Fighting Over Laundry

BEAR CREEK by Abe Evergreen is a short story which takes place during the Gold Rush years. Jake witnesses an extremely violent fight break out between two groups in his camp, and the event changes how he perceives other people. As a result, he is also changed.

More of a personal drama than anything else.

As always,
AstraDaemon

Postcard From the Future

LARRY'S LAST COMPANION by Abe Evergreen is not a story as much as a glimpse into a future with flying cars and androids mistaken for humans. Larry reminisces about his late wife as he revisits the Grand Canyon with his companion. Ironically, the old man uses ground-breaking technology to hold onto memories of more simple times in his past.

As always,
AstraDaemon

Remote Road Rage

BELTWAY BASHER by Abe Evergreen is a flash fiction piece which takes road rage to a new level. I don't want to sound sympathetic with Ben, but I would have liked to see him take on a lane merge with drivers who don't know how to zipper.

For a few pages, there are a lot of sociological and psychological aspects in this story to discuss. Very interesting, especially with the driverless vehicles becoming more common.

As always,
AstraDaemon

When The Palace Is A Dungeon

MARY MAGIC by Abe Evergreen is a short story set in a dystopian future with a Presidential Palace and women in charge of everything. Men make up the working class, following orders as if their lives depended on it.

Mary is the President's daughter and, as such, she is essentially kept in a gilded cage. The eleven year old girl longs to climb a real tree and feel the grass under her feet, so she stages a well-planned out escape.

While the characters are a little flat, Evergreen obviously put a lot of thought into this future society. The little details are so fascinating, I would love to see the author turn this story into a mini-series like Dark City.

As always,
AstraDaemon

Sci-Fi Saturday: Stowaway

YLLAS YOT by Abe Evergreen is a mix of sci-fi and crime drama, kind of like a simplified version of the 80s movie, Ice Pirates. Yll finds a woman, Ada, hiding aboard his freighter, trying to escape from a planetary crime lord who wants to add her to his brothel.

Ada has an entitled attitude which doesn't go over well with Yllas, and he can't decide if he wants to take her bribe to get her home, or accept the reward for returning her to her captors.

Being a short story, the story left me wanting more. Evergreen should consider turning this one into another mini-series, the way the author did with Dark City.

As always,
AstraDaemon

Tumbleweed Time

NOBODY JONES by Abe Evergreen is strikingly similar to Nobody Smith, minus the science fiction. As a result, the story is about as interesting as a horse rolling in mud.

I would have preferred to find out more about the bounty hunter's sixth sense or learn something supernatural about the horse, but I guess this is why I don't normally read western stories.

As always,
AstraDaemon

Space Cowboy

NOBODY SMITH by Abe Evergreen is a short story about a smuggler trying to scrounge up the money to leave a backwater planet and make his way across the galaxy. Evergreen does a great job laying out the sci-fi setting, without dragging out the descriptions.

Even though the author doesn't reveal much of anything about Smith, I love the character's ingenuity. In fact, I wouldn't mind reading another adventure about Nobody Smith.

As always,
AstraDaemon

A Gift of Science

When a man clones his daughter, members of his family begin dying.

SHE'S NOT MY SISTER by Abe Evergreen is a sci-fi crime-thriller. Kyle tries to appease his estranged wife by creating a clone he names Annie, but succeeds only in enraging and alienating his wife and daughter, Alice. While the storyline is predictable and somewhat cliché, I had to know how the story would end.

I think Evergreen should've made this a novella, with more character development and more details about the biolab.

As always,
AstraDaemon

The Night Is Still Early

Western Romance. Young woman sets her sights on a man, ignoring the fact that he doesn't want to get married.

FRISCO by Abe Evergreen is nothing like the stories I am used to reading, not even the romance novels I used to read in the distant past, so I'm not sure how I feel about it, to be honest. I kept expecting something supernatural or violent to happen.

I suppose I could describe Frisco as a coming of age story, but not much is revealed about the main character, Chita, even though the story is told through her POV. In fact, very few details are revealed about anyone or anything: Jackson Jones (her love interest), her family (aside from owning a large ranch) or Frisco (the town she's in).

The writing style and plot is so extremely different from anything I've read by Evergreen before now, I'm not sure why he bothered to write this short at all. I hope the author has decide to stick with science fiction.

As always,
AstraDaemon

All The Shaking Hands

ABANDON SHIP by Abe Evergreen is a flash fiction scifi-fantasy story about a fire on a space vessel. The title gives away the issue at hand, but the accelerated level of FUBAR the crew must face is horrifying. The descriptions are excellent, and there are more than a few moments where I found myself gasping.

At one point, I thought the fire might not have been an accident. I had reason to believe the entire situation was orchestrated by space pirates. The ending caught me off guard.

As always,
AstraDaemon

The Odd Job

Travelin' Man tortures a woman for her bank account information.

Travelin' Man by Abe Evergreen is a jarring flash fiction piece. I expected there to be some twist, but it's extremely straight forward. The only real suspense occurs at the ATM. The rest is just a sicko describing his methodology. More violence than horror.

The story isn't that graphic, but, for some reason, my stomach really hurt after reading this.

As always.
AstraDaemon

Chains of Mountains

Runaway male slave fleeing across the desert is pursued by an android tracker.

