Short story
re-read, still 4*
Thank-fully I forgot the very end so once I got to it this time around, I was taken by surprise. I love those ironic endings. It's a fun, quick read. Humans and other races are pawns in an alien chess game. They have to get through portals as instructed. Many lives are lost in their game.

I read in Best Science Fiction of the Year 14 but may be available online.

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Corinne2020 | Jan 19, 2023 |

Feesters in the Lake and Other Stories von Bob Leman

All of the stories were published before except HOW DOBBSTOWN WAS SAVED

A couple are on the internet. I was able to find LOOB & INSTRUCTIONS by Googling.
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~ Window (1980) - 4* I got a copy from The Best Horror Stories from the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
Finalist for the Nebula award. Adapted into "A View Through the Window", an episode of the anthology series Night Visions.
That was such a surprise. I thought I was reading a Twilight Zone type story, but then it turned into a horror story. Fun.

~ The Tehama - (1981) novelette - I got from The Best Fantasy Stories from the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 2021: I decided to pass on the story. I've had it forever and I am obviously not interested. I got caught up on the obscurity of the author and hunted down the stories but I guess I enjoyed the hunt more than the reading.

~ Industrial Complex - 2* - Done. It's like a good Twilight Zone episode. Serious spoilers under the tags. I'm hoping someday, someone will tell me about the ending. It's ambiguous. Paranoid man meets paranoid alien. But are they really just paranoid? When paranoid man finally meets the alien and discovers he is one of the few the alien has been watching his mind is kinda blow. He is being watched because he is sensitive enough to the strange happenings to maybe derail the alien's plans. He is not just paranoid, he knew something was happening. But this doesn't matter, the alien will continue on with his plans to destroy Earth. See, the alien is being chased/watched by someone/something and has to destroy Earth to cover his trail. He doesn't know who is chasing him or why but he must destroy the evidence of him (the alien) being there. So there you go, there is the evidence of the paranoid alien as the man was earlier. So we learn the Earth is destroyed except their little protection bubble which will be destroyed as soon as alien leaves it but.... the man hears, and this is the last line of the book. "Outside in the night a breeze had risen and made familiar noises against the window-pane" So wtf does that mean? If Earth is destroyed, why would he hear familiar noises?

~ The Pilgrimage of Clifford M. (Goster County) - (1984) novelette - I got from The Century's Best Horror Fiction Volume Two (vampires). 2021: I decided to pass on the story. It is said, he has done something truly unique with the vampire story, but I've read some reviews and though they are favorable, my mind for reading is elsewhere.

~ Change of Address - Skipping ..snore

~ Skirmish on Bastable Street - 2* - Read in this The Year's Best Fantasy Stories 8 A guy rescues a demon from a pit and gets 3 wishes but he can only think of 2. The 3rd will be granted to a direct descendant. Takes 100s of years to have one with the same name. Wish ended up sending demon back to pit. I'm confused. Why time loop?

~ Olida (Goster County) (1987) novelette - had owned in this: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1987 but in 2020 I decided to let it go, I'm moving away from old, slow horror and I saw an Amazon review that made me feel secure in my choice to skip it.

~ How Dobbstown Was Saved - no access

~ The Time of the Worm (Goster County) (1988) novelette - 4*
I read in: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1988
Wow. That was something! To be those people would be pure hell and to read some of it from a little boy's POV almost had me quitting. What can I say as a memory trigger or summary without spoiling? hmm... There was a plot of land the locals didn't want to build on but some newcomers didn't know any better and they had four good years before the "worm" came up from the basement and took full control.

~ Bait - Skipping ..snore

~ Loob (Goster County) - DNF - I couldn't finish it. It starts with what seems to be an unreliable narrator who talks about being stuck in an alternate reality. Claims that Loob can set things straight. The reality he is living in, is a run-down town in economic crisis. Not to my taste. 1. I really hate unreliable narrators. 2. talking about the run-down town bored me to death. I look forward to someone else's review because I didn't really give the story much of a chance.

~ Unlawful Possession - 3* - I liked it well enough but I wouldn’t say it was time well spent. A very old witch is looking for a new home because it’s becoming noticeable that she isn’t aging. She forced a man to sell his house against his wishes. Come to find out he didn’t want to sell because he has a secret in his basement. // Interesting cast of characters but their motivations aren’t really clear and made me feel like boxes were being ticked vs a full story being told.

~ Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming (Goster County) 4* This story is the first time I came across by him in Shadows 10 I'll need to read it again but from what I remember a man was in love with his house. Like the spirit of the house.

~ Instructions - 4* read twice - Short story re-read, still 4*
Thank-fully I forgot the very end so once I got to it this time around, I was taken by surprise. I love those ironic endings. It's a fun, quick read. Humans and other races are pawns in an alien chess game. They have to get through portals as instructed. Many lives are lost in their game. the ironic ending is he/she went through all these portals, at times losing body parts and at constant peril. He was the first human to make it. Now he is free since he completed the instructions but he has to find his way back on his own back through the portals with no instructions with the same perils. I read in Best Science Fiction of the Year 14 but may be available online.

~ Feesters in the Lake (1980) novelette -3* - Read it in Fantasy Annual 4. Some members of a family transform into monsters. They live in the lake and iirc the MC is a type of caregiver of the home on the lake. I didn't take good notes.
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Bob Leman only wrote 15 stories over 3 decades. Born May 22, 1922, Died Aug 8, 2006 of heart failure.… (mehr)

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Corinne2020 | Nov 21, 2020 |

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