Saturday, March 9, 2019

My Children's Home, by Woody Dismukes

[Lightspeed]
★★★☆☆ Average

(SF Dystopia) Although this “home” isn’t quite what it seems, the narrator does raise and educate boys up until they’re almost men. He likes his work, he’s got a good record, so he’s upset when the Bureau wants to investigate him. (4,446 words; Time: 14m)


"My Children's Home," by (edited by John Joseph Adams), appeared in issue 106, published on .

Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)

Review: 2019.165 (A Word for Authors)

Pro: The description of the home unfolds quickly and without an info dump, although it was a bit of a shock to learn that the boys were going to be “auctioned” off at the end of their education.

The narrator is a little slow to figure out that the Bureau wants D-13 because he’s exceptionally beautiful and, presumably, is earmarked to serve someone powerful who’ll “take care of him.”

We know the narrator loved another boy when he was in this very school, so he has sympathy for what D-6 feels, and they comfort each other at the end.

Con: It never goes anywhere. The narrator accomplishes nothing and learns nothing. There’s no hint of how this world works as a whole or whether there’s any hope of breaking this tyranny.

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