I’ve finally gotten a break in my road travel schedule (good for my health, but bad for my career prospects, since my driving is to job interviews these days), so I’m giving the audiobooks a rest and doing some good old-fashioned reading with my eyeballs. Well, not all that old-fashioned, since I’m using a kindle.
Green-Eyed Monster by JD Brink was my most recent read. It’s a collection of stories that vary in length and genre, but are of consistent high quality. I wouldn’t give any of them less than four stars, and I’d give more of them fives than fours. Not a single story in the collection bored me or made me want to skip ahead. That’s rare for me, especially considering the anthology has thirteen stories.
Short Stories
Green-Eyed Monster. A man is shrunk down to microscopic size to perform a medical procedure on his boss, like in Fantastic Voyage (possibly the first sci-fi film I ever watched). In Green-Eyed Monster, however, the shrunken man suspects his boss has been sleeping with his wife, so he has his own agenda.
The Thorne Legacy. I have previously reviewed this story.
Tuesday Afternoon Mayhem. This is the first few chapters of the novel Deus ex Machina, part of a superhero series that begins with Masks. Although it’s an excerpt, it tells a complete story and doesn’t require any previous knowledge. I’m normally not a fan of superheroes, but I may have to start reading this series.
Moondance. Werewolf private eye versus leprechaun.
The Dragon’s Tongue. I think this is part of the fantasy novel Tarnish, which has some interludes where characters tell stories to other characters. This is one of the stories. The character telling a story within a story somehow gives it a fairy tale feel, but it’s still good sword and sorcery.
The Lion’s Share. This was in an issue of Cirsova. OK, I didn’t post too many details when I was writing that post, so I guess you’ll need to pick up this anthology or the Cirsova issue and check out the space pirates for yourself.
Hunted. After the collapse of the space shogunate, two very different clans clash.
Medicine Man. Some young kids get caught up in a superhero story. My dislike of superhero stories is fading away.
The Siren of Songwind Wood. Another Tarnish story. I didn’t notice the different storytelling style as much, so either I got used to it, or it was less pronounced here.
Mime. A very short horror story.
Littermates. A follow-on story to Lion’s Share, which is also in Cirsova magazine, spread across a couple of issues. The space pirates get into a fight at a pirate port, then try to smuggle some stolen artwork.
Platypus. A dystopian story featuring government control over the individual.
Snake Eyes. A hit man goes after the luckiest man in the world.
Planetary Defense Command 
Well, trust the job hunting goes well once you rest up.
I may reduce my geographic range to reduce the travel, or heck, I may think about a new career.
Life is “funny” that way. Sometimes we ride along smoothly and other times it is like riding a bucking bronco.
Is a new career a viable option for you at this time?
I don’t think a new career working for someone else is an option. I’m already on my third career, after being an IT geek, marine biologist, and now [something too horrible to mention]. It would have to be something entrepreneurial if I switched.
Best of luck then!
None of that sounds fun
This sounds like a great short story collection.Platypus particularly interests me.
Platypus is somewhat like (and even references) 1984, but with a modern angle. Less poverty, some modern tech thrown in.
It is available separately (https://amzn.to/2JTcer3) but I’d recommend getting the whole collection instead.
Reblogged this on Brink's Chaos Theory and commented:
A shining review and quick summary of my 13-story collection, Green-Eyed Monster. This post just made my weekend!
Commander,
This post just made my weekend! Thanks for the kind words and so glad you enjoyed them. To say that none of them bored you and you might have even had a change of heart about superhero fiction is a huge compliment!
(Although I must say, I haven’t read much SH fic either–probably because most of it seems geared towards kids/teens. Mine is not.)
Good luck with the job search. I have switched careers multiple times myself and am not above doing so again. I actually like what I’m doing now, but it’s a significant cut in pay that I don’t know is balanced out by the meager perks anymore.
And I was just commenting to my wife the other day that I kind of wish I’d followed through on my childhood interest in marine biology. I also said that maybe I can get my 8-year-old as interested in sharks as I was and then go out with him on his adventures after I retire. 🙂 Though I imagine that field is also a love over money situation.
Thanks again.
No problem. This was a really good experience to get me back to short stories, which I’ve been neglecting for a while.
With your medical training and Navy experience, I wonder if you could get on the crew of an oceanic research vessel. Some of them would keep you away from home too much, but maybe there are others that don’t stay out as long.
Oooooh… That’s a super-cool suggestion! I wonder if I could do that? Or how I’d go about trying…? Hmmm. First I’d have to live a lot closer to an ocean, of course…