Story Excerpt
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Steve Lazarowitz
When consciousness first found her, the moonlight seemed impossibly bright. Powerful gusts of wind continually shuffled all but invisible leaves. At the edge of vision, a wall of trees stretched leafy arms toward the heavens. Momentarily disoriented, she shifted her gaze, first to the dark clouds moving too rapidly through that luminous sky, then to those remarkably tall trees and finally to a small gray flash of movement off to her left.
"Dream Sequence" Copyright © 2003. Steve Lazarowitz. Reprinted by permission of the author. All rights reserved by the author. Please do not copy without permission.
Author Bio Steve Lazarowitz Steve Lazarowitz is a writer with a singular goal. He tries to make people think. His short fiction has been compared to The Twilight Zone, which very much appeals to him. "We live in a world of wonders, some of which are shrouded in shadow. My job is to remind people of that.." His award winning short stories and innovative articles and essays have appeared in Jackhammer, Exodus, Planet Relish, The Wandering Troll, The Hood, Conflicting Spectrums, Dream Forge, Aphelion, Titan, Twilight Times and many other ezines. More information on his writing can be found at his web site.
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Reviews
Man may be but a pawn in the hands of Fate, but from time to time man manages to give Fate a well- aimed kick in the... never mind. Just a well-aimed kick. That's the theme of the new science-fiction, fantasy and horror anthology "Dream Sequence," by Steve Lazarowitz.
Lazarowitz is a well-known, prize-winning Internet fiction writer. In his first anthology, A Creative Edge, he whetted his readers appetites for the off-trail, the unusual and certainly the unexpected in story development.
He feeds this appetite generously in Dream Sequence. An introduction by another well-known Internet writer, SN Jonhannsen Pitt, warns readers, "If you have never read anything by Steve Lazarowitz, then it is safe to say, you should brace yourself. Get a seat belt and strap yourself in, before proceeding to the rest of this book. Perhaps you might consider taking a stiff drink as well."
These safety elements aren't required, of course. But when angels and devils jump into their race cars for a match that will decide the fate of human souls, as in "Brimstone and Nitro," a seat belt isn't a bad idea.
At a slower speed, but equally haunting, is the title story, "Dream Sequence." Its main character has to determine which world is real - the day-to-day one she seems to inhabit, or the dream-fantasy one where her sorrows and heartbreak change not only the weather but the entire world.
In "Alien College," aliens offer the chance to attend, free, their off-world college of superior knowledge. Although the tuition is free, the hidden costs could be a killer.
It's hard to select the most bizarre tale from this engrossing collection. But a reader would have to go far to find something more piquant to the imagination than "The Gift." After all, how many spare eyeballs can anyone use?
But the purpose here is not to prematurely open the jack-in-the-box plot twists that keep a reader scrolling as fast as possible down the pages of "Dream Sequence." The purpose is simply to state that for those who like a ride through a fictional fun house, where it's not easy to tell reality from illusion - even after the story is finished - "Dream Sequence" will offer a good read. And it will leave some intriguingly nagging questions in the reader's mind long after the book is finished.
Maybe Lazarowitz will answer some of them in his next book. But probably not - he'll just ask more, as he usually does.
Reviewed by Jean Goldstrom, founding editor of Anotherealm.
Science fiction, fantasy, and horror fans who spend any amount of time on the web should be well-versed in the chronicles of Steve Lazarowitz. Story by story and column after column he has paid his dues and made the climb from struggling writer to author. (Perhaps still struggling, but that is the nature of his chosen vocation.) Finally, that hard work has paid off, as the first of two short story collections hits the market.
At last, readers can fill up on Lazarowitz without jumping from site to site. Here it is, laid out before you: a smorgasbord of Steve. And, as befits a truly noteworthy buffet, there is a little bit of everything for you to sample. So, spread that napkin on your lap, keep an eye on the dessert table, and tuck in.
If you'd like to start out with something light, there are a few whimsical, teasing selections. "Brand Awareness" is a short-short that will bring a smile to your face or maybe a groan to your lips. If you can get through the playful "Alchemy 101" without once flashing on a mental image of Mickey Mouse in a wizard robe, you are a stronger person than me. But, if you prefer a bit more darkness in your humour, you will want to go straight to "Brimstone and Nitro." The afterlife may not be quite what some people are expecting...
Ready for some SF? Discover "The Fate of the Ambrose Colony" and you might want to reconsider signing up for that NASA mission. You might also want to take that money you've been stashing away for a time machine after you learn the fate of one "Time Diver." Like many of Lazarowitz' protagonists, Mr. Tanner is a testament to the fact that justice maybe a bit tardy, but it almost always arrives. On the same path of paying the piper, squirm at the horrifying truth in "Alien College," one of the most compelling offerings in Dream Sequence.
As our hero Michael admits, "there is no such thing as a free lunch."
Now that you're all warmed up, go straight for the horror. Take a moment during your reading of "Life and Death in the EDMC" to experience the nightmarish setting and the air of hopelessness. Again, justice will not be denied. Neither will a little thing like death, as you'll see in "Tales from Beyond." At the rate Lazarowitz is churning out fiction, you might wonder if that is a bit of autobiography, many years premature.
But don't leave before you try one of the fantasy selections. "The Challenge" even provides a touch of the risqué with its tale of magic and deception. And, in "The Devil's Dawn," treachery appears again -- more rough and testosterone-charged, but a blend of magic and deception all the same.
All that and there are still stories I didn't have time to trot out for you. Hard to believe all those pieces came from the mind of one man? You have just scratched the surface; Lazarowitz is a man of the genres and there is so much more to come.
Better start reading now if you entertain any hope of keeping up with this flexible and fruitful storyteller.
Copyright © Lisa DuMond, reviewer for The SF Site.
Those who have had the pleasure of meeting Steve Lazarowitz and his work already know what I'm going to say about Dream Sequence and other tales from beyond. The rest of you don't know what you've been missing.
This is one of two collections of Steve's work currently available in electronic bindings. The other one, A Creative Edge, contains a batch of his early work, including one Preditors & Editor's Poll winner and one nominee. The title tale has been picked for this year's Best of the Web Anthology by Eternity Ezine. The stories in Dream Sequence are some of his later work, and they have a slightly different flavor...
The title tale is a fantasy that gently questions whether the line we've drawn between sanity and madness may not be just a bit too arbitrary. In "Brimstone and Nitro," one of my personal favorites, the denizens of Heaven and Hell duel over who gets what part of earth by drag-racing muscle cars. "The Fate of Ambrose Colony" will give you a whole new viewpoint about gypsy moths and "The Gift," a story about friendship and sacrifice, manages to be both macabre and inspiring at the same time. In "Tales from Beyond," another favorite, he offers a kind of tribute to the late Rod Serling-and the ultimate obsessive-compulsive writer.
That kind of skewed vision, and the ability to handle it with the aplomb of a pretzel-maker tying knots, is what makes Steve such fun to read. Just when you're sure you know exactly what's going to happen, he spins you around and takes you into a completely different direction. And makes you like it. His characters tend to be the social outcasts, the misfits who have something about them that sets "normal" people's teeth on edge. Yet often it's those misfits who turn out to have a true sense of what's real and what isn't. There's also a touch of ironic humor in most of the stories, but one that never gets bitter or sarcastic.
If you like your SF and fantasy with a bit of a bite, then introduce yourself to Steve Lazarowitz--and prepare to be entertained.
Reviewed by Elizabeth Burton, publisher and editor of The Blue Iris Journal.
If your reading mania is science fiction and fantasy combined with a dab of horror, then you don't want to miss DREAM SEQUENCE, by Steve Lazarowitz, especially if you have a thing for bizarre endings.
DREAM SEQUENCE is an accumulation of 16 stories told by a gifted writer destined to rival the current masters of speculative fiction. His unique tales carried me to realms I never even imagined. For instance a university where students gained a free education on a world of sentient insects, a time and place that banned childbirth and held death lotteries to control Earth's population, and a future where unlimited access to the internet is not a fantasy, but the price of the service is out of this world. Believe me, this collection runs the gauntlet of extreme. Impossible, weird, unique, and even a little twisted.
I have to admit I found some stories I read more than once. Like, TIME DIVER, where the equivalent elapsed time negative 729.4 days caused only a moment of disorientation, but gave Jerry Tanner a second chance to recapture his lost love. THE GIFT, gives a new meaning to squeamish, when a man has his eyes surgically removed and plaqued to protect his friend. I found myself squirming before that second coat of varnish. But my favorite was BRIMSTONE AND NITRO, which takes place in a town called Destiny where auto races between angels and demons determine territorial jurisdiction of mankind.
Steve Lazarowitz writes from the raw gut and exposes you to your own emotional demons, daring you to deny the possibilities... What if?
Reviewed by Priscilla A. Maine, author of Journey of the Eagle and Angels Unaware.
"...There's both horror and SF in here and there is a good blend that should please everyone. Three of the stories are from ezines and thirteen are new to this edition.
From the title story, about trying to bring magic back to the land, to a magical duel in the Challenge, to the diary of a werewolf in A Wolf's Tale, and Alchemy 101 in which Pegeman the Alchemist has trouble finding virgin blood; here are a few of the magical entries.
The Fate of Ambrose Colony is a tale of space travel with a horror ending that shows that Steve may be a bit warped like that King fellow. Alien College is a first contact story with a gotcha ending. Webscape shows what can happen if you find a web-server with rates too low. It's hard to decide if Tales from Beyond, about a TV ghostwriter, or Worlds Apart, a SF tale about walls and what may be on the other side of them is the best story of the lot.
You will have to get this one for yourself. It's filled with a bunch of good stories and even a laugh or two as Lazarowitz shares his creations with all of us. I'm ready to see more, and soon.
Reviewed by Barry Hunter, publisher and editor of Baryon OnLine.
This is an anthology like no other. Normally I would stick to the review format with all of my reviews, but there are times that there are exceptions, this being one of them. To stay with the normal precedent would be a bit difficult since Dream Sequence and Other Tales From Beyond is an anthology with 20 stories within it and to touch base on every single one would be endless. I think whetting the appetites of readers with a few honourable mentions to some of the tales might be enough to have them hurrying to the publisher for a copy of their own.
With Dream Sequence and Other Tales From Beyond, be prepared to be swept away into the science fiction/fantasy realms with this anthology. Each story is a showcase in itself of wonder, substance, powerful writing and uniqueness. There are 20 tales delving into fantasy and science fiction like I have never encountered before.
A few examples of these stories which I found to some of the best within the book, one being the lead title itself, Dream Sequence. We read of Marlayna who isn't sure what her everyday life really is...fantasy or reality. Marlyana is the only one who can save the Land Beyond and it's a riveting and intriguing tale into the world beyond and the magic she possesses.
Another tale I truly enjoyed was Perchance to Dream. Robert's bordering on the edge of a breakdown from the sleep he is under too often. He is a saviour/protector to mankind, he feels his mind and his body is letting him down and fights for a rest. This is a passionate tale about a formidable man.
Brimstone and Nitro is one heck of an adrenaline rush as Angels and Demons (Heaven and Hell, Good vs. Evil), fight for their pieces of Earth. But they don't fight with guns, swords or weaponry, they drag race powerful cars to determine the winner. Archangel Raphael and Lilith were intriguing and draw a reader in. Besides the adrenaline rush, being partial to any mere mention of a '69 Ford Mustang myself, this tale is definitely one reason to read this anthology for this and the fact that Angels are portrayed a lot more fascinatingly than I have ever read before.
My absolute favourite though had to be The Gift. This tale is set in Sharon Springs and is about friendship, love and how far we would go to save another person. Mark Marino is psychic and sees things that happen long before they do. This is a creative and emotional tale that is inspiring and profound.
While I could go on and on about these stories in Dream Sequence and Other Tales From Beyond, all I can only hope to stress, is the hope that readers would take a chance on it and be captivated by Steve Lazarowitz's words and creativity for the unknown and the potential of different things. Each story offers its own uniqueness and brand of entertainment, and this author's words really take hold the reader. The reader may begin to question everything. Questions will come to mind, most beginning with "What if", and the mysteries and possibilities of it all, remain with the reader days later.
For cutting-edge science fiction and thought provoking words, Dream Sequence and Other Tales From Beyond is a book that fulfills all the above and much, much more.
Reviewed by Tracey for Fallen Angel reviews.
In Steve Lazarowitz's recently published collection of short stories he
displays an ability to turn well-worn themes such as werewolf myths,
dreams and ghost stories into refreshing variations. This is probably
because he lacks the pretentiousness of more jaded authors needing to
convey some notion of literary virtue. Particularly intriguing is the
reversal of sleep deprivation in Perchance to Dream. His idea of aliens
attacking humans in dream space has more to do with the Buddhist
exhortation to know our own demons than the special effects of The Final
Fantasy: The Spirits Within. There is even a ghost story that harks back
to the Rod Sterling TV series The Twilight Zone. Steve Lazarowitz has a
clean, assured and lucid style that is readable and rewarding.
Reviewed by Jane Palmer
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