A Dream Called Marilyn by Mercedes King; Wistful Introspective Historical Fiction Of Marilyn Monroe and the Golden Age of Hollywood

A Dream Called Marilyn by 

Mercedes King; Wistful Introspective Historical Fiction Of Marilyn Monroe and the Golden Age of Hollywood 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Mercedes King’s A Dream Called Marilyn is the third book in two years, after Isaac Thorne’s Hell Spring and Lee Matthew Goldberg’s Immoral Origins that I read that features Marilyn Monroe. But it is the only one which stars Monroe herself and not a demon or con artist/assassin that looks like her. Here, she is a complex vulnerable and troubled woman and the highlight of this book.

Monroe comes to the attention of Dr. Charles Campbell, psychiatrist to the stars. Monroe has just been fired from what would be her final film, Something's Got to Give and is considered an addict and deeply paranoid. The more Charles talks to her, the more drawn he is to the real woman underneath the glamorous facade. But her sessions begin to reveal some darker secrets about a certain President of the United States, one John F. Kennedy. Charles finds himself the target of some sinister people who want Monroe to keep those secrets to the grave.

By far the most intriguing aspect of the book is Marilyn herself. She embodies the persona of someone who is surrounded by people, is the center of attention, and is still very much alone. She gives off the image of a beautiful bubbly kittenish unattainable goddess-figure but she is more complex and nuanced than her surface shows. The world doesn’t see a woman packed with fragility and insecurities egged on by the pressure of looking glamorous and making appearances. It doesn’t see a once lonely little girl abandoned by her mentally ill mother, deprived of love and security, and looking for them in every bad relationship that comes around. 

The world doesn’t see a hopeless romantic who is so enamored with the fantasies that she sells onscreen that she genuinely believes that Kennedy will divorce Jackie and marry her so they will live happily ever after. Charles sees all of that and so does the Reader. She is depicted as a lonely troubled misunderstood soul who needs someone to love her for herself and not the image that she conveys. She stands out in her therapy sessions with Charles to the point of stealing every moment that she is in the book.

She almost takes the spotlight from Charles but he proves to be an intriguing character in his own right. He has plenty of issues that suggest that he could use a few therapy sessions himself. He has a Hero Savior Complex that often pairs him with troubled women: Marilyn and his wife, who has her own mental health issues and a careless attitude towards their children. His fantasies about Marilyn increase the more that he gets to know her and definitely violate the doctor-patient relationship.

As Marilyn needs to be cared for, Charles has a need to do the caring despite his marriage, job, and the difficulties that come with being with a public figure. Their relationship puts Charles in some dangerous territory and increases his and Marilyn’s dependence on each other. It is not a healthy relationship and is made even worse by the scrutiny and danger.

If there is one complaint with the characterization it is that it is at the expense of the plot, at least the type of plot that King puts them in. There is a strong implication that Marilyn’s troublemaking persona is manufactured by a studio wary of publicity and she really is the target of potential assassins. That is an interesting angle but King wrote Marilyn with so many personal issues that it becomes hard to believe that her problems stem solely from outside forces and not within herself.

Perhaps King could have written Marilyn as more self assured and stronger, the type of person that would make one think, “Maybe, someone is after her.” Of course sometimes you can be paranoid but actually have someone after you at the same time. Certainly the stress that Marilyn is under would trouble even the hardest of hearts. But in this case, Marilyn seems like someone who may be worried about being poisoned but could just as easily reach for the bottle herself.

The strongest overall tone in this book is wistful and introspective. There is a realization that this represents the end of an era and it does. Charles is looking back on his life as an older man who has seen the Vietnam War, the Millennium, terrorist attacks, economic insecurity, and the inevitable decay of the American Dream. His time with Marilyn marks the last of his golden years and those of the country, a world where Presidential scandals are hidden and assassination is not a by word. Marilyn represents a time gone by as well, the end of the studio system where movie stars were unattainable and where films reflected our dreams more than our reality. Of course this is nostalgia and nostalgia wasn’t freely handed out to everyone. For people like Charles and Marilyn, this was a happy time. For many other people, it wasn’t. 

