The Broadsword - Laird Barron
Novelette
Number of words : 14300
Percent of complex words : 10.3
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 12.0
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 8.9
Flesch : 65.5
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.11
PEOPLE
Pershing Dennard
Percy. A resident of the Broadsword Hotel in room 119 on the sixth floor, which is now an apartment building, despite the name. A retired state surveyor.
Terry Walker
His lost friend and co-worker.
Hopkins
The Broadsword's custodian.
Frame
The Broadsword's superintendent.
Morris Miller or Pete Cabellos
Rabid outdoorsmen.
Higgins
The crew leader.
Ethel
His wife who died in 1979.
Constance
Connie, his second now ex-wife.
Lisa Anne
His daughter by Constance.
Jimmy
His son by Constance. In construction.
Anderson Heck
The old Broadsword Super.
Wanda
His current girlfriend.
Bobby Silver
Or Sly, a Broadsword lecher.
Mark Ordbecker
A high school maths teacher living below Dennard, with his wife and two children.
Eric Ordbecker
Mark's son.
Frankie Walton
An hard of hearing man that lives next to Dennard.
Mel Clayton
A friend of Dennard's. An engineering consultant who lives in The Broadsword.
Elgin Bane
Another friend of Dennard's. A social worker. Lives in Yelm.
Kerouac and Ginsberg
Poets.
Carl
His brother in Denver.
Nancy Clayton
Mel's ex-wife. Now lives in Seattle with a new husband.
Regina
Gina. Mel's second wife, a baker.
Ansel Adams
A photographer.
Ken Griffey Jr
A talented American professional baseball player.
Randy Freeman
A radical.
Che Guevara
A revolutionary.
Fred Nilson
A Broadsword resident.
Brad Cox
An absent Broadsword resident.
Barton Ingles III
Lisa Anne's stepfather.
Gloria
A female appearing alien.
Detective Klecko
Investigator on the Eric Ordbecker case.
MEDIA
Ghost of Christmas Past
Character in a Dickens novel.
Will Robinson
A boy Lost in Space with a robot.
The Thinker
A statue.
This Old Man
An old song.
The Fortean Times
A publication of the strange.
Black Hole Sun
A Soundgarden song.
PLACES
The Broadsword Hotel
An apartment building that used to be queenly in her time, a seven-floor art deco complex on the West Side of Olympia on a wooded hill with a view of the
water, the marina, and downtown. In 1918 a posh club and gambling joint.
Olympia
Capital of Washington State.
Olympic Peninsula
Where he lost Terry in 1973.
Appalachians
Where dwell your superstitious hillbilly types.
The Manticore
A bar.
The Red Room
A bar.
The Black Hills
Outside Olympia.
Waddel Valley
Seen from Wanda's back porch.
Anthony's
Expensive restaurant near the marina.
FOOD
Jerky
Tough dried meat.
Honeydew
A canteloupe-like melon.
Absolut
Vodka.
Merlot
A red wine.
Sweetbreads
Delectable bits of mammals.
Cloves
A spice.
Johnny Walker
A blended scotch.
Taffy
Sticky, stretchy confectionery.
Lowenbrau
Your usual cheap and poor mass market American beer.
CONCEPTS
Manitou
Native American monster legend.
TECHNOLOGY
Fiber-optic snooper cable
Spy gear.
Voltmeter
For measuring electromagnetic fluctuations.
Valium
Anti-anxiety drug.
PLOT
Pershing Dennard is a retired, widowed and divorced surveyor living in an apartment building in Washington State. During a work excursion in 1973 a friend of his disappeared.
He has begun to hear strange voices talking and singing to him. He confides in a couple of friends, one of whom offers to bring some spy gear to check out if he is bugged.
It is much worse than that though - when he is visited by the supposedly deceased Terry. Or what used to be Terry. Alien entities from the outer dark are immortal - so only breed by taking over the local lifeforms. Like guys named Terry. Or women named Gloria, presumably. They have now taken a fancy to him. The monstrous pair from the shadows begins to have their way with him.
Dennard blacks out for three days, and a police detective comes calling, wanting to know if he knows anything about the disappearance of a neighbour boy. He says no.
His two friends are creeped out, too, so they decide to go on a holiday away from the city lights, taking the respective wives and girlfriends (haven't watched enough movies, apparently, this group_. However, Percy begins to realise and remember: he is transforming, to become like then. And it begins to finalise just as night deepends on their first night away, and they are turning in as Dennard is turning out.
