Literature of Horror, Fantasy & Sci-Fi

"The Star" For this week, I read the short story, "The Star" by Arthur C Clarke in 1956. With how short it was, there was a lot in it that piqued my interest.  The story crosses science fiction with religion, two topics that always seem to clash. The study of science had a way of calling the works of God into question, either causing people to doubt or outright prove this couldn't have happened. There are those, of course, who believe regardless, but none of those people are featured in this story. I had no idea how much it involved Earth's Christianity until the very end, that the dead star the explorers go to investigate--the white dwarf whose death wiped out a civilization on nearby planets--is actually THE Star, the Star that shone over Bethlehem to guide shepherds and the Three Wise Men to where Jesus was born.  Upon discovering this and finishing the story, I did sit for a moment to reflect; the story is basically saying that the death o...

"The Ocean at the End of the Lane" This was quite an intriguing story; just when I thought I'd figured out the story, another curve-ball is thrown at me and I end up with more questions as to what the heck is going on in this story.  It starts out normal, the unnamed protagonist attending a funeral then strolls down memory lane--almost literally--and we, the reader, are catapulted into the past and go on the most bizarre adventure imaginable. In order to understand what is happening, you have to throw rationality out the window; rational thought does not exist in this world. I'm not even sure what kind of world this is, or what the inhabitants are. Clearly something walks among the humans, hidden in plain sight like the Hempstock family. One would think, from an outsider's perspective, the events of the story are nothing more but the fabrications of a seven-year-old boy who spends more time in the world of books than in the real world; it would be the o...