TJ – A beautiful story that has that touch of indefinable magic that can only make it special. It starts with that perfect moment, a parent telling a child a tall tale, something that is almost like a whisper of truth – it could be but it isn’t, but I can just imagine cocked heads as children listen for the distant, non-existent bells. But the true wonder comes from the visitation, true magic perhaps as the boy finds his mind and heart opened to the beauty of the natural world, and the cost it bears in housing humanity and how some of that paradise can be restored. Lovely tale.
TSP – A tribute to the spark of defiance that resides in the heart of even the most broken down and subjugated individual. A simple act, little more than nothing can be so much to the heart, becoming bigger than the grim reality of life. In some ways it might be seen as giving up, allowing death to become your freedom, but it is more than that. It is saying to the masters that you can still fight back no matter what the cost, that a simple act today can lead to another tomorrow. The fact that all she is doing is chipping away almost grain by grain does not matter. Every time nothing happens there is the hope that the next time... and amid all the hellish existence, that is a freedom in itself.
MB – I think any story that has a bookshop as one of it’s most important points has to be something special. The description given here of the shop ois almost wonderful. Putting aside the rest of the story it is the kind of establishment I would like to find hidden away around a murky corner, a chaotic order of books within, the mystery of words waiting to be explored. Of course the written word can be a lot more than just entertainment it is also the keeper of secrets and knowledge, and who knows just what you might find hidden away amongst the musty tomes? Long buried truths and something that might make you fight back against even the hardest of oppressors. (Loved the voice of the character too).
Gary – What kind of $#!++*** writing is this, which has to resort to bleeping swearing to get it’s bleeped message across? Well completely entertaining for a start. In something that came across as a light hearted Solyant Green we find a society that has fallen into such a state that food comes from those that break the law, by even the slightest degree. Indeed they are not asked to help with food production, they become food! I think this story would be highly rated for me just by including Jimmy Carr as part of the main course. I think I’ll have a fine Chianti with that...
Mosaix – how apt that the last story of the challenge should be called ‘...And Finally.” A straightforward but effective device as we see a series of news reports that follow the events of a break in to a facility that might seem like a prank at first but rapidly escalates to world shaking proportions. The end is spot on perfect, with demands unmet something happens, but we are never party to what the consequence is. Only that something happens and communication begins to end. It reminded me of the epilogue to Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds album. Entertaining.
And that's it. Up to date at... what we've already got posts in the new 75 word challenge?
