Challenge 783

Walls Come A-Tumbling Up

In Charles C. Cole’s A Spy in Costume, is there any similarity between Chief Schiavelli’s meeting with Toby Pelkey and Eartha Wayne’s, with Nicholas Petrillo?
In Ken Poyner’s Mixed Mission, who or what is “you”?
In Robin Helweg-Larsen’s Interplanetary Explorer, how does the planet feel about being “explored”? Mightn’t the “explorer” be gratified by at least a small seismic tremor?
In Nick Pipitone’s Graveyard Carnival:
1. Do Prof. Maggard and Carl Jung affect Clark’s thinking in any way, or are they merely a distraction?
2. Does the story overstep BwS’ “Dream Stories” guideline?
In Dennis Mombauer’s The Eidolic Void:
1. Why do the veterans not mingle with the new recruits?
2. What happens to the new recruits who go missing? How does Fenton react to their disappearance?
3. At what point might Fenton conclude that the “enemy” is a fiction?
4. Is the military outpost in reality a penal colony? If so, why might Fenton have been consigned to it?
In Ben Bielert’s The Jeeling Arrival:
1. At what point can John reasonably conclude that Denji is lying in his many little pointed teeth about the Jeelings’ origin and purpose?
2. Is John’s dog Max really as friendly with the Jeelings as Denji claims? What really happens to him?
3. Why do the Jeeling not avoid trouble by brainwashing John to begin with rather than rely on his simple-minded, unsuspecting cooperation?
4. What is likely to happen when the townsfolk and others get around to conducting an investigation?
5. How does the story fit into the categories of “Space Aliens as Metaphor”?
In Subodhana Wijeyeratne’s They Meet in the Wall:
1. Does Neiva incur poetic justice for her early role as an executioner?
2. By what stages does Vinay’s and Neiva’s love affair progress?
3. Is Neiva aware of the “moral police”? Why do she and Vinay take no measures to ensure secrecy?
4. What is the function of Neiva’s mother? How does she affect the outcome more than as a kind of “chorus” or visible conscience?
5. Vinay says that the size of the monsters increases to match that of the wall. Does he offer an alternative?
6. Neiva concludes that Vinay’s universe has lost Vinay. How can she hope to find his analogue in her own world?

Responses welcome!