T.K. Wade -- Author

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

Paul's Case [Short Story Review]

[I spoil the main beats of this story.]

"Paul's Case" is a short story written by Willa Cather. it was published in 1905.

This, put simply, is a very good story about a boy named Paul who was having an extremely hard time fitting into the world. There was nothing particular wrong with his family and friends. His father was not perfect, but he had enough money to keep him afloat. But for some reason, Paul just detested everything about his life and wanted to get away.

What is interesting about Paul is that he seems to admire the classier style of living. He adores wearing fancy suites and going to the opera. Things like that. He even got a job as an usher at Carnegie Hall just to be around those sorts of people, and he was completely satisfied with that. His father, however, ripped him away from that to force him into more of a lucrative occupation.

This ultimately leads to Paul stealing money from the new business and running off to New York to live a life as he wishes to live. It works... for a little while. What is interesting is that he doesn't get into trouble. His father pays off the business and comes looking for him. Weirdly, Paul seems to have rather preferred jailtime than going back to live with his father, so he runs away again with what little money he has left.

Paul is given the opportunity to shoot himself, but he decides that it was not the way to deal with this. However, while in a complete stupor after waking up, he jumps in front of a train as if it was the most natural thing in the world. It kind of suggested that he might not have done it if he had been more awake. Like... being so groggy allowed the temptation to fully manifest like in a dream, and he left this world right then and there.

I do recommend this story, [redacted for Blogger.].

Either way, there is nothing wrong with this story, and it was good enough to end up a movie in, I think, 1980. Might have to check that one out sometime.

This blog was written on August 3, 2026.

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Monday, August 24, 2026

The Wizard of Mars [Movie Review]

[I spoil most of the movie.]

"The Wizard of Mars" also known as "Horrors of the Red Planet" is a science fiction movie released in 1965. As the title may or may not suggest, it is a science fiction adaptation of L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz." This is also the only reason I saw it and am now reviewing it.

I kind of want to keep this brief since, and I will be entirely honest right at the beginning, I did not really enjoy this movie. This is, by all accounts, just barely an Oz movie. It is mostly a survival movie set on Mars. The Oz stuff did not come in until the 40-minute mark, and it was an extremely loose interpretation.

There are four in the stranded crew. The one female is named Dorothy. At the 40-minute mark of the film, they find a brick road that is in ruins. They refer to it as a "golden road," which had me rolling my eyes. The road leads to a ruined building which is not green. In fact, I do not think there was one green object in the entire movie.

From there, it gets really difficult to explain. A lot of the writing that happens towards the final part of the film is remarkably pretentious. It involves an alien race that evolved past their physical forms, yada yada yada. There was a floating head though played by John Carradine. This got me excited until he just wouldn't shut up about the plot of the film. It was a very long lore dump.

Ultimately, this led to the crew trying to restart a giant clock which made everything disappear. The wind up back in their ship only to find out that only two minutes have passed. But it wasn't two minutes. It was about an hour and seventeen minutes and nothing barely happening.

I do not recommend this film. I feel that the idea of setting Oz on Mars and having astronauts find it is a great idea... but do not do it like this. This is bad.

This blog was written on August 1, 2026.

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Wednesday, August 19, 2026

The Open Boat [Short Story Review]

[I spoil the main points of the story but leave out a lot of the details.]

"The Open Boat: A Tale Intended to Be after the Fact, Being the Experience of Four Men from the Sunk Steamer Commodore" is a short story written by Stephen Crane. It was published in 1897.

The plot of this story is very easy to summarize. Four men are in a lifeboat after their ship sinks in a storm. The captain is injured, and so it is up to an oiler, a cook, and a correspondent to get them to land. Land is actually not far away, but nobody seems to be there to guide the boat to shore safely. The story involves how they achingly keep the boat just outside of view of the shore, wondering if they will have to drown out there, despite actually seeing land. Eventually, they just decide to make a rush for it and just barely make it there alive. One person does show up and does everything he can to save the four men.

What I did not tell you in this summary is what makes the story worth reading. The author goes heavily into what it was like physically and mentally to suffer this fairly short stint of survival. It is wonderfully detailed to the point where you can really empathize with their situations. The author also goes into the concept that no human on this planet really thinks they are going to die. They may say they know it will happen or whatever, but they have no actual concept or true realization of it inside them--possibly some sort of built-in defensive mechanism. It takes a moment like this where you are forced to confront it and possibly accept it for that realization to actually be genuine. This concept was the most philosophically interesting bit I got from the story.

A weird thing happened with this one. It got more interesting after I was finished reading it. Despite the story being written in the third person, it is actually a true story. The correspondent was the actual author. Stephen Crane was in that boat! It kind of makes sense. He writes what the correspondent was thinking, but only shows outward observations of the others. The great thing is that this really could have passed as fiction, and I would have never been the wiser.

