Challenge 1119

Flight From the Thorns

In Dennis A. Blackledge’s Fraternity of the Footlights: How might the final parting between the narrator and his mentor, Jonathan Mondello, have been less resentful?
In Charles C. Cole’s Seeking Safety in the Salvage Yard: What may have happened to Gulu’s home planet that would cause many of her kind to attempt to migrate to Earth? What is the narrative advantage in not spelling out the cause in detail?
In L. S. Popovich’s As Above, So Below: What kind of apocalypse are the refugees in space and on Earth fleeing? How does it make human extinction inevitable? Is all other life affected?
In Marc Watson’s My Furtive Roommate:
1. At what point in the narrative might the reader suspect that Ainsley and Abbey are the same person?
2. Who is Tim? Is his location given at any point?
3. How likely is it that any medication available by prescription would list dissociative personality disorder as a possible side-effect?
In Matias Travieso-Diaz’s The Gluttonous Toad: Might the toad have survived to glut another day if he had limited himself to one butterfly rather than three? What might the conspicuous restraint have done to his reputation?
In Bill Bowler’s Nothing at All: In what way is the aged person’s “nothing” yet something?
In Gary Clifton’s Freefall: What does the title imply about “thorny twists”? Are they fated or avoidable with sufficient determination?