(Apocalypse) After memory-loss plague strikes the world, Gouda helps clients track missing family members they can barely remember—even though she can’t even remember her own last name. (4,221 words; Time: 14m)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average
"A Cigarette Burn In Your Memory," by Bo Balder [bio] (edited by Neil Clarke), appeared in Clarkesworld issue 136, published on January 1, 2018.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Pro: Gouda wants to figure out what’s happening. The tragedy is that she doesn’t figure it out, but we do; aliens have spread a virus so they can loot the planet without the natives knowing what’s happening.
Con: It’s a bit confusing. At one point we’re told computers don’t work anymore. At another, Guda inputs data into her computer at home.
It’s a very depressing setting, and it ends on a note of complete hopelessness.
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 136)
Bo Balder Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
Con: It’s a bit confusing. At one point we’re told computers don’t work anymore. At another, Guda inputs data into her computer at home.
It’s a very depressing setting, and it ends on a note of complete hopelessness.
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 136)
Bo Balder Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
Well, I didn't figure it out. Any idea what the icebergs were about?
ReplyDeleteIt seems like an individual computer still worked, but all networking was gone. Her "baby tablet" still plays solitaire, but she doesn't recognize that it was once a phone.
The aliens were taking ice and metals from asteroids and the moons of outer planets. She'd read an article about that, and what stuck in her mind was icebergs. I think.
Delete