I absolutely recommend this story. It is a great survival story, the some of the philosophical aspects about life and death are also really interesting too. Kind of an eye-opener.

This blog was written on July 28, 2026.

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Monday, August 17, 2026

The Yellow Wallpaper [Short Story Review]

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It was published in 1892. Apparently this story is fairly well-known. It has gained a bit of popularity lately because of all the "Backrooms" stuff. I had not heard of it, but I feel like I might have seen a movie or something about it at one point.

The story here is that the female narrator temporarily moves into a house. She is given a room with some dreadful yellow wallpaper that she completely obsesses over. A good portion of her writing is about this wallpaper and what's wrong with it. As the story proceeds, it slowly becomes clear that this house may actually be haunted, and the ghost has set its target on the narrator.

The interesting thing about this narrative is that she seems to be making it as the event is taking place. This is incredibly immersive. As she gets oppressed by what very well may be a demon, she is writing it all down while under that influence. So you do not just see what happens, you experience it psychologically through her.

This is a very good horror story, and I did not want to entirely spoil it. I recommend that you find a copy of this. As old as it is, it is easy to see its influence on a lot of things that came later such as "Silent Hill." Good stuff!

This blog was written on July 23, 2026.

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Wednesday, August 12, 2026

The Cube [Movie Review]

"The Cube" is a movie written and directed by Jim Henson. It was was released as a part of a television anthology series called NBC Experiment in Television. It could mostly be classified as a psychological horror.

It is debatable whether or not this should be called a movie, since it is technically considered an episode of a show. The issue is that it doesn't really feel like a TV show. It comes across more like a film, where the show was the vehicle for its presentation. But you can decide for yourself.

Despite this being a Jim Henson project, there are no puppets here. There is only a set and actors portraying roles on that set. It's also a serious movie for adults, which sometimes comes across as a comedy, but more often seems to be some sort of psychological horror. The thing that is happening is not good no matter how much comedy gets injected into it.

The story is about a man who has lost his memory. He wakes up in a cubical room. He has no idea why he is there. At first, he is alone, but people randomly come through the walls from time to time to mess with him. Some say he can just leave whenever he wants, and others tell him that he is trapped there until he dies. The man spends the entire film trying to figure out the rules of the cube... or even if there are any rules.

Much of his encounters at the beginning of the film are incredibly silly. They even reflect a lot of the humor we've seen in the Muppet movies later in his career. At this point, the man is just confused and not taking much of it very seriously. As the movie continues, these comical moments only serve to depress him as he realizes how trapped he really is. It becomes scary, because a lot of it makes so little sense. He struggles to figure out if this is someone else's doing or if he is doing it to himself.

Other than that last paragraph, I don't want to say anymore. I know it seems silly not to spoil such an old movie, but honestly... I don't think many people have seen it today. It's kind of a hidden gem. I really enjoyed it, and I certainly recommend it to today's audience.

Hard to believe, but there was a horror movie called "Cube" made much later that... MAY have borrowed an idea or two from this old film by Jim Henson. There are some symmetries that are hard to deny. One might also be left thinking of other films made later such as "The Matrix" and "Backrooms." Yep, this old 1969 movie actually messed with me pretty hard. It's good stuff, and I just want people to know about it so they can go see it.

If you are interested, there is a black and white and also a color version available on YouTube. Both versions are decent quality. Take an hour out of your life and go watch a Jim Henson horror movie!

This blog was written on July 20, 2026.

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Monday, August 10, 2026

The Winnowing Way [Book Review]

"The Winnowing Way" is a book written by Donald White, my friend. It was published in 2026, fairly recent to this review too. It is perhaps a little short to be called a book, but it is a book, albeit one that was exclusively released to Kindle.

This book is actually a musical. The characters will often break out into song as if it was the natural thing to do in that universe. Of course, this comes across as mere poetry to the reader, however, Donald White gives you links to a YouTube video of him actually singing it. This is, of course, optional, but it is great that it's there.

But what is the story?!

Well, the story follows a man named Klaus who wants to fly in an era where there is very little technology. Nobody has ever flown before, and he sort of takes up the idea as an obsession. He has friends and detractors. There is an out right rival of Klaus who acts as a pessimist for Klaus to push against.

This story also has a romantic element. Klaus is in love with a woman named Heidi, and this is especially good for a musical. It adds that extra touch to make sure all the bases are covered.

Now, I don't really like over-spoiling brand new books, so I won't go much further into it. Just know that this story does follow the formula of a musical from, perhaps, the 50's or 60's. It's pretty solid, and I really enjoyed reading it. If you do not hear Donald sing the music, it works perfectly well as just poetry.

I do recommend this book, and it is not at all expensive. Give this one a try. It is very unique. I know of no other story written this way. Very novel.

This blog was written on July 19, 2026.

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Wednesday, August 5, 2026

The Lady with the Dog [Short Story Review]

[I spoil this story.]

