Norton Creek Press, October 2016. 12 pages. Suggested retail price, Kindle: $0.99.
ONCE UPON A TIME there was a lad named Jack. Jack lived with his mother on Sinclair. They were very poor, for Jack’s father had been killed in a Morversarn raid. His mother had to work very hard to keep them both fed.
One day his mother said, “Jack, I want you to take your father’s space suit to the market and sell it, or we will have no money to buy food.”
“But Mother,” said Jack, “if I sell Father’s space suit, what will I wear when I’m old enough to join the High Militia? How will I become a citizen?”
“If you don’t sell the suit we will starve,” she replied, “and then you’ll never join the High Militia either.”
So Jack bundled up the space suit and walked to the market, where goods from many worlds were bought and sold. There were fish from Myckhaven, brandy from Barigost, machines from Goa, fierce Great Belt mercenaries ready for hire, even (if you knew where to ask, and were very rich) Terran aphrodisiacs and maps to fabled Grenaduve.… Read more ...
by Percy Keese Fitzhugh. Edited by Karen L. Black.
The Tom Slade series inroduces a forgotten gem of American fiction, the Bridgboro Boy Scout novels by Percy Keese Fitzhugh. Introduced in 1915 when the Boy Scout movement was new, the books glow with the freshness of the movement and the optimism of an age when everything seemed possible. In addition to Tom Slade, the series and introduces a number of beloved characters, including Pee-wee Harris, Roy Blakeley, and Westy Martin, each of whom later goes on to have his own series of books.
Keese’s main characters are based on real people, giving the books an authenticity unusual in juvenile fiction (or any fiction). The self-reliant boys are reminiscent of the heroes in Robert A. Heinlein’s early fiction (not surprising because both authors’ work was serialized in “Boys Life”).
Because the Tom Slade books are nearly 100 years old, some parts of them can be hard for today’s readers to understand, due to shifting cultural references and the heavy use of dialect common at the time.… Read more ...
by Percy Keese Fitzhugh. Edited by Karen L. Black.
The Tom Slade series inroduces a forgotten gem of American fiction, the Bridgboro Boy Scout novels by Percy Keese Fitzhugh. Introduced in 1915 when the Boy Scout movement was new, the books glow with the freshness of the movement and the optimism of an age when everything seemed possible. In addition to Tom Slade, the series and introduces a number of beloved characters, including Pee-wee Harris, Roy Blakeley, and Westy Martin, each of whom later goes on to have his own series of books.
Keese’s main characters are based on real people, giving the books an authenticity unusual in juvenile fiction (or any fiction). The self-reliant boys are reminiscent of the heroes in Robert A. Heinlein’s early fiction (not surprising because both authors’ work was serialized in “Boys Life”).
Because the Tom Slade books are nearly 100 years old, some parts of them can be hard for today’s readers to understand, due to shifting cultural references and the heavy use of dialect common at the time.… Read more ...
