Larry C Klos

Stories with Twists: an Anthology of Short Stories Larry C Klos 1. izdevums

?Stories with Twists? is an anthology of thirteen fictional short stories each ranging in length from two to fifty pages. Each story has a different topic with varied lead characters including animals, adults, children, guerrillas, and mental health patients. The stories are variously suspenseful, thought provoking, slightly disturbing, and/or amusing. Many have surprise endings, which led to the book?s title. The book is divided into two sections. The first section contains 12 short stories as described above. The second section contains a single, much longer, science fiction novelette. ?The Planet Survey? describes the activities of a group of space aliens surveying distant planets to find a new home for their race. The aliens desperately need to relocate to a new planet because their current home planet, Keplerin, will soon be destroyed by asteroids. In addition to assessing candidate planet gravity, atmosphere, and other physical features, they employ a Thought Consensus Indicator to assess the collective aggressive tendencies of existing intelligent inhabitants of surveyed planets. The survey team arrives at Earth shortly before the Boston Marathon bombing and recommendations from their survey change as a result of the bombing. The story interweaves technology innovations with political considerations in the presence of societal ignorance and propaganda. Broad usage of the Thought Consensus Indicator over multiple generations on Keplerin demonstrated the ability to change world cultures from aggressive to cooperative and could do the same for Earth. Earth has a decision to make about the direction of its future. The capability of Earth?s nations, races, and religions to peacefully coexist hangs in the balance.