just let me continue.”

Ryan still felt confused and put upon. “Why the little girl act?”

“It is my natural form. When you die like I did, you are forever stuck as you were. This is what I would look like now if my father hadn’t raped me and smothered me with a pillow when I was six.” The matron melted in front of his eyes and the little girl was back in her ragged gown, ghostly tears running down her cheeks. “Please let me help you. It’s the only thing I can do now.”

Ryan couldn’t help it: He put his arms around the little ghost girl and tried to give her a hug. He could feel—something—but he knew it could never be a real hug. She accepted what she could get from it, though, and smiled up at him. “I’m so very sorry.” He took a long breath. “Please continue.”

Before he could interrupt again, Mandy quickly told him a tale of his reclusive tycoon Uncle Albert who lived alone in a Manhattan penthouse. His ninety seven year old heart would cease beating today at 3:35 PM and two days later Ryan would be named sole inheritor of Albert’s


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