However, Charles and Marilyn are involved within the field that produces manufactured dreams so people can live idyllic fantastic lives every time they enter a cinema, the field that often contributes to if not outright creates the nostalgia. It is the lie that they sell and they have to, no matter how much it costs them personally. The reality is hidden but the fantasy and the nostalgia remains. 

 

New Book Alert: Desire's End (The Desire Card Series Book Five) Predictable but Satisfying and Cathartic End

 

New Book Alert: Desire's End (The Desire Card Series Book Five) Predictable but Satisfying and Cathartic End 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: If you haven't yet, I insist that you read either my reviews or the books themselves: Immoral Origins, Prey No More, All Sins Fulfilled, and Vicious Ripples by Lee Matthew Goldberg before reading this review. This review contains MAJOR HEAVY DUTY SPOILERS!!!!

Ready? Then let's go.

Now we finally come to the end. The Desire Card and its depraved demonic leader, Jay Howell AKA Clark Gable come to a satisfactory completion.

This book is pure resolution, where all loose ends are tied, all things are revealed, and the characters meet their final destinies. All previous volumes have led to this moment and head towards the final successful pay off.

If you have grown to detest Howell as much as this Reader has, it's quite satisfying to see him brought down in a schadenfreude sort of way. On the run from his various enemies, he attempts to kidnap Gracie, his granddaughter and unsuccessfully rebuild his empire. This goes quickly awry and he is forced to hide out in the jungle.

In hiding, he encounters a female shaman who gleefully shows him the eventual ruin of his empire and his life.

Meanwhile, three other people are fast approaching, all familiar to the Readers: J.D. Storm, former assassin turned enemy, Monica Bonner, police detective who investigated Gracie's previous kidnapping and cannot stop her investigation against the Desire Card, and Helene Howell-Stockton, Jay's daughter, a philanthropist who has finally realized that her father is a monster who needs to be stopped. Even the shaman has her own pound of flesh to take from the corrupt CEO/Crime Boss.

It helps to take satisfaction in Howell's end by not making him sympathetic. He's a weasley bully who uses everyone around him in the beginning and is a weasley bully who uses everyone around him at the end. No part shows this more than the chapters between Howell and Gracie.

Gracie was an unwilling pawn in Vicious Ripples but during her captivity from J.D., she displayed some potential sociopathic tendencies that suggest that she was meant to become Jay's little heiress. 

In the previous book, she cold bloodedly shot another kidnapper.

In this book the young lady displays her worst qualities as almost a way of saying, "Look Grandpa Jay, look what I can do. See what a good little girl I am?" She manipulates girls to join her grandfather's prostiution ring and uses her ballet skills to create a dancing school front for the ring. Even when she is separated from Howell, she still inherits his evil tendencies by selling hard drugs to schoolmates.

Of all the things that Howell did in the five books, his manipulation of Gracie is the worst. He made the choice to take a life of crime as an adult, fully aware of the potential paths that lay before him. He chose the path of easy money, notoriety, and luxury.

Gracie is a child surrounded by adults who come to her grandfather like he's the Pied Piper of crooks. She has been groomed to become a criminal with no choice or chance to be normal. Now that she knows, she can't live in denial. Her innocence has been forever ruined by Howell's actions and choices. Her own agency and control for her future had long been taken away from her.

J.D., Monica, and Helene are as wounded as ever and are ready to end Howell's hold on them once and for all. The book covers a period of several years, so there are moments of hope and sadness. Helene loses some important people in her life, but finally becomes closer to her hippy boyfriend, Peter. She is trying to rebuild a new life and wants to cut her former life as a Howell and a Stockton. 

Helene was a philanthropist just to make her family look good. Since then, she became involved in philanthropy in earnest because she knows about loss and pain. She sees others sufferings. She has a chance to be a better person and she won't let her father take that from her.