"The Lady with the Dog" is a short story written by Anton Chekhov. It was published in 1899.

I can summarize this story in bullet points:

- A married man living in Russia sees a woman with a dog and is very attracted to her.

- He approaches her and learns that she is also married.

-They have an affair, but she soon regrets it and leaves to go back to her husband.

-Despite having had affairs before, the man becomes more and more infatuated with this woman to the point where he can think of nothing else.

-He secretly travels to her city and confronts her, causing her a shock... however she agrees to come see him if he will leave her alone.

-They renew their affair in secret, but they soon realize that they are actually in love for the first time in their lives.

-They come to the point where they do not know what to do next... and then the story ends.

That's it. Kind of a slice of life story about cheating. The fact that neither one of them had ever fallen in love for real before meeting each other seems to be the whole point. Basically, even though they both got married, they were never actually in love. They merely married because they felt they had to, or they settles, or something else.

That said, however, the story feels unfinished. I really would have liked to see what would become of them, for better or worse. It was like the author was just trying to make a point about how we do not always marry out of love. He may have possibly been trying to show a scenario where cheating might be warranted, but I'm not buying it. At the end of the day, I am asking the question: What was the point of this story?

I read this one so you wouldn't have to. I do not recommend it.

This blog was written on July 14, 2026.

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Monday, August 3, 2026

The Virtues in Cheating [An Essay]

[This blog dives a bit into philosophy. If that sort of thing bugs you then I would just skip this one over.]

I have recently been playing the video game "The Talos Principle: Reawakened," which is the remaster of the original game. I did not really have any plans to review it or anything, but I realized something kind of strange as I was playing through it: I was cheating a whole lot.

"The Talos Principle" is a puzzle-based video game from way back in 2014. It has an outright atheistic message about turning away from God and faith and entirely embracing the universe as a random occurrence. It does not hide this fact, and it even pushes it even heavier in the sequel. Despite my disagreements with the message that they trying to tell, I have always applauded the presentation and puzzle designs of the game. I will probably play every new version of the series that they make.

But I am not here to discuss the message of the game.

The puzzles in "The Talos Principle" all happen within an open world structure. That is to say that multiple puzzles can be found integrated into one map. Some of the tools that are used to solve these puzzles come in the form of a jammer device that can disable certain things like force fields and certain enemies, crystal platforms that can redirect light beams, and weighted cubes such as what one might find in a "Portal" game. And where these items are all intended to be used in their respective puzzle area, their ability to "do what they do" has infinite range.

What I am saying is... although you cannot take these items out of their respective puzzle area, they can still affect the environment of another puzzle if you can perhaps get a good angle on it. Yes, I know this all sounds confusing, but let me give you an example.

Since multiple puzzles take place on one map, you can sometimes see aspects of another puzzle from inside the one you are in. And if you happen to have a jamming device on you, you can sometimes aim it over at the other puzzle and disable something from there. The other puzzle might not even have a jammer as one of its intended tools. In one case, doing this actually unlocked the ending of the puzzle out right, making it unnecessary to even complete the puzzle as intended. It felt as if I had broken that part of the game. Sometimes, it feels like this may have been an intended alternate solution, but in the latter example, I got the feeling like I had done something illegal.

The reason it felt illegal was that, in order to get the angle needed to jam that force field, I had to get the positioning down to the pixel. It was really hard to do with a controller, and I just kept at it until I found the precise spot and then activated the jammer. I ran over and found that the force field blocking the sigil (the things you are trying to collect in the game) had been entirely removed, and I just strolled in and grabbed it for free. I never solved that puzzle correctly, and the game just let me do it.

There are other times where I have been able to "jailbreak" puzzle tools out of the puzzle area entirely. Sometimes this is entirely intended. You have to do this to get to certain secrets. There have been a few times I have made attempts to do this even when I felt that the game did not really want me to do it. At times, I have even been able to jump out of a puzzle the wrong way, ending me up in an area that I am not supposed to be with no way out of it. Other times, I used it to get to a secret area the wrong way. Once again, the game let me do it, oblivious that I had done anything wrong. It just worked.

From a philosophical point-of-view, this got me thinking. Was I cheating? And if I was cheating... was I really doing anything wrong? I still got the sigils, and I still found those secrets. And honestly, I made some of those areas a little bit easier by doing it this way. In fact, I can barely play this game anymore without at least trying to see if I can find new exploits.

Historically, we tend to frown and shake our heads at the idea of cheating, especially where games are concerned. If someone cheats in a competitive sport, we point our fingers and accuse them of misdeeds. But what about puzzles? If you gave me a maze where I had to start at one opening and then make my way to the exit, what is to stop me from just drawing a line around the outside of the maze to where the exit point is? Is doing so wrong? Did I really fail? Do I deserve rebuke for not adhering to the guidelines? After all, a simple solution for the maze-maker would be to close in the starting and exit areas, right? Then I would have no choice. Right?

