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Up Late: The Argo 8

Strange Doors—Weird Tales

A DarkSF Anthology by John Argo

These ten (not eight, just to be different) stories by John Argo straddle the murky region of pure imagination, dimly illumined by a weird light through Strange Doors. John Argo's button box stories hold up a lens, offering us odd new ways of looking at things we take usually for granted. Yes, even the count is off--these eight tales contain two strays from the Night Shots series that took a taxi in the night to come and dance in this hall after hours.

Be aware: some of these stories are strong stuff. They range from bloody justice (Susie) to the thought-jarring (Three Tales of Parallelocation) to wistful tales of love and loss (Petra). You'll meet a successful man who finds only one way to stop the painful movie of his father (Killing Daddy--watch the last frame carefully, or you'll piss the moint). There is a story for all men (and many women) about love and fidelity (The Flower Baron). See the Table of Buttons inside for the full list.

A good story may be lurking any place--under your bed, in the closet, among the dead beef sticks at the super market, or in a huge, rustling, empty building in the last rays of daylight or, for that matter, in the afterglow of dead civilizations--you never know.

The Up Late: the Argo 8 (Strange Doors series) stories are the kind of imaginative and slightly to muchly off-balance fiction that Rod Serling managed to fit into his beloved Twilight Zone series over half a century ago. In that same spirit, John Argo offers a wonderful button box selection (or call it a bonbonniere) of SF, Fantasy, and Horror--with a skilful sprinkling of suspense and mystery to jazz up the atmosphere. These are original, fresh stories right off the bar & grill down a street of neon and fog, where time is not an option--we're always up too late.

When you read Up Late: the Argo 8, you are walking down well-worn, eerie hallways with many Gothic looking doors. You may be tempted to open some, or else hurry as fast as you can to reach daylight. Whatever you do--go with the flow. Let the dark atmosphere carry you to where the author wants to take you. You'll be glad you did. Remember, it's only a story. Then again, that's life, especially when the clock face on the wall has no hands, the numbers are out of sequence, and only a dim light refracts through a beer-tinted prism. We hear a gunshot…