J.D. and Monica also find a new life in a surprising place….with each other. It's a pairing that seems abrupt but considering that they have suffered tremendous loss and have a shared history (even if it was once as opposite sides of the law), the initial weirdness disappears. 

J.D.'s girlfriend, Annie was killed by Desire Card operatives, feeding his thirst for revenge. Now his vengeance is gone, he just floats along, finding a place of quiet and solitude.

While Monica's son died from an illness, her grief fuelled her search for Gracie and put her right into Howell's orbit.

She also resigned her police position and is trying to live a stress free life.

Monica meets J.D. trying to rebuild his life and the two hook up. Despite their burgeoning relationship, they can't put their past behind them until they face Howell one final time.

Another character with her own interesting backstory is the shaman. Her story is too enticing to reveal in this review but let's say the series finally comes full circle and if anyone has a major ax to grind against Howell, it's her. She uses intimidating physical threats and her supernatural abilities to show the literal and figurative monster that Howell is and why so many people would like to see the back of him. The shaman gives Howell his final comeuppance in a way that is long predicted but ultimately satisfying and cathartic.

Desire's End is the perfect ending to an exciting and suspenseful series. After all the twists, turns, duplicity, and betrayal, it's great to see this card get canceled on a high note.

New Book Alert: Hell Spring by Isaac Thorne; Confined and Claustrophobic Horror Involving An Unnaturally Large Flood, A Soul Devouring Demon, and Some Guilt Stricken Souls

 

New Book Alert: Hell Spring by Isaac Thorne; Confined and Claustrophobic Horror Involving An Unnaturally Large Flood, A Soul Devouring Demon, and Some Guilt Stricken Souls

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Last year, I reviewed The Cabin Sessions by Isobel Blackthorn which depicted a small group of people who harbored secret personal guilt as they suffered through a night in which one of their group was predicted to die. I mused about how the group seemed stuck in this bar/nightclub. I theorized that they couldn't leave and were forced to stay because of outside forces. That wasn't the case in that book but it certainly is in Isaac Thorne's Hell Spring.

Hell Spring also has a similar premise of a small group of people all with their dark personal stories stuck in one location during a natural disaster. But this time, the already claustrophobic environment is made even more terrifying because of a sinister supernatural creature who feeds off their guilt and sins.

The opening seems almost Lovecraftian in its execution. A demon lives a parasitic existence on a larger gigantic demon. Other souls and demons also live on the giant, (Satan? The book doesn't really say what the giant is, leaving its identity and actual form ambiguous.) but have no sentinence or knowledge of their existence. The female demon does. In fact, she gets reborn and each time remembers who she is and where she is, almost as a sadistic torture. However, since she has sentinence, she can plot her escape and finally she manages it. 

The female demon escapes into Hollow Creek, Tennessee in 1955. She has to take a form that the humans are comfortable with, so she uses a calendar of a pre-fame Marilyn Monroe for her new look. This makes the second time this year after Lee Matthew Goldberg's Immoral Origins in which a character assumes the form of Monroe to commit villainous deeds. Perhaps, underneath that buxom figure, girlish voice, and sultry comedic style lies a dark soul. That was certainly true for Monroe herself who lived a very public troubled life and died of a barbiturate overdose, possibly suicide, in 1962. So despite her beauty and free spirited personality, Monroe produced trouble for herself, what's to stop one who looks like her from producing trouble for others. She is the unattainable beauty that like a siren that could lure one to possess her. In this case, could lure one to their death and eternal suffering.

Marilyn The Demon(we'll call the demon, Marilyn, for convenience's sake.) hungers for souls to devour, humans who are suffering internally from fear of sin and punishment. She finds them inside Beard's General Store in the form of various humans who have their guilty secrets.

The humans include:

Eli Wynn-a young farmhand. He is an orphan so is under the care of a God-fearing farming couple, the Blalocks, for whom he also works. He is constantly worried when he does things like swearing, drinking alcohol, and especially masturbating. 