I look back on human society, and I feel like all the smart people of the world were just glorified puzzle-solvers. They had a rough idea about how the world worked, and they would try and work within its boundaries to come up with solutions to problems. The result would often be an invention of some sort. These inventions were usually rather big and complicated... but they worked. They followed the rules of the universe perfectly, producing a result.

Over time, those same smart people tried to make these inventions smaller and more efficient, but in order to do that, they would have to find ways to work around the structure that had already been invented. They would have to cheat at the rules a little in order to do that, and later on they would have to cheat again to push it even further. There's no point in resolving a maze if you can just draw around it.. or possibly even right through it.

It was here that I began to wonder if the whole of human progress was just a bunch of cheating. It was people tired of solving the puzzle the same way, and so they looked for a way to skip over it entirely. Like the maps in "The Talos Principle," we tend to live in a world with an open structure. Everything is out there and usable. We just need to figure out the ways to connect them. Progress might just be based on cheating.

Here is another example, pertaining to war. One of the problems of war is that everyone is trying to find a way to best the opposing side. Since war tends to be more of an open structure puzzle, people are constantly looking for ways to cheat in order to win. This often comes in the form of new weapons and technology to turn the tide. The advantage never comes to the side who is trying to play fair; it comes to the side that is trying to cheat. And there are a few examples of situations where one side was trying to play fair with the expectation that the other side would do likewise. Never a good idea in war.

In science and technology, sticking only with a system that works and never trying to improve it would not seem very advantageous for progress. At some point, we have got to find a way to cheat the system in order to find a better one. Once we find that better system, making it the new standard, we won't really need to go back to the old one since it has been entirely circumvented.

But still... the idea of cheating is incredibly frowned upon. Someone might look at me after reading this and feel distrustful of me. Am I a cheater? Can I be trusted to play games with you now that I have proposed this strange philosophy? Of course, you can! I'm not advocating cheating in games. What I am advocating is that people keep an open mind as to what they can and cannot do in this world. Sometimes the rules are assumed, but they are not actually real. You may not be as bound to them as you think.

In your own life, if you happen to be dealing with some sort of puzzle or problem, question whether or not there is a way to draw around the maze rather than solving it correctly. You might not be able to. It might be something you legitimately have to solve as intended. But if there is a way to go around it, you might find that there is a bigger, more ultimate, puzzle that was staring at you all along, and then you can get working on that one. The point is, try not to get stuck on something that can be easily side-stepped.

One last thing: This is not about morals. That is a separate conversation. I expect people to be moral and not to be selfish and hurt other people. This essay is more about trying to find more efficient ways of doing things. If skipping over a puzzle means that you don't learn anything then nothing was really accomplished. I am more talking about when a puzzle has already been solved over and over, it doesn't hurt to find a way to cheat past it in the name of self-improvement. If you can do that, then there may actually be some virtues in cheating after all.

This blog was written on July 12, 2026.

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Wednesday, July 29, 2026

The Story of an Hour [Short Story Review]

[I spoil the main points of this story.]

"The Story of an Hour" is a short story written by Kate Chopin. It was published in 1894. It also went by the title "The Dream of an Hour," which I feel is a bit more appropriate, but that isn't what lasted.

So... I do this thing once a year where I get together with my friends right around Halloween. Each of us write appropriately themed stories and read them to each other. "The Story of an Hour" would have fit right into these tales.

The story is about a woman who has some heart trouble. Her friends and family discover that a train which her husband was on has crashed, and his name was mentioned in the list of "killed." They very carefully break the bad news to her, and she is overwrought with sadness.

But as the hour goes forth, she begins to think of her life before he has died and what it will be like without him. She begins to obsess over freedom and living for herself. It isn't that she didn't love her husband, but, in a short time, she embraces her new life and even loves it. This is actually pretty incredible, because I actually first thought she was going to commit suicide or something, but no. She absolutely embraces her destiny as a single woman.

After leaving her room a fully free woman, everyone is shocked to see her husband coming through the front door. He had never been on the train, and he did not even know that it had crashed. Here the woman screams and immediately dies of a heart attack. The doctors say it was heart disease, but the author slips in something additional. She died "of joy that kills."

Not bad. It's one of those Halloween type stories that end in a sort of punchline. I would have enjoyed hearing this one at our little gettogether, and I do, of course, recommend it.

This blog was written on July 9, 2026.

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Monday, July 27, 2026

The Necklace [Short Story Review]

[I spoil the main points of this story.]

"The Necklace" is a short story written by Guy de Maupassant. It was published in 1884. I have never heard of this guy. He's apparently a prolific French author.

This is a story about a woman named Madame Mathilde who is not satisfied with her life. She actually has a decent life with a decent husband. They are not poor, but they are also not extremely wealthy either. She is constantly fretting over how wealthy all of her acquaintances and friends are.

