Status Updates From Angry Young Spaceman

space opera, not science fiction. But you knew that from the back cover copy. Decent so far.

"I watched the stewardess move away. My mouth was dry again. I didn't know why Octavians didn't bother to cover up the place where all their tentacles met--that slippery nexus. Where, I knew now, it all happened. Where a tentative finger sliding across could draw forth the sounds that swirled in the ear, drowned the brain."

"In the front room of the restaurant, the elder teacher pointed out a painting on the wall. "Monsters," she said. There was a group of dolphins there, facing a group of Octavians, but I didn't see the monsters. "Where?" She poked one of the dolphins. I walked out a little dazed. "Are they all dead? The monsters?" "No," said Mrs. Ahm. "They hide on the west side of the planet."