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    The Vole Eater: A Parody of Mike Resnick's "The Soul Eater"
    The Vole Eater: A Parody of Mike Resnick's "The Soul Eater"
    The Vole Eater: A Parody of Mike Resnick's "The Soul Eater"
    Ebook46 pages41 minutes

    The Vole Eater: A Parody of Mike Resnick's "The Soul Eater"

    By Barry Ergang

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    About this ebook

    In space, no one can hear you burp.

    Sci-fi for foodies? Perhaps. The novelette's protagonist supplies exotic foods to restaurants throughout the galaxy. When he discovers a creature thought to be mythical, a different kind of hunger besets him and it's no longer business as usual.

    Although this parody/pastiche can stand on its own as a story, to fully understand the parody and the elements it references, its author urges you to also read the work that prompted it: "The Soul Eater," sci-fi's take on "Moby Dick," by one of the genre's grand masters, Mike Resnick.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBarry Ergang
    Release dateJun 3, 2016
    ISBN9781310225352
    The Vole Eater: A Parody of Mike Resnick's "The Soul Eater"
    Author

    Barry Ergang

    Former Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine (www.fmam.biz) and First Senior Editor of Mysterical-E (www.mystericale.com/), Barry Ergang's fiction, poetry and non-fiction have appeared in numerous publications, print and electronic. He is a winner of a Derringer Award from the Short Mystery Fiction Society for the best flash fiction story of 2006.

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      Book preview

      The Vole Eater - Barry Ergang

      THE VOLE EATER

      by Barry Ergang

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 1992, 2016 Barry Ergang

      This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with other persons, please purchase additional copies for each person. If you’re reading this e-book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      What follows is a work of fiction. All of the people, incidents, and places are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real people, places or incidents is strictly coincidental.

      Originally published in Resnick at Zineth, Issues 4, 5 & 6: 1992.

      PREFACE

      Mike Resnick and I have been friends since October of 1982, when we were introduced, but we’ve never met face-to-face.

      Our introduction was effected by a mutual friend, Rod Walker. Rod had come east on a vacation in July to visit a number of friends who lived along the eastern seaboard, and I was among those with whom he spent a couple of days. A substantial portion of our visit was taken up with discussions about writing—fiction and poetry—and reading. We talked a good deal about genre stuff because Rod was an avid reader of fantasy and science fiction, whereas I had always preferred the mystery/suspense field. Although I would read a science fiction novel once in a great while, a lot of it left me cold because it emphasized the science over the fiction. Without some decently drawn characters, these works just lay there on the page, refusing to come alive for me.

      When I mentioned this to Rod, he suggested that I try some of Mike Resnick’s books. Mike’s work is long on characterization and not primarily concerned with the hard sciences. In fact, Rod said, since I like mystery and suspense stories, I’d probably like Walpurgis III. Imagine what might happen, he said, if the worst mass-murderer in the history of the universe were hunted by the best hit-man in the universe. Suppose the pursuit occurred on a planet populated by every bizarre cult you can think of and several that you can’t, a world where witchcraft, voodoo, death-worship and the like thrive and are welcomed.

      I was hooked.

      We had to do a great deal of searching, but we finally found a bookstore in the area that had a copy, and I bought Walpurgis III. The next day, after I dropped Rod off at the train station so he could proceed to New York and the next visit on his itinerary, I came home and devoured the book. It was as exciting as Rod had said it was, but it was a lot more than just a thriller. It remains among my favorite Resnick works.

      Knowing that the two kept in touch, I sent a letter to Mike in care of Rod. A few months went by and there appeared in my mailbox one day a reply from Mike. He apologized for the delay, saying Rod had only just written and enclosed my letter. Mike and I developed a lengthy correspondence that continued for many years.*

      Jump forward to the latter half of 1987, when Mike told me he was editing an anthology called Shaggy B.E.M. Stories, a collection of science fiction parodies. It started me thinking

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