Mark MacDonald-pastor of the Hollow Creek Nazarene Church. He is concerned about low attendance and his own dwindling finances. He adds a little more of the church funds into his own pocket and takes money from the general store.

Donna Gilliam-a wife and mother suffering from an abusive marriage. She silences the rants and beatings from her husband, Ted, by killing him. She takes her infant son, Theo, and plans to leave town.

Peter Mayberry-church pianist and closeted gay man. When he was young, his mother resorted to disturbing violent means to curb his sexual tendencies. The memories traumatize him even as an adult. Even though he is involved with Samuel, an African American man, Peter is still filled with guilt over the relationship.

Kathy and Jerry Beard-The mother and son who run the general store where the others gather during a large storm that quickly changes into an immense flood. The arrival of the others and the strange happenings put a strain on the already disagreeing mother and son's relationship to the point of completely fracturing.

What is particularly compelling is how Marilyn controls her human victims before she eats them. Through these people, Marilyn gets into their heads and influences their thoughts. This fills them with guilt and remorse, making them ready for her feeding. The humans are stuck inside a general store with a rapidly growing flood outside and a hungry demon in the form of a sexy movie star inside.

Marilyn transforms herself into whatever form and personality to entice, lure, or shame the humans. They take her inside the store because she assumes the form of a shivering, frightened, terrified victim, so they feel sorry for her.

She becomes a sexy temptress to seduce the men particularly Peter. 

Since he believes that he had sex with a woman and because it's the repressive 1950's when homosexuality is illegal and he had been shamed for it, Peter believes that Marilyn "cured" him. So he becomes the demon's sidekick, by sharing her consciousness and manipulating the others into thinking about their own sins. Peter gets so far gone in his relationship with Marilyn that he begins to think of her as God at first. 

Marilyn also uses other tricks in her arsenal to feed on her victims, such as using her sexy form to entice Eli to masturbate then turning into Mrs. Blalock to embarrass him for doing so. She also takes other forms and she and Peter keep whispering guilt inside the victim's brains, getting them to continuously think about their deeds.

 As the characters feel shame and guilt for the things that they did, and Marilyn and Peter keep reminding them, Marilyn eats their souls. At first the victim feels the guilt and blame lifted from them. They feel lighter but then as Marilyn continues to feed on them, they feel intense choking pain. The guilt leaves their bodies, looking like red steam that smells like sulfur. The victim becomes smaller and weaker until there is nothing left.

One of the more nightmarish things that happens is the loss of space and time that occurs inside the general store. No one is sure how long they are there: hours, days, or even years. Day and night aren't shown because rain and floodwaters cover the view of the world outside. With the exception of Peter, no one shows signs of visible advancing age. Even Baby Theo remains in his infancy held and fed by his mother.

Even the Reader is confused by how long Marilyn and her victims are inside. There are chapters taking place outside the store, but because of all that is going on inside, it is uncertain whether the external chapters are in the present, flashbacks, or flash forwards. This absence of time puts the characters and Readers off kilter. It also suggests that Marilyn is alone for an extended period of time with the victims and their guilty feelings and shame. She may have been feeding on them for years, even decades.

Shame. That is actually troubling them and the true secret weapon in Marilyn's assault. Shame and having the fear of sin and God's punishment put into them. They are made to feel guilty and judged by religious standards that look at everything that they do is a sin. Eli is shamed for doing something that biologically people, especially men, do all the time. Jerry and Kathy feel anguish, even though family fights are quite common and are means to let off tension.

 Peter is made to feel guilty for being gay, a sexuality that he was born with and being judged when he is in a loving consentual adult relationship. 

Even Mark and Donna's larger crimes are not looked through the lens, of pure right or wrong, innocence or guilt, the black or white that they are led to believe. Donna is a woman in the 1950's who is unable to divorce an abusive husband. She protects her child and defends herself the only way that she can in a time period with limited resources and means to protect them. 

