Links: Eclipse Online / Invisible Men / Show Official Info /

Here is the original novelette, “Invisible Men” by Christopher Barzak, available at Nightshade's Eclipse Online (see our links section to read the story).

The Eclipse original anthology series from Night Shade Books is now available free online (check our links section).

Eclipse Online is a free, online publication. No subscription or sign-up is required. A story is released by Editor Jonathan Strahan every first and fourth Monday of the month and they stay around for a while. Check them out. Each new story will be reviewed separately. This third one, "Invisible Men" by Christopher Barzak, was posted on December 10, 2012.

This story sounds familiar at the start and a quick check on a free copy of H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man confirms that this is a retelling of (mostly) the beginning of the story when the titular character of the famous story is holed up in a room at an inn called the Coach and Horses. The characters named in this short story are the same characters in Wells.

But this story is told from the point of view of Millie, the maid in the inn and a minor character in Wells. She is smarter than others might give her credit for. She has an encounter with the Invisible Man who makes her an offer to be more than she is. Bur she has the wisdom to just say, "I don't see nothing and nothing don't see me." This was a wonderful little take on a classic story.