“So
you dance now, Gully?”
“I
dance, speak four languages miserably, study science and philosophy, write
pitiful poetry, blow myself up with idiotic experiments, fence like a fool, box
like a buffoon...In short, I’m the notorious Fourmyle of Ceres.”
“No longer Gully Foyle.”
“Only to you, dear, and whoever you’ve told.”.
(from The Stars My
Destintion by Alfred Bester)
8*/10. The
complete review is here.
.
I
stopped for a drink. The café
overlooking the pyramid (or pyramids) had opened its terrace, and I treated
myself to a highly alcoholic cocktail.
The tourists at the other tables had their noses in their guidebooks. There is a class of tourists who never seem
to see the things they’re visiting, I thought.
They prefer to look at directions to the next place they’re not going to
look at. A hot-air balloon piloted by
naked can-can dancers could have flown past and no one would have seen it
except me.
(from A Year in
the Merde by Stephen Clarke)
8½*/10. The
complete review is here.
.
The
Forum had that look it always gets when everyone knows there is bad news in the
air. Instead of the usual drifting,
shifting mass, people gathered in tight little knots, each one feeding the
other’s ignorance with rumors and omens.
I overheard talk of military disaster, civil war, invasion by foreign
enemies, plague, famine, earthquake and wondrous visitations by the Olympian
deities, all before we reached the steps of the Curia.
(from The Sacrilege
by John Maddox Roberts)
8*/10. The
full review is here.
.
“You clumsy idiot,” said the Prince of the Nibelungs, “you’ve broken my leg.”
It
occurred to Malcolm that this served Alberich right, and he said so. In fact, he suggested, Alberich was extremely
lucky to get off so lightly, since presumably he had broken in with the
intention of committing murder.
“Don’t
be stupid,” said Alberich. “I only
wanted the ring.”
He
made it sound as if he had just dropped by to borrow a bowl of sugar. “Now, about my broken leg…”
“Never mind your broken leg.”
“I
mind it a lot. Get a doctor.”
(from Expecting Someone Taller by Tom Holt)
7½*/10.
The complete review is here.
.
“Some
fools will claim these creatures washed up from the depths of the arctic sea.”
“I
know,” Naomi answered. “No one will
believe it at first. But if enough
people see it, a few reputable scientists might come forward to challenge what
they think is a fake. You’ve just got to
do whatever you can to get it in front of the media. And keep yourselves alive.”
Mikhailov snorted. “The first
should not be difficult. I am not so
certain about the second.”
(from Season of
the Harvest by Michael R. Hicks)
7*/10. The
complete review is here.
.
A
McDonald’s popped up in front of me, and the car automatically turned into the
drive-through lane. I ordered a vanilla
milkshake and asked the kid in the window if they were hiring.
“Sure,” he said, “we’re always hiring.
You want an application?”
“Do you get held up a lot here?”
“Not a lot,” he said, passing
the application through with the straw.
“We get a few crazies, but usually you can buy them off with extra
pickles.”
(from Hot Six by Janet Evanovich)
8*/10. The
complete review is here.
.
