Review: Tricky tale of Speculative Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 13, 2013
Trixie & Me (Galactic Exploration) by  Peter CawdronI really enjoyed this short story-novella or whatever you might call it. It is both entertaining and thought provoking.Trixie and Berry are explorers but in the beginning of the story they are in a weird and somewhat awkward position. They are both naked and since this is from the point of view of Trixie we find her a bit surprised at seeing Berry this way. She thinks about it arousing a primal feeling within her.This is the least of her worries though.This is not erotic fiction.As we will see Trixie and Berry appear to be trapped in some alien environment. It sounds often like what an Escher world might be like with gravity on every plane and possibly something of gravity drifting in the middle of the room floating in the air. It has an entirely alien feel to it.There are all types of insect like creatures that seem to be there doing maintenance. At first they seem to go about their work without much interference to Berry and Trix. As Berry and Trix get closer to escape they manage to get into their hair and under their skin. But at the beginning Berry seems stuck somewhere and a disoriented Trix has to be coaxed into helping him get released so that they can find their ship and escape.This is a story of first contact. And not exactly a pleasant first contact. More of a cautionary tale that says that the aliens are so alien in nature that they treat man as poorly as man often treated man whenever they conquered a new  continent.In a way the story is an allegory of mans conquest of frontier world from the other direction.But there is a twist because there is something not quite right with Trix and though it was easy to figure out what that might be there are all sorts of red herrings thrown in the way in the narrative and the dialog with Berry. Plus it seems even though the answer is so easy to find that there is still something not quite right with Trix even with the facts all supplied.Trixie and Berry are being held captive and systematically tortured so the aliens can gain valuable information to lead them back to the rest of humanity. Or at least that's how it seems to be. They have momentarily escaped but things are not as they appear when dealing with alien beings who think so strangely.The relations ship between Trixie and Berry will be tested. And there is much to reveal in this short tale.  This is not as gory as Aliens the movie but its just as strange sometimes.Great Speculative Fiction interesting thriller and suspense story.Nice entertaining story with an engaging if somewhat confused and confusing character of Trixie.J.L. Dobias