Mark is a thief absolutely, but the book also explains the reasons behind it. Despite being considered a pillar of the community, he is below the poverty line and has dwindling attendance in his church. He is beginning to wonder if his flock is forgetting about their shepherd. He acts out of thoughtlessness and desperation. To his credit, he is guilty about his actions even before he gets to the store and legitimately becomes the moral center of the group. He is also the first to recognize Marilyn for what she really is.

The shame and guilt that comes with generations of thoughts of religious sin are what fuels Marilyn. That is also what weakens her victims. In their concerns about whether they are worthy of Heaven, instead they create their own Hell.

New Book Alert: Immoral Origins (The Desire Card Book 1) by Lee Matthew Goldberg;. Suspenseful Crime Thriller About the Hidden Cost of Desire and Success

 

New Book Alert: Immoral Origins (The Desire Card Book 1) by Lee Matthew Goldberg;. Suspenseful Crime Thriller About the Hidden Cost of Desire and Success

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: What's on your reading list?

What if you had a card that would give you anything that you desired and removed any obstacle to obtain it? How satisfied would you be or would you want more? What if in obtaining your heart's desire, it involved the deaths of people? Maybe people you don't know, maybe a rival, but it could just as easily involve the death of a friend or family member? After all, the cost of this card is only your soul. Now would you do it?

This premise is explored in Lee Matthew Goldberg's The Desire Card series and particularly its first volume, Immoral Origins. As with his previous novels, Slow Down and Orange City, Goldberg shows the perils of cold blooded pure unadulterated naked ambition and its effect on a small time guy who is playing in bigger more dangerous leagues.

Jake Barnum, our protagonist, is a petty crook going nowhere fast. He just got out of prison and is left homeless and unemployable. He then moves back in with his parents and his mentally challenged brother, Emile. He is subjected to his parent's poverty which is revealed by the frequent visits to the hospital and medical bills to diagnose Emile's condition and his father working two jobs and getting only two hours of sleep per day. Jake's relationship with his girlfriend, Cheryl is coming to an end. (After stealing her a tennis bracelet from Tiffany's, Jake finds out that she is seeing someone else.) His childhood friend, Maggs introduces him to his boss, Georgie who wants him to do "pick ups and deliveries" and not ask questions. In Hell's Kitchen New York in 1978, that type of job can only mean one thing and they aren't mail carriers.

One Halloween night, Jake, dressed as Erroll Flynn's Robin Hood, encounters a woman dressed as Marilyn Monroe and only answers to that name. Marilyn informs Jake that she works for a company that grants wishes, with the Desire Card. It's everywhere you want to be….whether you like it or not. 

Marilyn introduces Jake to her boss, an enigmatic man known only as Clark Gable because like Marilyn, he wears costumes and a mask resembling the Hollywood actor. In fact all of the Desire Card employees and elite guests dress up in the masks and costumes of old Hollywood stars. There is Bette Davis typing away every conversation in front of her, even small talk. Gregory Peck is ruthless in the job and in his relationship with Marilyn. Spencer Tracy is Gable's informant.  Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier  run the European branch. Now Jake has a new identity as Erroll Flynn. Marilyn says that it's a disguise to hide who the people really are from the outside world and themselves. Your Hollywood mask, don't leave home without it.

The Desire Card is meant to fulfill the holder's wishes whether it's to get more money, a promotion at work, or in Jake's family's case top notch medical care for a loved one. Gable and his operatives do anything to make those wishes come true. However, the means are less like Santa Claus and more like Al Capone or Jimmy Savile. They resort to kidnapping, theft, sexual assault, and murder to get the job done. They are also expanding their services into drugs and other extra "benefits" that come with having the card. The more that Jake profits from his time with the Desire Card, the greedier and more addicted he gets to power and success. After all, doing illegal deeds to meet one's desire: Expensive. Murdering other people: Costly. Selling one's soul: Priceless.