Her husband, who honestly barely deserves her, goes through a lot of trouble to get them invited to a fancy party, but she can't imagine going to it without a new dress. Her husband gives her a lot of money that he had been saving so she could get a new dress, but then she is still unsatisfied because she doesn't have any jewels to go with it.

Sooooo... The husband advises her to go borrow something from one of her rich friends. She does this and immediately locks on to a diamond necklace. This necklace provides the woman one hell of a good night at that party, but when she leaves, the necklace is somehow lost and cannot be found.

In order to save face, the couple goes into crippling debt to replace it with one that looks similar, although they do not tell the friend that it is a different necklace. Meanwhile, their lives are horrible. They are living like peasants now, and Madame Mathilde is working hard and soon looks like an old woman.

Now, later on, she decides to just confess to her friend what happened. Her friend is shocked but then explains that the necklace she had lent her was actually a fake and barely worth anything at all. She just liked how it looks.

And that is the punchline.

And sometimes stories like these end up with a real kicker of an ending, and in this case it works. Madame Mathilde's covetous nature ultimately led to her downfall. It is also important to note that she found value in beauty where there was very little actual worth to it. It shows that perception is not reality. We can think what we want, but reality is what it is. She really should have just been content with the actually good life she had... as well as one of the best husbands ever.

I totally recommend this story. It is a good cautionary tale. It is sad to think that there have been a lot of people like Madame Mathilde in the world since the beginning of time. And yes, I know I keep saying that the husband is great, but I do think he should have put his foot down a bit more. His desire to please her serves to show that she did not really take his love as seriously as she should have. She really just wanted the diamonds.

This blog was written on July 8, 2026.

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Wednesday, July 22, 2026

Bartleby, the Scrivener [Short Story Review]

"Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" is a short story written by Herman Melville. It was published in 1856.

This is the first story written by Melville that I have read in a very long time. The last one I read was called "Clarel," and I freaking hated it. It actually made me want to stop reading his stuff. I am pleased, however, that this one ended up being pretty good.

The story here is in first person, and the narrator is unnamed. That said, he is very important to the story, and I kind of realized about midway into the story that I really ought to be paying very close attention to everything he says and does. The titular character, that being Bartleby, is still very important, but not quite as much as the narrator.

The narrator is a scrivener, which means he duplicates legal documents by hand. He brings on other employees to help him with this, since a lot of documents have to be worked on with limited time. Bartleby was one of these scriveners, and he causes the main problems in this story that our narrator has to deal with.

Bartleby only wants to do his scrivening work and nothing else. If you ask him to do anything else, he will either be silent or reply with, "I prefer not to." This simple behavior gets taken to the extremes as the story progresses, and the narrator cannot figure out why.

At some point, Bartleby decides that he cannot do the scrivening anymore, but he refuses to vacate the building and is just sort of living there. If you ask him to leave, he just says that he prefers not to, and there is nothing you can do. Seriously... nothing.

Now, regardless of why Bartleby is acting this way, the real story lies in how the narrator deals with it. While reading this story, you will come to understand the entire functioning system of ego and pride in action. The good and bad within the narrator will be shown to the reader at the surface level as he tries to work out how to deal with Bartleby's strange behavior.

That is the story! Indeed, you will and should be wondering what is wrong with Bartleby, and the author does bother to explain it right at the very end. But the actual story is the psychological breakdown of the narrator, and it is fascinating.

This story is a really eye-opening breakdown about how the human mind operates when pushed against by uncomfortable situations. It is a story about psychology, but not really about anything supernatural. I admit that there is always the possibility of a supernatural conclusion in a story, but it isn't always necessary or wanted. No, this story keeps everything grounded in observable reality, and I think it is better for it. It makes everything feel like it could have happened the way it was presented.

I absolutely recommend this story. It is one of the man's best tales. Heck, I enjoyed it more than "Moby Dick," although that might be apples to oranges in this case. Still, I think if you are going to go through Melville's work, you should not skip over this one.

This blog was written on July 7, 2026.

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Monday, July 20, 2026

Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery [Book Review]

"Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery" is a children's book written by James and Deborah Howe. It was published in 1978.

For the longest time, people have been trying to get me to read "Bunnicula." I have sort of been rolling my eyes at the idea of a bunny vampire who sucks the juices out of vegetables, because that's what the story is about. There's no way to get around it. Honestly, it sounded really silly, and it kind of is. It also kind of works.

The story is told by the family dog Harold, which is secretly as smart as any human. He reads books and apparently write them too. He is friends with an equally smart cat named Chester. Together, they are investigating the possibility that the family's new pet rabbit is a vampire. This may actually be true, and the more you read it, the more you tend to believe it.

What is great about this book is that the authors really go out of their way to convince you about the bunny's supernatural condition... and also the fact that it might not be a particularly bad thing if all he is doing is sucking vegetables dry. It all leads up to a really interesting but still very silly mystery.

