The Marooner
The Marooner
Free DownloadWordsley and Captain DeCastros crossed half a universe--suffered hardship--faced unknown dangers; and all this for what--a breath of rare perfume?
Book Excerpt
kles and presently fell, with a tinkling sound, upon the surface of Avis Solis. The opening was sealed and welded. Mr. Wordsley was practically finished, but he did not hurry. Instead, he went around to the opposite side of the ship on a pretense of inspection, and sat down where DeCastros could not see him.
For awhile he stared at the many-faceted depths of the crystals; then he leaned over and touched them with his lips. They were smooth and exciting. They cut his lip.
But he had the distinct feeling that there was something wrong with this idyll. It seemed to him that he was being spied upon. He sneaked a furtive glance behind him. DeCastros was still sitting where he had been, with his back to him.
Mr. Wordsley slowly lifted his gaze to the plateau of shimmering glass that was before him. At its rim, a hundred feet above him, a silent figure stood gazing down upon him.
* * * * *
A man even six feet tall might easily have frightened Mr. Wordsley into a nervous breakdown b
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Readers reviews
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I have mixed feelings about this story. Up until the end, it appears to be just a hokey space tale with melodramatic characterizations. But the way it wraps up at the end makes me re-think my first impressions. Although the characters are melodramatic, everything just seems to fit together at the end to support their actions. I'm giving the story the benefit of the doubt.
A forced landing on a derelict planet pits former enemies against each other once more. At the end, the reader is left wondering if justice has been served.
A forced landing on a derelict planet pits former enemies against each other once more. At the end, the reader is left wondering if justice has been served.
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Two eccentric, possibly insane, crewmen make an emergency landing on an implausible planet where the captain had abandoned his brother 17 years before.
I tried to imagine real people doing the things these characters do, and I couldn't. Everything about the story is cockeyed.
I tried to imagine real people doing the things these characters do, and I couldn't. Everything about the story is cockeyed.
05/08/2014
