What do you think?
Rate this book
Outside Inside #6
Goddammit, Larry!
After falling asleep on a train, Larry walks home through an unfamiliar neighbourhood. Hoping to take a shortcut down an alleyway, he stumbles across a glitch in reality. It can only mean one thing: the world is not what he understood it to be.
Outside Inside is what happens when a writer, who can only be described as a polygamist with genres, starts a series of short stories exploring life, death and everything in between. This story is about the ‘in between.’ What is real? What isn’t? How do we crack the code? And what do we do if the code itself is cracked?
Outside Inside is what happens when a writer, who can only be described as a polygamist with genres, starts a series of short stories exploring life, death and everything in between. This story is about the ‘in between.’ What is real? What isn’t? How do we crack the code? And what do we do if the code itself is cracked?
26 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 28, 2019
2 people want to read
About the author
Michael Gardner
20 books73 followersMichael Gardner writes stories from the twilight zone of his mind, a middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition and the forgotten recesses of his sock drawer. Cross over if you dare.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 30, 2019
What a great read! If you enjoyed all the questions raised in “The Matrix” franchise, whether we could potentially be living in a computer-generated reality, you’ll love this short novella where Larry discovers a brick wall that isn’t really solid and realizes he’s in a computer simulation… or is he? As he and wife Boo struggle to figure out what is real and what is fake, and Larry realizes he may in fact be in danger (complete with a bunch of “Goddammit, Larry!” moments that had me cackling out loud as I read), this cleverly-constructed tale takes even more twists and turns which I won’t spoil! You have to read for yourself! But suffice it to say, this has a really cool ending that has me eager to read more of author Michael Gardner’s work.
Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.
Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.
March 17, 2019
OK, I know this dates me, but I couldn't help but think that Rod Serling would be proud of this story. It reminded me of all those Friday nights I sat glued to the TV, totally enthralled by the twists and turns of The Twilight Zone. And "Goddammit, Larry!" couldn't come at a better time, because Jordan Peele is about to launch a revival of the show in April. I can only hope the new TZ is as good as Michael Gardner's masterful short story.
Think of it as a chocolate truffle--a delectable morsel that will linger in your mind long after you've finished it. Go ahead. Indulge. You know you want it.
Think of it as a chocolate truffle--a delectable morsel that will linger in your mind long after you've finished it. Go ahead. Indulge. You know you want it.
March 4, 2019
Douglas Adams is going to be very disappointed. His mice miscalculated - badly.
The answer to life, the universe and everything else is not '42'; it's a lot more complicated than that, as Alexander Rollins
(writing under his nom de plume of Michael Gardner)
demonstrates with this elegant, woundingly elegiac short story.
For a short story, I found it a little slow to grip. On the other hand, now that I've read it, I can't unlatch the blasted thing from my mind.
Or my heart. Superb.
The answer to life, the universe and everything else is not '42'; it's a lot more complicated than that, as Alexander Rollins
(writing under his nom de plume of Michael Gardner)
demonstrates with this elegant, woundingly elegiac short story.
For a short story, I found it a little slow to grip. On the other hand, now that I've read it, I can't unlatch the blasted thing from my mind.
Or my heart. Superb.
March 25, 2019
Larry is a carpet salesman and is happily married to Boo... or is he? For a short story, this tells of a fantastic twist involving gamers and cyber worlds. Excellently witty.
March 3, 2019
Clever and meaningful. Fast-paced and definitely OF the twenty-first century, with a twist on a twist that surprised me and surprised me again. A well-crafted short story that will linger in my mind. Kudos to the author.
February 7, 2021
Are we programmed?
The religious people believe in a higher being that created us all. The Darwinists believe in evolution. These are some basics know to everyone. With the technology, our life gets more and more controlled and supervised. No matter what we believe in, we know that there are video cameras everywhere, that computer games are so advanced that we hardly distinguish reality from the virtual world.
In this short story, we - the readers - are the ones confused and not Larry. Or maybe is the other way around? 😊 Is our life a game simulation? Are we part of a game? If yes, who decides when it’s THE END?
It is a short read, but the idea keeps your interest.
More book reviews on: https://www.nicojgenes.com/book-reviews
The religious people believe in a higher being that created us all. The Darwinists believe in evolution. These are some basics know to everyone. With the technology, our life gets more and more controlled and supervised. No matter what we believe in, we know that there are video cameras everywhere, that computer games are so advanced that we hardly distinguish reality from the virtual world.
In this short story, we - the readers - are the ones confused and not Larry. Or maybe is the other way around? 😊 Is our life a game simulation? Are we part of a game? If yes, who decides when it’s THE END?
It is a short read, but the idea keeps your interest.
More book reviews on: https://www.nicojgenes.com/book-reviews
March 5, 2019
I have eight grandchildren. Two of the boys are complete computer game nerds. I really hope they don't end up like Larry!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews