Dust

Product Description

A hungry alien substance has traveled to Earth following a doomed Lunar mission, and it's consuming everything it touches, leaving behind drifts of gray death. No life form stands a chance, but Clyde Jackson is tougher than most. He's seen war and he's been in plenty of foxholes. Now he's living through the end of the world one day at a time in a panic room that has become his only refuge. It's only a matter of time before the ventilation fails, and it'll only take a single gray speck to end it all...

Originally featured in The Absent Willow Review e-zine, DUST is the haunting meditation of a man recalling the final days of a once mighty and hopeful planet now quickly eroding to nothing under drifts of gray.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #253717 in eBooks
• Published on: 2011-04-14
• Released on: 2011-04-14
• Format: Kindle eBook
• Number of items: 1

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
STUNNING AND THOUGHTFUL - WHAT A GOOD TALE SHOULD BE.
By D. Blankenship
Well, "the end of the earth as we know it" and "last man standing" books are certainly nothing new. I remember reading my first one in the early, early 1960s (or perhaps it was the late 190s...I am old and get my dates confussed), when I happened upon a copy of the granddaddy of all this sort of literature, George R. Stewart's `The Earth Abides." Folks, I have been reading books and stories in this genre every since -many of them, the good, the bad and the ugly. Yes, the theme has been around for quite awhile now (Earth Abides was written in 1949), but I have to tell you that even though it has been used some, it most certainly is no worse for the ware, as can be attested to by this short work by Allison M. Dickson.

As one reviewer here has so well pointed out, there is a big difference between a short story and a novel. In many ways the short story, if it is done as it should be done, is a more daunting task than the novel. Plot, character development, th e all important "hook" line and lasting impact upon the reader must be accomplished using very little space; all the elements of a long novel must be compacted and presented in a very brief format. The author has done this and pulled it off in spades with this short offering.

I can tell you right now that this is not a happy read. This is not a story of the sort that will offer the reader the hope of a wonderful new beginning - a brave new world, if you will. No, this story is rather pragmatic when all is said and done, and I must say there is great sadness found in these lines.

But this harsh look at what will probably be closer to reality, in one form or another is the sort of story that will grab you, and it is the sort of story that will stay with you. That is what good story telling is all about when you really stop and think about it. Bet you did not like the ending of `Romeo and Juliet," or `Old Yeller," did you. But by golly I bet both have stuck with you...haven't they!

This is a fast read, it is a good read and it is a free read. There really are few excuses for not giving it a shot. Glad I did and I most certainly can be numbered among those who will be searching out more of this author's work.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Dust
By Lynn Demsky
This is a great, scary, horror tale!! Once you start you can't stop until you end it --the author does a GREAT job of just scaring the pants right off you! She included this story into a book with 11 others: The Twelve Days of Dickson and, they are ALL well worth reading --- I found to be as good as Edgar A. Poe!!! GREAT READ!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
One of the best sci-fi horror stories out there!
By Robert Wilson
Some friends of mine have been telling me for a while I needed to read this story. As the Editor in Chief of a fledgling small dark fiction press, a freelance editor, and a writer myself, my reading for pleasure time is few and far between. But I finally made my way to this one last night.

Dust by Allison M. Dickson is a prime example of science fiction crossing with horror to make a powerful dread-inducing yet emotionally powerful human story. I couldn't put this down from beginning to end and highly recommend it to any fans of horror, sci-fi, and especially fans of both fused together. I will now have to track down everything Allison has written and get to catching up. Can't wait to dig in to more of her work. Excellent!