Tag Archives: fantasy

The Name

yarn

PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz

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Griffith hated “blipping” into random places, especially late at night, but that was how the quest worked. This yarn shop wasn’t an unanticipated destination. The next clue was here. In fact (he quickly counted the words he already had) this should be the last one. Then he could assemble The Name.

This had been centuries in coming. Once he puzzled out The Name and said it out loud, He would come and the world would be safe. But where was it hidden?

“Please don’t hurt me.” The woman crouching in the corner was a beautiful last word for The Name.

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Dinner for Two

dinner

PHOTO PROMPT © Sandra Crook

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Larry sat at his usual table by the window, always dinner for one. His wife had died when their daughter Chrissie was four. He tried to be a good Dad, but that ended with the drunken car accident. Chrissie was ten when she died and it was his fault.

A few weeks ago, he found he could go back, but only to that one day. He relived it all, terror making him tremble as he got her into the car. He returned to the present not sure if he had changed enough.

“Hi, Daddy.” Now it was dinner for two.

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Book Review of “Anonymous Rex” by Eric Garcia (2000)

dino

© James Pyles

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I only heard about the novel Anonymous Rex by Eric Garcia (2000) because the anniversary of the TV movie’s release happened recently (actually, the movie was based on the prequel Casual Rex). The film’s plot seemed like a thinly-veiled attempt to cast the hidden dinosaur society (I’ll get to that in a minute) as the LGBTQ community if it were still closeted. Since I had just finished a rather huge and pondering tome, I thought a little light reading might be in order.

Fortunately, Garcia’s book was in my local public library system and I was soon in the business of reading. Also fortunately, the plot was quite a bit different than the film’s.

This will take a bit to set up. In this world (the book was published in 2000), some twelve or so dinosaur species have survived the extinction event 65 million years ago. Over the long haul, they’ve evolved just enough so that, with the proper complicated costuming, they can pass successfully as human beings. The decision to peacefully co-exist with us was made a few million years ago rather than the dinos destroying a nascent human race when they had the chance.

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Book Review of “The Way of Kings” (2010)

way

© James Pyles

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A few months back, my teenage grandson loaned me his copy of Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings (2010). My grandson is a huge fan and wanted to share his enjoyment with me. I really like that.

The first thing I noticed is the book is long, really long. I tend to read novels in the 300-500 page range (or so), but Sanderson’s tome weighs in at 1252 pages. Yikes!

I didn’t read any of the reviews or summaries so I could come at it fresh.

It’s a hard book to get into. For the first several hundred pages, the action switches between a number of players who seemingly have nothing to do with each other beyond living in the same universe. What the heck?

I mean after the mysterious prologue, we see the assassin Szeth-son-of-Vallano executing a king and then he disappears until somewhere in the middle of the book (he does play a pivotal role in the climax).

At one point, Kaladin is a soldier, but when next we see him, he’s a slave.

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The Temple of Heaven

temple

PHOTO PROMPT © David Stewart

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Haoyu Yue Zhan, entering the courtyard of the Temple of Heaven, took a deep breath. Western tourists visited a pale replica of it in Beijing. He had traveled thousands of miles to visit the actual temple hidden in the Kunlun mountains in Xinjiang.

The descendent of famed Yue Fei was not here to study Tai Chi. Here was the center of Earth and Heaven and the gods awaited above. He did not seek paradise, but rather a way to prevent the Earth from becoming a wasteland. Nuclear war was only days away and he needed the power to stop it.

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Frank and the Plot of the Hypnotizing Slime, Chapter 8

chapter 8

© James Pyles

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In the evil headquarters, Kayden was pacing back and forth near the entrance while Hazel was looking through Leah’s telescope.

“I still can’t see anything. Oh wait.” Hazel focused the lens. “I think I can see them at the edge of town. Why aren’t they going in.”

She waited a few more minutes. “I can’t see Leah anymore but what is that?”

Kayden heard the worry in Hazel’s voice and walked over to her. “What is it?”

“A human girl with a net. She’s got Frank and the others.”

“All of them?”

“I still can’t see Leah.”

“That’s because Leah isn’t there.”

Both Seth and Hazel turned to the entrance and saw Leah crawling in and she really looked mad.

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Strings

amanda

PHOTO PROMPT © Amanda Forestwood

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14-year-old Stace McPherson was drawn to the musician’s unusual stringed instrument. The backyard wedding reception was over. He was supposed to be helping clean but he wanted to touch it. The musician, no one called him anything else, had played the most amazing tunes, like from another world. He looked around. Just the last few guests. The musician was saying good-bye to the bride and groom. He had to do it. Stace let his fingers glide across the strings. As he did, something creative entered him. Ten years later with his own guitar, he accepted the best new artist Grammy.

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Frank and the Plot of the Hypnotizing Slime, Chapter 7

chapter 7

© James Pyles

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The next morning, the hypnotizing slime was ready and Frank ordered it loaded into the slime cannon. He had made more of it than the previous day and concentrated the formula so it wouldn’t come off easily and would have more control over anyone it hit. He also made sure it would turn into a mist to float into every hidden space in the town so no one would be able to escape its influence.

“Fire!” Frank gave the command and the rest of his spiders obeyed, although he could tell Leah complied reluctantly.

Slime flew high into the air forming a large, pink cloud. Then it fell as rain, and when it hit, it became a mist.

“I can’t see what’s happening, Frank.” Leah was looking through her spider telescope. “All I see is a big pink cloud surrounding the town. You shouldn’t have changed the formula to make it mistier. Yesterday, we could see it hit everyone. Today, I can’t tell.”

“Kayden, hand me the microphone,” Frank said.

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Hell’s Harlequin

joker

PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox

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“There must be some kind of way out of here, said the joker to the thief.”

Jester pretended to play a game on her cell’s frayed bedsheets with a worn deck of cards. The old Dylan tune running through her head seemed too cliché, even for her. She didn’t know how to play solitaire, but it mollified the guards while she planned her escape.

The thief was out there, the one who sent her to Hell. But Persephone hadn’t helped Jester escape Hades’ clutches just to be jailed for shoplifting food she again needed to eat. She would find him.

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Doorways Fluttering in the Breeze

blankets

© Sarah Whiley

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They reminded him of his childhood when Mom used to hang the wet laundry on the backyard clothes line to dry. Except these were supposed to be art at a small, outdoor fair at a local park.

In his peculiar line of work, Demetrius Lauer traveled all over the world and visited communities from the largest megacities to the smallest rural hamlets. Today, it was Winchester Park in the small but growing commuter city of Kuna, Idaho. Fortunately, bringing his M1911 Colt semi-automatic wasn’t a problem in this part of the U.S. He was probably going to need it, but he had to find his prey first.

Dem was an unusual type of bounty hunter. Yes, he tracked down some of the most dangerous men and women on the planet, but many were just as dangerous on other planets, or in this case alternate realities.

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