Book Review: Dune by Frank Herbert

December 13, 2019 by Joe Gray in Book Review, Fiction, Sci-Fi

My friend recommended this book to me several times and I am very glad that I decided to take the suggestion. This book was a non-stop rollercoaster of intrigue, action, and suspense. From the very first chapter, the reader is thrown into a mysterious world where pieces to a massive puzzle are introduced through context while eluding simultaneously to a known future and an unknown present. The author introduces such puzzle pieces in a myriad of forms such as excerpts from unknown tomes that refer to unknown events, words that can only be contextualized to determine, and the names of people, cultures, and religions that will only make sense once the reader has delved deeper.

Undulating Quantum Probabilities

August 29, 2019 by Joe Gray in Fiction, Poetry, Psychology, Rants, Thoughts, Whimsies

Someone once told me that the world is upside down but our minds correct this and we see the world right-side up. Sky side up. This is not true. The world is right-side up and our eyeballs are curved like a crystal ball that focuses light onto the retina. The resulting image is a projection of the world-oriented upside down because of curvature. The brain does not care that the image is physically disjointed from reality because it can represent the data in almost any orientation. It just so happens that the most adaptive way to represent this data is in a way that doesn't disorient us and lead to injuries; right side up.

30 Days of Fiction: Day 30

March 11, 2019 by Joe Gray in 30 Days of Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories

It was a cold and dark night when Oliver stood outside the main gate of the palatial mansion that belonged to the CFO of the luxury yacht manufacturer Caesar's Shipyards. He attempted a deep breath but just as his lungs began to fill with the crisp New York winter air they convulsed, dispelling the air violently with each deep and gravelly cough. His face was beet red as he composed himself, then, with his hand against the cold steel of the gate, he stretched his legs. His joints were stiff and his back ached but this was nothing new to Oliver as his body had slowly been getting worse and worse for the past 5 years. While he had expected it for some time now, he wouldn't have put his money on this being the night of his last kill.

Jödingers Bullet

February 01, 2019 by Joe Gray in Fiction, Short Stories

Micah and Jared sat across from each other at their favorite diner. They had been coming here since they were in high school together. Now they were in their thirties. Jared was married and had two children and Micah has been divorced and has one child. They did their best to meet up once a week for lunch at the Lucky Horseshoe Diner and while Jared ate his pastrami sandwich Micah stared at him with a crooked smile and wide eyes.

"What?" Jared said after finally noticing Micah's gaze.

"Can you make me a cartridge that looks perfectly real but is actually not?" Micah asked.

30 Days of Fiction: Day 29

December 27, 2018 by Joe Gray in 30 Days of Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories

Taratumba was the smallest cheetah cub.

His brother and sister were much larger and would never let Taratumba win any of the games.
His mother would watch as they wrestled and raced.
Even though Taratumba was always overpowered and last in the races he never stopped trying.

30 Days of Fiction: Day 28

December 19, 2018 by Joe Gray in 30 Days of Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful queen named Priscilla Bindle and she was quite the cunt. The queen lived in a huge castle that sat on a hill overlooking the metropolitan city that sprawled for miles throughout the valley below. On her first day as queen, when she was only fourteen years old, she celebrated her inauguration by forcing three of her handmaids' to fight to the death. When she turned sixteen she decreed that all those that fell late on their taxes would have to fight in her gladiator-style tournaments. On her seventeenth birthday, she declared war on the neighboring kingdom which led to a 6 month period of carnage and destruction. After many deaths, she won the war, which increased her power and ego. Tonight is the night before the queen turns 18 and there is a hush in the city as its citizens await tomorrows bad news. But what would the queen decree this year?