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I don't know what to make of this. I loved it. I was confused by it. I was bored. I was fascinated. I was ... at some point I ran through just about every possible reaction to this. How to describe this slightly off-beat (in a good way), unusual, sci-fi/fi fantasy.... A race of bi-pedal, primitive aliens, known as Fluters are a nomadic group just trying to survive. This is getting harder and harder to do with changes happening to the river Ata. Their numbers are on the decline, with only one child born in the past year - a girl who is named Vattu. Not everyone is happy with the birth of a girl, and when the Fluters encounter a more aggressive race from the Empire of Sahta who demand their tax. Having nothing, they give them Vattu, promising them that Vattu is a boy and will prove to be a strong slave. Vattu is accompanied (and looked after) by a faceless, voiceless warrior from still another race. While the warrior would appear more dangerous, he submits to beatings and punishmen...

Climax, Arizona isn't much of a town - it's got only one of just about everything. One saloon, one hotel, one lawman. It doesn't take much to keep the peace in such a town, which suits Giles Frost just fine. He's too old to work on the range and too settled to have to take care of anything more than the occasional drunk. But peace in Climax and peace for Giles Frost comes to a violent end when Frost is shot in the side one night while making his evening patrol.   A violent gang has decided that they are going to make Climax their new home base and they've got no use for a lawman. Giles Frost hasn't got any use for murderers or for the town of Climax and was ready to move on once he recovered enough from his bullet wound, but as he hit the trail he encounters another lawman who's looking for him. The gang that's taken over Climax are wanted and more than one lawman is looking to take them down.  But Giles Frost's knowledge of the town could be crucial...

Chicago has barely even begun its recovery and clean-up after the Battle of Chicago and already the wizard Harry Dresden is being called away for a different job.  It's not something he wants to do, but since he owes John Marcone, the Baron of Chicago, a favor (for saving Harry's life ... hardly a favor anyone can ignore), he takes the job.  The job: help the lowlife, former pimp and gambler, Tripp Gregory, go straight. It shouldn't be too hard - he wants to go straight. He just needs some help understanding what's right and a few nudges here and there. It would seem he's off to a good start when he raises money for a charity and doesn't understand why it was wrong to gamble that money when he hit the jackpot and increased that jackpot many-fold for the charity. There is a little problem, though ... beside the IRS ... the man who took the bet isn't paying out and Tripp needs Harry's help to get it. There's just a little problem ... while Harry has a ...

I don't read as many essay collections as I'd like. There was a time when I read a lot of essay collections (David Sedaris, Augusten Burroughs, Bill Bryson, Nick Hornby, Steve Almond, et al) but I've fallen away from it. If I'm not reading an essay for educational purposes (for instance, I have enjoyed The Best American Science and Nature Writing collections that appear annually), then I'm probably looking for something reflective of human nature, preferably humorous and relatable. That last word is key.  "Relatable."  I began to feel less and less able to relate to David Sedaris's work; so, too, Burroughs. They're both talented and well-deserving of their followings, but they didn't really speak to me. And the humorists sometimes try too hard to be funny or spend an entire essay setting up one joke. And yet, I keep trying, keep reading essays, and keep looking for 'new' authors to try. Adulting for Amateurs just had a ring to it that...

In the film world there are giants like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg and then we have the Roger Corman's ... those who produce fast, cheap knock-offs that are definitely entertaining but not likely to have blockbuster sales.  The same exists in the literary world. There are series that are enormously popular (Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner, etc) and then there are the indie-published options (I initially wrote "alternatives" but in truth, it isn't an 'either/or' choice) - cheaper and less polished.  The Guardians series (based on this first book) by Lola StVil is the latter. There's not much apparent plot here. Our protagonist, Emmy, is an emotionally charged teenage girl. It's been decried that she's going to save the world.  Or ... she's going to destroy it. It's all on her.   This should be a big responsibility but all Emmy thinks or cares about is Marcus. The first moment she laid eyes on him she was completely ...

Every night, when she goes to sleep, a young woman dreams of erotic encounters with the various men she meets or sees during the day - maybe the mailman, maybe the museum guard, the baker, the tailor. maybe even the priest, and so on. Each unique, imagined encounter is specific to the specialized talents of the man visiting.  No one is named, not even the dreaming woman. The anonymity of the dreams would appear to be part of the excitement. That's it. There's no gigantic story arc or plot. This is more thematic flash fiction, almost poetry, than short stories. And it works. Of course I really like surrealist fiction and this fits the label, though I suspect this might be hard to categorize beyond that. Poetry? Yes ... but no. Flash fiction? Yes ... but no. Erotica? Yes ... but no. Although the dreams are of erotic encounters, the writing is suggestive rather than obvious. The more direct sexual references might be The Aviator ("His cockpit convulses. His fuselage rattles. ...