In this book, Goldberg does what he does best: shows how power and ambition could be an addiction and how often these little guys become swept in and end up becoming the deadliest force of all. Jake is like the petty crook in gangster films who robs stores and takes drugs thinking that makes him tough. Then he gets involved with a much bigger and deadlier group. Amidst the wild parties, frequent sex, and nights out in fancy restaurants, he realizes the darker side of his new friend and now that darker side is turned towards him. In the grand scheme of criminal activity, Jake is a small dog, a Yorkie, yipping at the heels of a pack of dobermans and acts surprised when they snarl their teeth and shed blood on him.

He enjoys the protection that they give him and the treatment that Emile receives. He also likes the flash and glamor that he is exposed to as he ascends higher in the organization. 

Jake at first has few moral concerns. As long as he's getting everything that he wants, he doesn't question the things that he has to do. Even after he expresses qualms about killing for the first job, he ends up becoming okay with it later-as long as the people he goes after are enemies or strangers. It's when they go after friends and family, that Jake questions his new life. Jak is an extremely egocentric selfish creep of a weak willed character who only has moral qualms when it personally involves him. That makes him the perfect victim for the people behind the card.

The Desire Card employees are an intriguing bunch because they are so mysterious. Their only identities are their Hollywood names and characters. I suppose we could infer from their chosen identities who they might have been. Maybe Bette was a tough gal who liked to be a Jezebel. Perhaps, Katharine came from a wealthy Connecticut background and Olivier might be a devotee of Shakespeare.

We learn a bit about Marilyn and everything about her backstory is similar to her character: the lost lonely young girl, the attraction to powerful dangerous men, the sadness hidden behind a glamorous facade. But the Reader only learns a little bit about her. She loves her identity as Marilyn so she insists that's all there is. Part of working for the Desire Card is to become their deepest desire.

The most mysterious of all is their leader, Gable. Everything that we learn about him is repeatedly proven or disproven. Does he have a family or doesn't he? How long has he been doing this? How does he find out everyone's desires and secrets? Is he just really good at obtaining informants or is there something else? Is there something supernatural at work here? After all, doesn't the Desire Card sound an awful lot like a deal with the devil? We learn nothing and see nothing except what Gable wants us to see.  It will be interesting to see how Gable and his subordinates continue to play out this mystery in the rest of the series.

Immoral Origins is great at dissecting what the hidden cost is obtaining power and success without a conscience. There are some books that explore this theme without success. For everything else, there's Immoral Origins.

Weekly Reader: Alternate Warriors Edited by Mike Resnick; Alternate Universe Anthology Creates Interesting and Violent Scenarios

Weekly Reader: Alternate Warriors Edited by Mike Resnick; Alternate Universe Anthology Creates Interesting and Violent Scenarios

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


PopSugar Reading Challenge: An anthology

Spoilers: Alternate histories are fun to speculate upon wondering if something had been ever so slightly altered, could things have been different? Many books are written about the possibilities of the Nazis winning WWII or the Confederate states remaining separated from the Union after the Civil War. So many possibilities can be entertained. What if Lee Harvey Oswald missed? What if the Manson Family knocked on the wrong door instead of Sharon Tate's home? What if The Beatles never formed? What if Princess Diana lived to see her sons get married? What if Hilary Clinton never married Bill or won the last election? What if any other President had won instead of the ones that did?


Science Fiction authors have entertained various possibilities in this genre and the projected time streams are as varied as the divergant points in history. Science Fiction author and editor, Mike Resnick, edited a series of anthologies that offer these intriguing possibilities. The first (and best) Alternate Presidents gives various failed candidates a chance to grace the walls of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Another book in the series is Alternate Warriors. The premise is that various figures known for their pacificism, or nonviolent displays of civil disobedience now stop turning the other cheek and instead start picking up guns and swords. These characters embrace more violent natures in stories that open up very dark, violent, fascinating possibilities in history.


