7 Comments
May 7Liked by Karl Gallagher

That is an excellent short story! Reminds me of when I had a subscription to Isaac’s Asimov’s Science fiction magazine which was mostly compilation of shorts as a teenager. Well done! Should submit it for submission to a sci-fi Magazine.

Expand full comment
author

Alas, Asimov's already had their chance on it. The magazine biz is hard, they only have so many slots and want stories which please the most subscribers. The beauty of Substack is I can write whatever I want.

Expand full comment
May 7Liked by Karl Gallagher

Well done! And a fitting end!!!

Expand full comment

Really enjoyed this one even more than usual. I don’t think I’ve read one of your stores before that could legitimately be classified both as science fiction and horror, although there are a lot of your stories that I haven’t read yet. Good job!

Expand full comment
author

Thank you! I try to explore the possibilities of where we could wind up . . . and there's some horrible options out there.

Expand full comment

I have to confess I didn't enjoy this one. The viewpoint character isn't sympathetic enough to make this work as horror, but at the same time the other character is too merciless to make it work as a story about a superhero. The frat boys might be made sympathetic, but they aren't central to the story.

Expand full comment
author

That's a fair complaint. I wrote this as a villain protagonist, but didn't like him enough myself to do justice to him. I was mostly focusing on the gadget.

Expand full comment