Android Tracker by Abe Evergreen, author of the Dark City series, is a flash fiction story about the bittersweet taste of freedom. Sometimes the grass isn't greener on the side...sometimes the grass doesn't grow at all. Facing a harsh landscape, Ten encounters one obstacle after another during his escape.

The setting appears to be in a dystopian future of our world, with a reference to constellations seen from Earth. Almost nothing is revealed about the society Ten is fleeing from, but the hyper-focus on the slave and his fears creates an overwhelming level of suspense.

The ending is an unpredictable shock. I don't think the author intended it to be at all funny, but I had to laugh...for dark, ironic reasons. Evergreen definitely knows how to create quality science fiction.

As always,
AstraDaemon

Surprise! Dark City, New Day (Part 4 of 4)

WARNING: I strongly suggest you read my previous reviews of the Dark City series, before you read this review: 1) Dark City Dark Night, 2) Dark City Darker Night, and 3) Dark City Darkest Night which has been revised and renamed, Dark City Dark Day.

The final chapter of the Dark City stories. Jo Lamp's niece Yima has become very independent and fearless. They visit a growing community outside the Dark City and his niece meets a young man, who becomes her friend and first love. Lamp becomes the community's constable after he and his niece rescue a girl from two kidnappers.

New Day is the fourth and final installment of the Dark City series by Abe Evergreen, and full of new developments. A lot has changed for Lamp and Yima, while a few things have, unfortunately, stayed the same. While some survivors are attempting to rebuild, others are violent for the sake of violence.

Evergreen has declared this the final chapter, but I haven't had enough of the Dark City. Perhaps, the author would consider writing another series, set in the same dystopian society, but from a completely different viewpoint. I'd love to know Grit's story!

If this is the grand finale, I'm good with how Evergreen chose to wrap up this series.

As always,
AstraDaemon

Abe Evergreen Shakes Up The Dark City Series!

WARNING: I strongly suggest you read my previous reviews of the Dark City series, before you read this review: 1) Dark City Dark Night and 2) Dark City Darker Night.

Originally in the Dark City series by Abe Evergreen, the third installment was titled Dark City Darkest Night. You can read my original review here. I felt the author had radically changed his writing style and I was left thinking the series ended as a disappointing trilogy.

Imagine my surprise when I did an Amazon search on Mr. Evergreen to see what else he'd written lately and found, not only a fourth installment, but a new third installment. Darkest Night is nowhere to be found.

The third part of the exciting Dark City stories. After saving his niece's life in Dark City Dark Night, and rescuing her in Dark City Darker Night, Jo Lamp and his niece, Yima, fight to survive in the Dark City.

Dark Day by Abe Evergreen is a thousand times better than Darkest Night. Evergreen reworked the character Yima, so she appears to be a conflicted teen, rather than a brat with a bad attitude. The result is Yima's coming-of-age in a post-apocalyptic society, emphasizing the family drama which has always surrounded Lamp and his loved ones.

Evergreen delivers one hell of a gunfight as well, when a clan of scavengers attack Lamp in effort to kidnap his niece...not to mention the author's suspenseful mix of horror and science fiction in this dystopian series. Dark Day proves to be just as thrilling as the first two stories. I can't wait to read the fourth installment!

As always,
AstraDaemon

Dark City, Part 3 of 3

WARNING: I strongly suggest you read my review of the first story, Dark City: Dark Night, before you read this review, as well as the second story, Dark City: Darker Night.

Dark City: Darkest Night by Abe Evergreen takes place two years after the second story ends, followed by several time jumps, two years each time. Most of the focus is on Yima's survival training. As she becomes a teenager, she starts to act out. The ending sucked, mainly for the lack of details of the night's events.

I don't know what in the hell happened to the author. Evergreen did such a great job at building suspense and orchestrating intensely devastating scenes in the first two stories, but the third installment is a fart in the wind compared to the previous events. It didn't help that Yima comes off as a spoiled, ungrateful brat.

I didn't mind the time jumps when I thought they would lead to some serious action, but that never happens. What a disappointing ending to the trilogy.

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I'll never understand why an author would change his or her writing style before a series is completed. I'm not even commenting as a reviewer...as a reader, I almost feel betrayed. Maybe I will start calling this Gimple Syndrome.

As always,
AstraDaemon

Dark City, Part 2 of 3

WARNING: I strongly suggest you read my review of the first story, Dark City: Dark Night, before you read this review.

Dark City: Darker Night by Abe Evergreen is the second short story in a dystopian trilogy. The city is overwhelmed by mutating flu viruses, with scientists unable to keep up with the demand for vaccines. Hoarding is a crime, but also a necessity to survival. I really like the way Lamp thinks, but his sister just pisses me off. I couldn't get over her level of denial and how she puts Yima, Lamp's niece, at risk with her stubbornness.

I enjoyed this story even more than the first one. Life in the city has steadily deteriorated since Lamp last ventured out for medicine, and the desperation makes for a very intense situation. I hope the third story reveals what is going on inside Lamp.

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There are details which suggest the Dark City flu mutations are taking place in the future, making Evergreen's series a science fiction nightmare with the realistic horror of illness, mass hysteria and the collapse of society. I had no idea I would be sucked in like this when I picked up the first story.

As always,
AstraDaemon