Tag: Tom Gerencer

Review of Primordial Chili by Tom Gerencer

Science Fiction Audiobook - Primordial Chili by Tom GerencerPrimordial Chili
By Tom Gerencer; Read by Tom Gerencer
MP3 Download -14 Minutes 58 Seconds [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: www.telltaleweekly.com
Published: 2004
Themes: / Science Fiction / Humor / Food /

Have you ever had one of those days when everything just seems to go right? Even when it’s wrong? Primordial Chili is a laugh-out-loud thrill-ride of culinary perfection, taken to cosmic proportions. The planets align, the gods speak, and supper turns out pretty good, too.

A substantially superlative and surpassingly silly short story about chili. Gerencer’s tale of the creation of the greatest chili ever made easily passes through the awkward Carrot Top kind of silly, bypasses altogether the elegantly silly Douglas Adams kind of silly, and heads straight towards the very silly indeed kind of silly, the Monty Python silly. The prose is ground to a fine consistency and layered with silliness atop silliness that climbs over itself to new heights of silliness. Gerencer’s narration doesn’t do too much here other than straight read it. I don’t know if Gerencer’s humor would work in novel length, it’d be worth trying, but the more I hear of his short stories the more I’m finding I wouldn’t much care about the novels just as long as his short stories continue to be this good – oh and of course keep coming. Primordial Chili was first published in Science Fiction Age magazine’s November 1999 issue. Did I mention this was the first audiobook to make me really hungry?

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Trailer Trash Savior by Tom Gerencer

Science Fiction Audiobooks - Trailer Trash Savior by Tom GerencerTrailer Trash Savior
By Tom Gerencer; Read by Tom Gerencer
MP3 Download – 10 Minutes 9 Seconds [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: www.TellTaleWeekly.com
Published: 2004
Themes: / Fantasy / Humor / Demons /

So the millennia have passed, and the time of the reckoning is once more nigh … not to mention that you’ve got a busted velvet-Elvis and the oil heat isn’t working. Find out what happens when the owner of a mullet and a used AMC Gremlin becomes “the chosen one,” and has to battle demons, various and sundry. First published in Brutarian magazine. Read by the author.

An underpaid trailer park resident is all that stands between the Earth and its total obliteration. Told in first person perspective, this odd clash of superhero style violence and the trailer park aesthetic works surprisingly well in this short story. The denizens of hell and worse planes of existence always seem to spring up during mealtime and if that isn’t bad enough our hero is forced to fight the unnamable forces of evil in a tackily decorated mobile home. This reading, by the author Tom Gerencer, isn’t bad at all – there is some backround hiss in the mp3 and the misnaming of a trailer park vehicle are all that mar the experience. Gerencer’s narration works pretty well here, and I think that has to do with it being a first person perspective tale – he isn’t forced to do different character’s voices – something best left to professional readers. This is the kind of story you recommend to a friend who’s in need of a really good laugh. Trailer Trash Savior is a full 4.6 Megabytes of downloadable MP3 for just four bits ($0.50 USD)! If you liked Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but maybe thought it was a little unrealistic for a teenage cheerleader to be the chosen one, and that say Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys would have made a better choice, have no fear the Trailer Trash Savior is here.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Demo Mode by Tom Gerencer

Demo Mode
by Tom Gerencer; Read by Tom Gerencer
14 minutes, 31 seconds [UNABRIDGED]Publisher: Telltale Weekly
Published: April 2004
Themes: Science Fiction / Humor / Identity / Viruses /

In the future, knowledge will be grafted straight into our brains, no learning required! Just make sure they configure the innoculotron correctly, or you might wind up contracting Esperanto by mistake. First published in Science Fiction Age Magazine’s May 2000 issue, “Demo Mode” is a humourous short story about a schlub in the future who thinks a simple bit of viral-software will improve his personality. The plot is very similar to the NFB animated film “Personality Software.” Tom Gerencer’s reading is quick, perhaps too quick, but sound quality is great and his “rich and lilting yet somehow phoney sounding stereotypic Scottish accent” is absolutely spot on. Available online at www.telltaleweekly.com for only $.75 USD, “Demo Mode” is a good value and a good laugh!

Posted by Jesse Willis