★★★★☆ Full of Surprises
(Horror) Alton and his buddy steal a machine that lets you relate people to all the information about them ever collected on the Internet. (10,188 words; Time: 33m)
"The Eyes of Alton Arnhauser," by Nick Wolven [bio] (edited by Trevor Quachri), appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact issue 07-08|19, published on June 15, 2019 by Penny Publications.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2019.350 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: The story is very nicely balanced. Alton’s theft ends up costing him much more than he’d expected it would. Even when it works, it doesn’t quite work as he’d wanted it to.
Alton himself is a bad guy, yet he manages to earn our sympathy. We’re torn between wanting someone to stop him, wanting someone to help him, and, perversely, wanting him to get away with it.
Con: The device is more fantasy than science. Even with all the data on the Internet, there’s no way any conceivable system could deduce that kind of information about people.
Other Reviews: Search Web
Nick Wolven Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Pro: The story is very nicely balanced. Alton’s theft ends up costing him much more than he’d expected it would. Even when it works, it doesn’t quite work as he’d wanted it to.
Alton himself is a bad guy, yet he manages to earn our sympathy. We’re torn between wanting someone to stop him, wanting someone to help him, and, perversely, wanting him to get away with it.
Con: The device is more fantasy than science. Even with all the data on the Internet, there’s no way any conceivable system could deduce that kind of information about people.
Other Reviews: Search Web
Nick Wolven Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
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