The best stories are:


"Because Thou Lovest a Burning Ground" by Michael P. Kube-McDowell- Alternate warrior: Mohandas K. Mahatma Gandhi

In our timeline, Gandhi was known for his pacifistic nature and acts of civil disobedience against English colonialism. This story suggests what would have happened if he had a different guide in his path: Kali, the Hindu Goddess of Death and Retribution. The plot supposed that Gandhi, a young medical student is mentored by Jafir, the remnant of the Thuggee cult that worshipped Kali. Gandhi is enticed by the Thuggees's violent nature to strangle their enemies without remorse. He is also driven by an India in which natives are forced to be educated in English, refused admission to certain studies, and villages are destroyed by English soldiers for the slightest provocation. While the Thuggee are written as a violent bunch, it is easy to see why Gandhi would use violence against violence. Using his leadership skills and cult of personality, the story ends on a bone chilling note when Gandhi is surrounded by hundreds of Thuggee followers ready to meet bloodshed with bloodshed.


"Extreme Feminism" by Nicholas DiChario-Alternate warrior: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Victoria Woodhull

A common thread in these stories are that as bad as the situations are in reality, the stories are far worse. Certain groups are treated even worse (if such a thing could be possible) causing those who speak out with little choice but to react with violence, creating an even worse cycle of violence in which history can never climb out from. This story presents the possibility of how women's status was changed if Abraham Lincoln was assassinated not by John Wilkes Booth but by Mary E. Surratt (in reality, the owner of boarding house in which Booth stayed. She was the only female conspirator in the Lincoln assassination that was executed. This story implies that Surratt acted alone.) Since it was a woman that assassinated the President, the men in charge of law and politics decided that all women must be punished. They are forced by law to wear constricting bodices, petticoats, corsets and bonnets that cover all parts of the body and limit movement and breathing. ("A comfortable woman is a dangerous woman," they reason.) They are unable to purchase anything including guns without written consent from their husbands. As for the right to vote, well that's never going to happen.

Besides the conflicts between the feminists like Susan B. Anthony and the male dominated society, there is also conflict between the feminists themselves. There are the older ones like Anthony who prefer to fight with words and harmless stunts to get attention, like women firing guns into the air after Anthony makes a speech. Then there are the younger ones like Victoria Woodhull, who call themselves "Extreme Feminists" and prefer to commit violent acts like shooting and kidnapping male soldiers. The violent and nonviolent approaches go beyond either Anthony or Woodhull's expectations when a shootout ends on a bloody note for the feminists but gives Anthony the chance to unleash the power she longs for and as the narration tells us: "what no woman ever had a choice."


"The Firebringers" by David Gerrold-Alternate warrior: Various Hollywood icons including Gregory Peck, Ronald Reagan, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Bob Hope, Van Johnson, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy

In the introduction, Resnick describes author, David Gerrold's career as a Hollywood screenwriter allowed him to think big. This story proves that. The basic premise is that the atomic bomb that the Americans sent is not dropped in Japan, but in Germany. Besides the change in direction, there is also a change in personnel. The flight crew on this fatal trip is comprised of Hollywood actors including Gregory Peck, Ronald Reagan, Humphrey Bogart, and James Cagney.

The characters are amalgams of their real selves and the characters that they played, the personas more known to the public. The story is littered with inside references making it one of the cleverest stories in the anthology. There are several references to their movies and lives. Bogart talks about returning to Morocco and reopen his cafe (referencing Casablanca). Lieutenants Laurel and Hardy were piano movers before the war (like in their Academy Award winning short, The Music Box). Cagney, the narrator writes in first person normally but his dialogue is punctuated "Oh..uh ah," and other fillers mimicking every comedian's impression of him ever.

By far the strongest characters are Colonals Gregory Peck and Ronald Reagan, also playing their types. Channeling his future (real life) career as President during the last days of the Cold War, Reagan describes the Germans as an "evil empire" and is in favor of bombing them sky high. Peck however, speaks in the voice of his character, Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird and tries to appeal to the crew's decency and basic humanity. This story is also one of the few in the anthology which doesn't end in violence, and insteads shows that cooler heads can prevail.



