Thursday, January 26, 2017

Review: The Eldridge Effect by Trevor Judd


Genre: Science Fiction/Short Story

Description:

When a World War-II era Naval vessel mysteriously appears in the middle of the Elizabeth River in downtown Norfolk, Virginia, Professor Henry Kelvin and CIA agent Jason West are called away from a meeting with the President of the United States to investigate yet another singularity related to The Phenomenon. The ship is positively identified as the U.S.S. Eldridge, a name synonymous with one of the nation's oldest conspiracy theories, the alleged Philadelphia Experiment. Finding out how and why the Eldridge has arrived in present-day Norfolk will push Kelvin and West's sanity to their limits as they gradually fall victim to the reality-warping secret at the heart of the Eldridge.”

Author:

Trevor Judd grew up in rural Tennessee but moved to Colorado after serving six years in the U.S. Air Force where he was an exceptional golf caddy for various generals and his coffee making skills became the stuff of legend. He was raised on a steady diet of comic books, violent cartoons, science fiction novels and action movies, so it wasn't very surprising when he started writing his own stories at the age of 8. He continues to write in his spare time, between classes or when the boss isn't looking.”

Appraisal:

This short story is the second in a series of four (so far) dealing with singularities that are appearing on Earth. The introductory science read like a string (sic) of quantum jargon to me, but then quantum physics is mostly inexplicable to me anyway. So what I received from the author was sufficient to convey that a crisis in the universe is underway and that’s what is causing the singularities.

Once the characters get onto the USS Eldridge, I was sucked into the time warp, which was well described and entertaining and brought to mind the TV series “Fringe,” which I also enjoyed.

I don’t read many short stories (I didn’t realise it was a short until I’d finished it, d’oh!), so I can’t really judge if this was long enough. I wouldn’t have objected to some fleshing out, but it was a fast, fun read.

Buy now from:    Amazon US    Amazon UK


Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: Pete Barber

Approximate word count: 10-11,000 words

1 comment:

Judi Moore said...

I like the variety of lengths we get with indie publishing. A 10K story can explore an idea fully - but it doesn't have to be a big idea with lots of legs. The SF community is still doing this in its grandee magazines like Asimov's and Analog. But that used to be the only way to get to read them.