This is a short story full of long shots.

First long shot: the text of the entire story is center alligned and bolded. At first, I thought this was a formatting error, but after I sat with the text for a while and read it over a couple of times, I realized that it is an essential part of the conceit.

Second long shot: Clemente gives his narrator a voice that can only be described as 14 year-old pot-head bro. Alexander Grimm is a masterclass in capturing the tone of a discrete culture.

Third long shot: Clemente opts to use the very worn “assembling the team” trope (oh, Seven Samurai, what have you wrought?). But don’t you know, he pulls it off: the pace is snappy, and the team members so colorful that the whole thing feels really fresh.

Fourth long shot: the extremely frank (and, yes, even uncomfortable) descriptions: Clemente uses language so adroitly that many of his descriptions cause an almost bodily reaction. Honestly, the entire story is worth reading just for the very vivid description of the NASA livestock slaughterhouse in space (like a lava lamp from hell…).

So, take a chance on Xavier Clemente and check out General Alexander Grimm: Savior of the Universe–you won’t be able to forget it.