Short Reviews: David Langford

"Christmas Games" [permanent link]. An interesting 'who-did-it' mystery game being played by a group of people. But as the game progresses, it becomes stranger and stranger as the true nature of the game becomes known.
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"Different Kinds of Darkness" [permanent link]. Set in an interesting world where looking at strange patterns can kill a person (by disrupting the brain trying to interpret the pattern), a group of children play a futuristic game of 'dare' by looking at a possibly deadly pattern. Little do they know what the pattern is or where it may lead them when their secret game is found out.
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"The Distressing Damsel" [permanent link]. An amusing story about a princess who, while trying to do something recommended in fairy tales, ends up with a distressing ailment. Her attempts to get rid of it are varied but, in the end, it is a combination of logic and magic that solves her problem.
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"Outbreak by J*mes Wh*te" [permanent link]. An amusing tale that is a parody of James White's Sector General series of stories about a space hospital. In this story, an unknown huge ship comes to the hospital. But as the hospital staff try to figure out why they came and who they are, they will learn that disease and cure is a relative thing.
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"The Spear of the Sun" [permanent link]. Set in an alternate universe where G.K. Chesterton is the 'Father' of Science-fiction magazines instead of Hugo Gernsback, this story tells the tale of 'Father Brown' solving a murder mystery on an interstellar liner. Works okay as a detective story but, being unfamiliar with the 'Father Brown' stories, I can't tell how well it works as alternate fiction.
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