I’m not sure what the ‘P’ stands for; professional, praiseworthy, pretty damn funny, or maybe all three. I certainly didn’t expect to find such a rich bag of gems for my first review. But Cynical Biped is a wonderful collection of stories from a writer with a real talent for storytelling.
All the stories are unpublished I believe, as there’s no evidence to suggest otherwise (or if there is, I couldn’t find it, due to the dreadful menu system – see below). I chose two stories at random to review.
This is pure, old-school science fiction and it is beautiful. Alien societies, fantastic and unfathomable spaceships, pretzel-like physical laws to delight and entertain.
Jna is the Captain of the ship Starbeam. When a hyperspace storm threatens her ship and passengers, she deploys a C-Anchor to hold it in place and weather the storm. But the nature of time and life in hyperspace means strange things happen on the surface below.
Trk is a scientist, on a mission from his Elders to replace the many instruments around the base of the tether, instruments that warn of the impending horror of Release…
Mr Scott weaves language and imagery with true skill to craft this story of two worlds. I was captivated and enchanted by his creation, and when the story ended I wanted to read more of these worlds. A truly satisfying tale, and a lovely play on words for anyone with a knowledge of boats.
The Day Begins at Midnight and Downsized!
I picked “The Day Begins at Midnight” at random, and loved it so much I immediately went and read the sequel, “Downsized!”. I can’t do a summary of these two without giving away the twists that Mr Scott has included in the tale, so I won’t.
They are entirely different from C-Anchor; modern, New Weird style, told in the first person with good characterisation. I found them to be a little rougher, a little less polished, especially the dialogue, but not so much that I was completely thrown out of the story. I actually laughed aloud in a few places, and smiled through most of the reading.
Mr Scott doesn’t fluff up his prose with unnecessary words, and I appreciate that. I also appreciated the skill involved in drawing the character’s journey around in a circle, realising that he wasn’t just a narrator, leaving subtle clues throughout the story that he had a stake in the outcome as well. Very well done, Mr Scott.
If there’s any snark to be had, it should be pointed directly at Mr Scott’s appalling website design, or lack thereof. Black background, green text; it looks like it was written by someone who just read “Teach Yourself HTML in 24 Hours” and thought it would be cool to design the site to look like an old VAX system. The menu is a nightmare, with titles like “Me”, “They”, “Rants and Reviews” and a very poor index of content, which you had to scroll down to find. Come on, Mr Scott. Your work deserves better.
Addendum: Mr Scott advises that he finds green on black easier to read, and that you can change the settings in your browser if you don’t like it. Hmm. I guess it’s a site to please Mr Scott, not readers. I wonder how many potential readers flee in disgust after their first sighting of this eyesore?
But for the writing, a solid A+.
3 Comments
June 29, 2009 at 1:59 pm
I smell free fiction. I shall have to go and have a taste.
June 29, 2009 at 2:07 pm
I remember the green on black very well! The computer I wrote my first novel on, ahh the memories.
Thanks for the review, definitely makes me want to check his stuff out :-)
July 7, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Hi, Merrilee! Just got word of your post via some automated ego-trawling software. Thank you very much for the kind words – I’m very flattered that you like my fiction so much, and for what seem to me like very cogent reasons.
And about the design… ah, it’s a fair cop, guv. Mostly. I did put it together back in 1996 (when you could learn HTML in a day or so, though as I recall it took me a little longer) and haven’t updated it very much at all, structurally, in the interim.
I should, you’re right. I have received occasional positive comments about the color scheme, for example, but it is a nostalgic choice, out of step with the rest of the web or so it seems.
It’s not totally disorganized, though; there is a ‘breadcrumb’ trail at the very top of every single page (though it doesn’t float), and I have ‘Filters’ which gather selected fiction in several categories (the stories you mention in particular are in fact among my favorites, which I’ve listed in La Crème). But it is totally manual and very idiosyncratic, I’ll admit.
They are all works which have never been professionally published, yes.
Oh, and the ‘P.’ is for Paul, though I think I like your suggestions better.
Thanks!
APS