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The Lanson Screen
The Lanson Screen
A Novelette of Mad Catastrophe.
Book Excerpt
he lines and she trails languid sensuality across the stage to her heart's content. I noticed that she used that trick with the mouth she first developed for my benefit. It was lost on the rabble...
CHAPTER 4
Eleven p.m., Thursday, May ninth, 1937.
Item: June Sims hangs on her husband's arm as they exit from the Audubon Theatre. Her eyes sparkle with happiness. She sighs tremulously. Then: "Johnny. Maybe we'd better call up and see if Junior is all right before we go eat."
Item: Anita Harrison-Smith peers over the shoulder of her black-coated dance partner with narrowed eyes. The florid-faced, heavy man in the alcove they are just passing is her husband. His companion is Rex Cranston, president of the A.P.&C.
Without hearing she knows their talk is of debentures, temporary reactions, resistance points on Cumulative Index graphs. Howard Harrison-Smith has forgotten Anita exists, will remain oblivious of her till s
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3.5
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This appears to be the work of an amateur. The story is difficult to follow - it switches back and forth between different scenes between paragraphs with no warning. The characters are mere stick figures, and there is no real action or intrigue.
A scientist seals off Manhattan with a wonder shield, and the scientist - the only one with the secret to the shield - dies. Then everyone in Manhattan dies. Sixty years later, another scientist figures out the secret to the shield and shuts it off. End of story. Boring.
A scientist seals off Manhattan with a wonder shield, and the scientist - the only one with the secret to the shield - dies. Then everyone in Manhattan dies. Sixty years later, another scientist figures out the secret to the shield and shuts it off. End of story. Boring.
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Professor Lanson is a greedy toad of a genius who has invented an interdimensional dome that repels every weapon the army and air corps has. In fact, nothing can penetrate it. He wants to sell it to the government for the outrageous sum of $1,000,000. It has worked in small tests, and now he proposes to throw up the dome around Manhattan. Things go wrong.
There are some good characters in the story, often minor ones that make you wonder how they'll tie in.
A pretty good story from an author who usually turned out space operas.
There are some good characters in the story, often minor ones that make you wonder how they'll tie in.
A pretty good story from an author who usually turned out space operas.
03/15/2014
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