Harold and Chester are also very believable as a dog and a cat as well. Despite the fact that they are very intelligent, they still represent the well-known characteristics of their respective species. Chester's obsession with Bunnicula's alleged vampirism is hilarious, but it also leans very heavily into a dangerous territory. The real question the book offers is: "Is a vampire bunny really all that bad?" Harold seems to bring this up as a counterpoint.

Without spoiling anything else about this delightful story, I do want to say that this is a really good early age story for children. It does nothing to patronize them, and it tells a story that is very friendly while still having some shocking aspects to it. It would also be a good story for a parent to read a child. I liked it, and I do recommend it.

This blog was written on July 1, 2026.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Young Goodman Brown [Short Story Review]

"Young Goodman Brown" is a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was first published in 1835.

For a story so old, this really does come across as a dreamlike surreal horror. It also sometimes feels like some sort of Christian allegory, especially when you take note of the titular character, a man named Goodman.

Goodman goes on a surreal journey through the woods as he learns that all the good upstanding men and women of his town seem to be secretly serving the devil. They are playing the part of good Christians in the open, but they are living in sin in reality. The interesting thing about this story is that Goodman is being seriously tempted to join in on this tradition.

As Goodman travels through the forest, he runs into a strange man who very likely is Satan or some sort of emissary for Satan. He also runs into people he has always known who are not acting the way they should. It is a surreal mess to be in, and the author does a good job introducing the reader to this strange landscape of imagery and people.

There is also a hag that shows up to bring everyone together. It's really quite surreal and horrific to see everyone you've known and love somehow involved with witches and demons as if it was entirely normal.

I don't want to say more than this. It is a good story that will give you a lot to think about, but it was really cool to see a story with such strange and magical imagery from that era. I do recommend it.

This blog was written on June 28, 2026.

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Monday, July 13, 2026

Son of Flubber [Book Review]

"Son of Flubber" is a book written by Robert Fuller. It was published in 1963 and is the novelization of the Disney movie of the same name from 1962. Honestly, it is kind of strange that the book came out a year later. That is not a common thing.

This book is the sequel to "The Absent-Minded Professor." It continues the story of the physics-breaking flubber, a substance that creates its own energy and completely defies entropy. Imagine making a bomb with this stuff! It would eventually consume the entire universe in flames! Well, that is actually almost an issue in the book, since Professor Brainard is actually trying to sell flubber to the US government. The very idea of this makes me super nervous, but the whole thing is a comedy and I should just relax.

The reason the professor is trying to sell flubber is to make money to save his financially struggling university before it falls into the hands of power-hungry insurance man Alonzo Hawk. Hawk is actually a Disney villain that has been used in multiple franchises, most notably in the Herbie movies. Come to think of it, I would not mind reading some of those books too (if they exist).

Instead of the whole bouncing rubber gag from the first story, the professor focuses turning the crazy material into both a gas and exploring its radioactive qualities. Seriously, the more I hear about this stuff, it scares me. He actually had already used it as a gas in the first book. It's how he made his Model T fly. That made sense. If you have an element that makes its own energy then you would not need much of it to lift things of any weight off of the ground. In the case of this story, he tries to use the gas to make a football player extremely light on his feet.

As far as radiation, he creates a freaking ray gun out of it. The idea was to energize clouds to force them to rain. It kind of worked, but it also broke anything made of glass all over the city. Very exciting and about as shocking as it can get.

On top of all this, there is this whole side-plot about this old girlfriend of Brainard that's trying to steal him from his wife. It gets more heated than you might think from an old story like this. It made me pretty uncomfortable.

One thing I do not like about the book (which was not a problem in the film) is that the author chose to use the first-person perspective of Biff Hawk, who was Alonzo Hawk's son. The problem is that he is not actually in all the scenes of the movie. This means the author has to constantly explain how Biff finds out about all the things that happens. This comes down to peeking into people's windows, following behind in a car chase, and even yanking a courtroom transcript. Of all the crazy things that happened in the book, I found Biff Hawk's ability to stay on top of the story to be the most unbelievable.

I do recommend this book, but I think perhaps the movie tells it a little better. I have always enjoyed the original flubber stories. They are a good way to just sort of let go of real science and have a little fun. Be happy, though, that flubber does not exist. It would have seriously broken the universe, and we would likely have all perished in some manner because of it.

This blog was written on June 26, 2026.

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Wednesday, July 8, 2026

The Road to Toontown [Book Review]

"The Road to Toontown" is a collection of short stories by Roger Rabbit creator Gary K. Wolf. It was published in 2012. This is the collection I have been reviewing over the last bunch of blogs. The reason I never mentioned the name until now was because it too heavily implied his toon stuff, and I wanted his works to stand on their own. After all, Gary is an accomplished science fiction writer on top of his Roger Rabbit stuff.

