Lyndon Perry

I ran across this by happenstance and decided to take a chance on it, desiring something brief and gossamer to entertain between bigger reads. These stories were short, amusing and engaging. If the purpose was to paint a smile on readers’ faces in a matter of minutes without, as Poirot would say, taxing the little gray cells, this collection of four miniature stories succeeds. Here is how I’d rate my enjoyment of the four stories individually:

Audition With a Vampire — ****

Show, Don’t Tell — ***

Captain Tyler’s Ghost — ***** (Best of the Lot)

Princess and the Zombie — *****

Great for a quick smile before bed, or perhaps a welcome diversion during a lunch break at work. This obviously isn’t meant to be more than that, and to its credit doesn’t try to be. Leaning heavily toward the cozy end of the spectrum, with the thrills more amusing than fear-inducing — as they are intended to be — there is an element of fun here. If that’s what you’re looking for you’ll probably enjoy this as I did. This is definitely a Whitman’s Sampler, however, and a small one at that. Had there been a half-dozen more of these fun stories included, I could have gone five stars. As it is, because these four shorts were a very nice respite between more involved reads, I’ll still give it four stars for mission accomplished.… (más)

I picked this out from Kindle Unlimited because I had previously read and enjoyed a minor collection of stories from Lyndon Perry which leaned toward horror, but were, as intended, more humorous and charming than actually scary. The Return was an addendum of sorts to Contact Window; another short story by a different author, and as such, Return is sort of a prequel and a sequel, as another reviewer noted. Not having read Contact Window when I began reading The Return — which I have now done — I went in cold.

I really enjoyed this science fiction story, because there was a purpose, and a moral to the outcome. It would be a disservice to other readers to give too many particulars, so I won’t go into too great a detail. Basically the premise is a Contact Window — akin to a wormhole — which only appears intermittently, is being used by an alien race to make first contact with Earth. What’s unique about Perry’s story is it takes place after Contact Window, yet because the timeline within the Contact Window is fluid, the action in the story takes place before the events of Contact Window.

What emerges is a rumination about species with faith, and species who view faith as mere superstition. What might be the shattering consequences of the latter species encountering the former near its inception? Perry’s portion of the story is thought-provoking. The second portion of the story is the beginning to Contact Window, and cuts off at a point which prompted me to also download that short story, so I could discover what happened.

The writing is very good in this and Will Swardstrom’s original Contact Window, but I found the ending to Perry’s story about the other crew a bit more impactful. Brief and entertaining, and with a thought-provoking premise, this is recommended for quasi-science fiction fans who just want a morsel rather than an entire meal.… (más)