What happened to Orlando (Review)

What happened to Orlando (Review)

ne of the good things about having a local independent book market (called, surprisingly Bookmarket (get the pun?)) is that you will see all sorts of offerings that you won’t see at your local Barnes and Noble (and that you’d never find on your non-local Amazon)).

Case in point: What Happened to Orlando.

This is a collection of short stories by local young (teen) authors describing the end of Orlando. What a gas this is – not since Alas Babylon have I grooved in the destructions of local landmarks. As HG Wells said of War of the Worlds, in research, he took his bike and “wheeled about the district marking down suitable places and people for destruction by my Martians”. Same thing here.

Yeah, so nothing like seeing Disney vanish under radioactive water. Or UCF fall under a wave of lab-released bugs. And high schools – as you might expect, high school writers destroy their high schools a lot.

I gotta say I’m a bit jealous – when I was writing in high school, my writing was bullshit, a lot of self-centered angst and teen-focused crap. Oh, I’d written one nice short story about a fighter pilot over Vietnam who had an eight track player mounted in his plane (shades of Iron Eagle). But really, I wrote rubbish.

The kids behind WHTO are a little raw still; some over-description and some unlikely (unexplainable to the point of being silly) settings. But still, with all their flailing about, they do manage to crack out a nice series of short stories, fun to read and fun to recognize. I’m not going to say which ones I truly liked (because I don’t want to pass out complexes to eager young minds). But I’d say 2/3rds of them were good, and a couple were outstanding.

So go down to East End Market (on Corrine Drive) and pick up a copy of this book. Do it quick, before the bomb drops, the crocodile men come, or the Earth cracks open. Quick!

>>>IF LOCAL AUTHORS ARE YOUR THING, CHECK OUT MY OWN BOOKS HERE. HECK, EVEN IF YOU LIVE IN SIBERIA, PICK ONE UP! GREAT READS!<<<