"The Cold Warrior" by Jack C. Haldeman II-Alternate warrior: Marilyn Monroe

Another Hollywood performer taking a violent turn in this anthology, is Marilyn Monroe. Though unlike the boys in "The Firebringers", she is acting by her lonesome self. This story reveals that this alternate Marilyn is more than capable of doing just that.

While she is still an actress in this story, Monroe has more important things in mind like revenge against Fidel Castro after a failed romance with Castro's partner, Che Guevera. Monroe uses her looks, charisma, and various other attributes to spy on such notables as Castro, Jimmy Hoffa, the Mafia, CIA, and just about anyone else in her way. The real Monroe was considered a soft spoken, troubled, insecure actress who had been victimized by a Hollywood patriarchal system, a drug addiction, and her own worries about her screen image. This Monroe is a hard edged, cynical, tough talking spy/assassin who uses any man in her way before shooting him. Like many other characters in these stories, this story opens up the dark side that Monroe may have unleashed if given the chance.


"One by One" by Beth Meacham-Alternate warrior: Tecumseh

Most of the stories feature the direct cause of the violence, the moment when the character embraces their dark sides. This story is the effect, what happens 200 years after Tecumseh, the Prophet's dream united the various tribes into the Shawnee Alliance and to fight a continuous war against their white invaders.

The world that is portrayed is the 1960's during this ongoing endless conflict when Walks Softly, a young woman seeking vengeance for the deaths of her father and brother, joins the terrorist organization that attacks the whites only towns. There are many moments of Native Americans striking back on their foes such as Ed Ames recreating the tomahawk throwing incident on the Tonight Show. However, the real life incident involved Ames throwing the tomahawk at a drawing's groin with some off-color harmless jokes from Carson. In this time stream, an angry Ames grieving over the death of his nephew, takes offense at Carson's humor and silences the talk show host but good, on live television.

This intense short story climaxes in a moment when Walks Softly has to make the decision to save a white childhood friend or to commit the violence that she is trained to do. The ending reveals the conditioning that this war has brought when people on both sides only see an enemy and not a human being and revenge and rage are all that they live for.


"Death of a Dream" by Jack C. Haldeman II-Alternate warrior: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gets the focus of two stories. The first Lawrence Schimel's "Taking Action", shows King tortured by dreams but not his famous one of equality. Instead, they are prophetic dreams of the Anita Hill testimony before Congress and the Rodney King beating and various other scenes of racism. (One can only imagine that if the story were updated how many more dreams he would have including Travyon Martin, Michael Brown, Ahmoud Arbery, the South Carolina church shootings and so on.)

The better story is Haldeman's "Death of a Dream." This depicts a King still alive in 1975, but an embittered, angry King who is dying of cancer and is no longer the golden voiced idealist who united all people under his dream. Instead he never got to give his speech. In this version of events, he was openly denounced by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. Most of the co-leaders of the Civil Rights Movement withdrew their allegiances with King and Malcom X went to prison for successfully assasinating Alabama Gov. George Wallace Segregation continues and spreads throughout the entire United States. The Civil Rights bill is rejected. African-Americans are denied the right to vote and maybe forced to return to Africa.

This is the most pessimistic of the stories featuring a character with nothing left to lose. King knows he's going to die, so he is doing the only thing that he has left taking the President of the United States (former Chicago mayor), Richard J. Daley with him. Even though it's less than five pages, it shows what happens when the fight is gone and all the warrior has left is bitterness, exhaustion, and vengeance.


Alternate Warriors takes these characters down a dark side. While their motives are understandable, often driven by prejudice, hatred, or vengeance, these stories retroactively make their real life actions more admirable. They could have easily chosen violence and walked down these dark paths, but they didn't. Instead, they chose to fight with words, talents, resistance, and bloodless action. In doing so, they became the real heroes.