Since I have already reviewed Gary's short stories, I'm using this as an opportunity to talk about the author and his style. I hope you don't mind. If I have anything to say about the collection itself, I really just want to criticize him or his publisher for not including the original publication dates for his stories. I have read many other collections that bothered to do this. Knowing when a story is published can assist with understanding the subject matter. Other than that, the book was entirely readable.

Gary K. Wolf is a silly man, and he is better for it. When he has a goofy idea, you can bet he is going to sit down and construct that idea into a story we all can read and enjoy along with him. The original Roger Rabbit story called "Who Censored Roger Rabbit" was really rough around the edges, and honestly kind of a chore to read after seeing the movie. The whole concept of talking through talk bubbles just seems kind of annoying.

The good news is that the movie seemed to open his mind as to what toons could really do. He never quite got rid of the talk bubble thing but left it in as sort of a preferred cartoon accent. I don't mind this as much, and I am happy he enjoyed the movie enough to make a direct sequel to it.

As a science fiction writer, Gary has some genuine talent, especially in the dystopian fiction genre. His stories have decidedly wacky premises, but they work and that's what matters. The closest he came to something more serious was "The Unhardy Boys in Outer Space," and that was still silly in its own way. I think that one will always be my favorite.

All in all, Gary still gave us Roger Rabbit, and I think that, in and of itself, made the world a better place. I enjoyed this collection and totally recommend it. I look forward to reading more of his novels in the future.

This blog was written on June 17, 2026.

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Monday, July 6, 2026

The Warhol of the Worlds [Short Story Review]

[I spoil the main plot and the ending of this story.]

"The Warhol of the Worlds" is a short story/script by Gary K. Wolf. It was published as part of a collection in 2012. (I don't know exactly when the original story was published, but I am willing to bet it was pretty close to the collection itself due to subject matter.)

This story is actually an intended radio script that parodies the original infamous "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast that caused all of the panic. In this version, the aliens come down in a giant tin can and land directly in Toontown, instantly murdering almost every single famous toon rabbit ever conceived. That is to say they all turned into angels and floated up into the sky. They're probably okay.

The script stars "Dan Blather" as he reports on this completely silly alien invasion. There are a lot of silly cartoon noises used to portray quick movement and other silly stuff. There is nothing even remotely serious about it at all. Even the normal people seem to act like cartoon characters.

Roger Rabbit seems to be the only bunny that doesn't get killed. That makes sense since it's Gary's original character. Pretty cheeky to kill off all other bunnies but his own.

I will say, however, that there is a little bit of political jabs made in this one which was not really desired. It made me roll my eyes when I got to it. It also felt kind of shoved into it. It really reflects some of the polarized politics we had around the time the collection was published, which honestly did not go away to this very day.

I did like that the actual Martian invading happened to be none other than Marvin the Martian, although the story sort of ends with it all being a joke... or a dream... or something. I'm not quite sure. Sort of hit me like the ending of "The Mysterious Stranger." There was no real point to any of it but to just make you laugh. And to be fair... it did.

"The Warhol of the Worlds" is a short read, and it is funny or silly enough to recommend. Just keep in mind that it's probably my least favorite of his Toontown stories. It would have gotten a few more points with me if he had stayed out of politics.

This blog was written on June 17, 2026.

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Wednesday, July 1, 2026

Kiss Me Goodbye [Short Story Review]

[I spoil the hell out of this story.]

"Kiss Me Goodbye" is s short story written by Gary K. Wolf. It was published as part of a collection in 2012. (I do not know the original publication date for this one.)

This story is set in Los Angeles in 1937. The main character is a cop/detective named Eddie. Now, I know what you must be thinking. A cop named Eddie, and it was written by Gary K. Wolf? Is his last name Valiant?! Well... no. In fact, his name isn't given at all. It could possibly be an earlier version of him. "Who Frames Roger Rabbit?" was set in 1947, after all. Either way, this information is not given.

Eddie is heading to the justice of the peace to get married to his girl, but when he confronts her he accuses her of stealing a priceless jewel in a mission they were both involved in. Spoiler: she actually did do this, rendering the whole marriage a non-event. Even more shocking is when she pulls a gun on him, and he is forced to defend himself, killing her on the spot. The scene is sad, dark, and brutal.

Now, what I find very interesting about this story is that it feels like the final chapter of a a lengthy noir book... but this is all there is. You do not get anything but the final play. This means everything that comes before it has to be hastily slipped into the narrative and dialog in this one chapter alone. It also has to be done as eloquently as possible, or else the reader might get a little suspicious!

Gary K. Wolf actually does accomplish this... but it still left me scratching my head. Why only write the final scene of a non-existent book? I don't have the answer to why he did it, but I don't think any harm was done. It was a neat idea, and I like that he bothered to try. Sometimes writing can be an experiment. Hell, I got a friend who is trying to write a musical as a narrative book. He's recording the music to be heard elsewhere. That's good, and this short story is cool in its own way. It proves that it might actually be possible to have an entire story... while only writing the final chapter. That's insane.