4.5 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
Number of words : 14300
Percent of complex words : 10.3
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 12.0
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 8.9
Flesch : 65.5
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.11
PEOPLE
Pershing Dennard
Percy. A resident of the Broadsword Hotel in room 119 on the sixth floor, which is now an apartment building, despite the name. A retired state surveyor.
Terry Walker
His lost friend and co-worker.
Hopkins
The Broadsword's custodian.
Frame
The Broadsword's superintendent.
Morris Miller or Pete Cabellos
Rabid outdoorsmen.
Higgins
The crew leader.
Ethel
His wife who died in 1979.
Constance
Connie, his second now ex-wife.
Lisa Anne
His daughter by Constance.
Jimmy
His son by Constance. In construction.
Anderson Heck
The old Broadsword Super.
Wanda
His current girlfriend.
Bobby Silver
Or Sly, a Broadsword lecher.
Mark Ordbecker
A high school maths teacher living below Dennard, with his wife and two children.
Eric Ordbecker
Mark's son.
Frankie Walton
An hard of hearing man that lives next to Dennard.
Mel Clayton
A friend of Dennard's. An engineering consultant who lives in The Broadsword.
Elgin Bane
Another friend of Dennard's. A social worker. Lives in Yelm.
Kerouac and Ginsberg
Poets.
Carl
His brother in Denver.
Nancy Clayton
Mel's ex-wife. Now lives in Seattle with a new husband.
Regina
Gina. Mel's second wife, a baker.
Ansel Adams
A photographer.
Ken Griffey Jr
A talented American professional baseball player.
Randy Freeman
A radical.
Che Guevara
A revolutionary.
Fred Nilson
A Broadsword resident.
Brad Cox
An absent Broadsword resident.
Barton Ingles III
Lisa Anne's stepfather.
Gloria
A female appearing alien.
Detective Klecko
Investigator on the Eric Ordbecker case.
MEDIA
Ghost of Christmas Past
Character in a Dickens novel.
Will Robinson
A boy Lost in Space with a robot.
The Thinker
A statue.
This Old Man
An old song.
The Fortean Times
A publication of the strange.
Black Hole Sun
A Soundgarden song.
PLACES
The Broadsword Hotel
An apartment building that used to be queenly in her time, a seven-floor art deco complex on the West Side of Olympia on a wooded hill with a view of the
water, the marina, and downtown. In 1918 a posh club and gambling joint.
Olympia
Capital of Washington State.
Olympic Peninsula
Where he lost Terry in 1973.
Appalachians
Where dwell your superstitious hillbilly types.
The Manticore
A bar.
The Red Room
A bar.
The Black Hills
Outside Olympia.
Waddel Valley
Seen from Wanda's back porch.
Anthony's
Expensive restaurant near the marina.
FOOD
Jerky
Tough dried meat.
Honeydew
A canteloupe-like melon.
Absolut
Vodka.
Merlot
A red wine.
Sweetbreads
Delectable bits of mammals.
Cloves
A spice.
Johnny Walker
A blended scotch.
Taffy
Sticky, stretchy confectionery.
Lowenbrau
Your usual cheap and poor mass market American beer.
CONCEPTS
Manitou
Native American monster legend.
TECHNOLOGY
Fiber-optic snooper cable
Spy gear.
Voltmeter
For measuring electromagnetic fluctuations.
Valium
Anti-anxiety drug.
PLOT
Pershing Dennard is a retired, widowed and divorced surveyor living in an apartment building in Washington State. During a work excursion in 1973 a friend of his disappeared.
He has begun to hear strange voices talking and singing to him. He confides in a couple of friends, one of whom offers to bring some spy gear to check out if he is bugged.
It is much worse than that though - when he is visited by the supposedly deceased Terry. Or what used to be Terry. Alien entities from the outer dark are immortal - so only breed by taking over the local lifeforms. Like guys named Terry. Or women named Gloria, presumably. They have now taken a fancy to him. The monstrous pair from the shadows begins to have their way with him.
Dennard blacks out for three days, and a police detective comes calling, wanting to know if he knows anything about the disappearance of a neighbour boy. He says no.
His two friends are creeped out, too, so they decide to go on a holiday away from the city lights, taking the respective wives and girlfriends (haven't watched enough movies, apparently, this group_. However, Percy begins to realise and remember: he is transforming, to become like then. And it begins to finalise just as night deepends on their first night away, and they are turning in as Dennard is turning out.
4.5 out of 5
4.5 out of 5