Search -
Rambunctious: Nine Tales of Determination
Rambunctious Nine Tales of Determination Author:Rick Wilber Rambunctious: Nine Tales of Determination, a powerful and poignant collection of memorable stories from an award-winning storyteller, is charming, action-packed, frightening, and thoughtful by turn. — In these nine stories of determination, seemingly ordinary people find themselves in extraordinary circumstances as they confront their fears... more » and embrace their challenges on a near-future Earth or an alternate-history past or even on a far distant alien world.
Contents:
Today is Today: a meditation on how one man’s life could pinball through a series of alternate timelines, mostly centering around his career and the existence or non-existence of his Downs-syndrome daughter.
Rambunctious: the whimsical near-future-era biography of a young girl named Emma who lives with her grandparents. Emma possesses many strange abilities, which often cause more trouble than joy, but they all fall into focus the day the alien spaceship lands.
Ice Covers the Hole: Melissa O’Malley possesses the intermittent psychic ability that allows her to vicariously relive the last moments of a corpse. When she uses her power to help a cop track down a murderer, she ends up exposing herself to mortal threats.
Walking to Boston; takes place on two timetracks: the 1940s, when lovely Irish lass Niamh fell in love with American aviator Harry Mack; and the 1980s, when the elderly couple are struggling with Niamh’s Alzheimer’s. But can dementia open up strange dimensions of alternity?
Something Real: an ingenious, cannily researched Moe Berg tale. Follow the sportsman turned spy as he infiltrates Nazi Germany in a quest to stop the Germans from acquiring nuclear weapons. But a mystery woman from out of futurity has her own plans.
Several Items of Interest: Earth has been conquered by the truly weird aliens called the S’hudon. Our hero, Peter, accepts an assignment to their homeworld, thinking he can maintain his integrity. But instead he comes to acknowledge a grim truth. “You think you are a Cronkite and realize you’re a Tokyo Rose”. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Peter’s brother Tommy emerges as head of a rebel movement. How can Peter possibly reconcile his opposing allegiances?
Hope as an Element of Cold, Dark Matter: Annie, a young woman going to visit her estranged father in Scotland, is plagued by the phantom of her best friend who committed suicide in the near past. As Annie works through her emotional life, with a little help from her Dad’s quantum physics, she experiences confusion and unease resolving to wisdom and happiness.
Prices: the aftermath of the protagonist’s father’s death, which happens to be spectral phone calls from Dad in the afterlife at any time of the day or night.
War Bride: limns the fate of a young man named James who happens to be the “pet” of some invading aliens, charting the harsh decisions one must make between sheer survival and loyalty to one’s friends..« less