I really liked "Kiss Me Goodbye" for the experiment that it was, and I do recommend it. I encourage all writers to try a little experimenting once in a while. You might stumble onto a side of yourself you didn't know existed... and from there you may find your options in storytelling have broadened a bit.

This blog was written on June 15, 2026.

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Monday, June 29, 2026

Which Witch is Which? [Short Story Review]

"Which Witch is Which?" is a short story written by Gary K. Wolf. It was published as part of a collection in 2012. (I do not actually know when the original was published, but I can safely say it is somewhere around 1998 to the early 2000s based on subject matter.)

This story reads like an interview article written by Jessica Rabbit. She is interviewing the stars of the hit TV show "Charmed," which I have never watched at all. I barely even remember it. Anyway, Jessica goes on a little adventure with actresses Shannen Maria Doherty, Holly Marie Combs, and Alyssa Jayne Milano.

Calling this an interview is a little inappropriate. It never really adopts a transcript style like in "Here's Lookin' at You, Babs!". It just loosely talks about what it is like to hang around the three actresses as they go to various events.

The charm of the story is how much wit and bite Jessica's writing has. For one, she already has issues with them since she believes she was beaten out of one of those roles to begin with. Even so, she still has the strength to be their temporary girl pal.

Jessica was a little bit understated in the movie compared to this story. She was clearly a bad girl (drawn that way apparently), but her screentime was a bit limited. This story features her front and center and is entirely full of her opinions from beginning to end. There are people who might be interested in this, even without not caring about "Charmed" at all. What I am saying is that I think this world needs more Jessica Rabbit. She's awesome.

The whole thing is entirely fake and silly, and I am not even sure the real actresses even knew this thing was being written. I think Gary, once again, had an insane idea and just wanted to see it happen. If you have seen the show "Charmed" or not, I still recommend this story, especially if you like Jessica Rabbit.

This blog was written on June 12, 2026.

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Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Inspector Timber and the Three Pigs [Short Story Review]

[I spoil the main beats of the story.]

"Inspector Timber and the Three Pigs" is a short story written by Gary K. Wolf. It was published as part of a collection in 2012. (I do not actually know the original publication date of this particular story.)

This was a silly one. If the title doesn't give it away, this is a retelling of "The Three Little Pigs." It has its own weird lore to it. For one, the pigs don't seem to know each other this time around, and they are building very specific things such as a museums, a cathedral, and a fast food chain. The wolf is actually a building inspector who really enjoys his job, especially when he gets to condemn a building for whatever violations he can find.

The story seems to take place in a post-human world, where animals have taken over civilization. It is referred to as a "Fairy Tale" world regardless. But this story does not really progress in the same way as the original. The wolf does not consume the pigs, but instead he tries to get a piece of the action in exchange for letting the pigs continue with their endeavors. Quite a strange way of devouring someone, I guess.

This story is probably intended as satire. I do recommend it. It feels like Gary had a silly idea and just bothered to put it down on paper in his spare time. I liked it.

This blog was written on June 10, 2026.

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Monday, June 22, 2026

Who We Need Here is Mister Tom Edison [Short Story Review]

"Who We Need Here is Mister Ton Edison" is a short science fiction/western story by Gary K. Wolf. It was published as part of a collection in 2012. (Although I do not know when the original story was published, I feel like it must have been somewhere around the early 2000s because of its content.)

This story is kind of a rare breed. Scifi westerns are a bit uncommon, but I have run into a few here and there. The idea here is that a time-traveler from the distant future has come to the old west to trade high tech items to the people in exchange for their absolutely regular everyday items. Although this seems like a disproportional trade, the man intends to take it back to the future and sell them as mint condition antiques. It would actually be a very profitable thing to do.

The problem here is that, in doing this, he is absolutely ruining the past. It's a butterfly effect problem. People are straight-up not being born because of his actions, making him something like a mass murderer.

The main character is a man named Gristle who is not buying into the high-tech stuff and is continuing to live his life the way he was raised. He is confronted by another time-traveler, a beautiful woman, who explains to him that the first time-traveler is ruining the time-line and that he needs to stand up to him. Gristle, being a man who had killed a number of people before, chooses to make the confrontation, seeing him for the mass-murderer that he is. I won't spoil anymore than that though.

A brief explanation of the story's title is needed, I suppose. Gristle once had a good friend named Tom Edison, who really is the famous inventor. In this weird timeline, Edison died in an accident. Part of the story here deals with that, but I won't go into why, as I think this story is worth reading.

I do recommend this story. Although the premise is absurd, the author takes more care than you might think. It draws you in and ultimately comes out surprisingly satisfactory with its conclusion. I enjoyed this one a lot.

This blog was written on June 8, 2026.

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