A Face of the Master's Cube

This work contains five fantastic, original short stories in science fiction. Each of which will challenge you intellectually in your knowledge of science and is a wonderful, enjoyable read for those who care less for theory and love science fantasy adventures. The stories speak to and often contest modern, well understood theories in science, but the stories don't linger on theory. They are designed to be well written stories first, and they'll carry you effortlessly into fantasy worlds. Before you know it, you're onto the next one. Each story plot avoids all the themes from The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and focuses on the real potential of science where it loses the fiction and becomes reality in our near future. Meet Earl. He's caught up in a murder. A clear case of self-defense. Any jury would let him off, right? One problem. He's a popularly sold Automated Home Assistant Robot and in the year 2082, the laws governing human-machine interactions require Earl be terminated. Should he be crushed? When it's all over, you'll be left theorizing human-machine life in the future. Earl has a plan. Doubt you saw it ending like this. Mark is running for his life through the forest. Something is on his tail, and it wants to kill him. He can hear it move at night searching for him. It can't find him where he sleeps. When day comes, he works to find his way back to civilization but doesn't make it. What happened? He awakens in a hospital of some kind. He is healing and he has people who are helping him along. There's just one huge catch. He was killed in action in Taiwan serving as a U.S. Marine... a long time ago. Why was he saved? Who saved him? But the most important question of all isn't about our hero. Would you have the strength to take the ending into your own hands? Garret is up next as the organization's human-guinea pig time traveler. It is Garret's job to conduct a very simple but very specific sequence of steps for testing once he goes through the portal. But there's a problem. Garret doesn't end up where he's supposed to. Thank God, there's a back-up plan! Oops! Fail again! What the hell happened? He comes to a scientific conclusion that just might achieve his new objective. No grandfather paradox here. This is real time travel and there may be no coming back. He walks you through the step by step plan for his original mission. Can you follow it? Build your own theory on your own time. It's the 2090s and Miranda is a very spoiled twenty-seven year old girl just starting to take life seriously. Brian is in his early thirties and was just replaced by machines at work. They don't know one another but both of them have a problem. A very similar problem. It's their parents! They've gone crazy! Well, crazy in a way every kid thinks their parents go crazy as they get older. Their two lives get intertwined with an unbelievable new technology built on an odd theory about crystals. They both must grow and adapt to their new life situations individually, but slowly they are getting pulled together in separate quests to understand a very strange side-effect of using this technology. Fasten your seatbelts for the explosive ending! Finally, ever been in the woods when the birds and the insects go dead quiet? Kate was but didn't notice it. Too late! She's in a world of hurt now and formulates a plan to get home. No one is going to believe her. Her journal tells the real story and it's a doozy! Forget camping and hiking. Friday night at home with pizza, a movie, and your beloved dog or cat is all you need! This is fringe Sci Fi at its simplest and best. You will never go near the woods again.