This story by Isaac Asimov remains relevant today as technology plays an increasing role in controlling everything from military applications to crucial infrastructure. An inter-planetary war has been won, Earth is safe, and three men bask in the glory. Ironically, it wasn’t won by a machine or any of the three ‘experts’. It was won either by chance or because of problems experienced by the enemy. Pointedly, no thought is given to the rights and wrongs of the war, or the suffering on both sides. Themes include war, hubris, the fallibility of machine and human decision-making, chance. More…
Secret Worship
In this story by Algernon Blackwood, a man makes a spur of the moment decision to visit his old boarding school in a remote German village. Although life and discipline inside the fortress-like school operated by a devout Protestant brotherhood was strict, he recalls his time there fondly. When he arrives, everything appears unchanged and he is welcomed with open arms. However, leaving is not so easy… the not-so-devout brotherhood was a cover for a satanic cult which now has eyes on his soul! Themes include nostalgia, isolation, appearances vs. reality, satanism, human sacrifice, chance, the supernatural. More…
Titanic Survivors Found in Bermuda Triangle
Robert Olen Butler’s Titanic survivor is an early 1900s women’s suffrage campaigner. After “waking up” in a lifeboat off the Miami coast in the 1990s, she realizes there is no place for her in the modern world. Women have been emancipated, and her family and friends are all dead. The only man she has ever had strong feelings for (other than her father) went down with the ship. Having lacked the courage to express her feelings at the time, she decides to find him again. Themes: change, father-daughter relationships, women’s rights, finding purpose and meaning in life, sexuality, misandry, love. More…
Slowly, Slowly in the Wind
In this story by Patricia Highsmith, doctors warn “Skip” Skipperton, a notoriously bad-tempered business executive, to slow down or risk early death. His answer is to buy Coldstream Heights, a small but comfortable farm. Skip’s only problem is that the titular “stream” is a few meters inside a neighbor’s property, which the owner won’t sell or lease at any price. Not used to being refused, Skip is enraged. When his beloved daughter elopes with the neighbor’s son, he kills the old man. Unfortunately for Skip, the murder is exposed by a children’s Halloween prank. Themes: anger, narcissism, pride, revenge, justice. More…
Life in the Iron-Mills
Set in the 1830s, this story by Rebecca Harding Davis highlights the desperate plight of mill and factory workers during the early stages of the industrial revolution. A young furnace attendant, ostracised by other iron-mill workers because of his mild manner and artistic leaning, lives in squalid conditions with his father and a mildly disfigured female cousin. The cousin, whose love for the man is not reciprocated, destroys both of their lives by stealing money to try to help him. Themes include social inequality, exploitation, poverty, artistry, lack of opportunity, unrequited love, crime and punishment, despair, redemption. More…