★★★★☆ A Twisted Tale Emerges from the Fog of Memory
(SF Adventure) Noah is a busy man with a lot of work to do on the moon since he and his partner went independent, but his wife’s illness is a big distraction, and there are hints that other things are seriously wrong. (4,108 words; Time: 13m)
"Miles and Miles and Miles," by Andrew Penn Romine [bio] (edited by John Joseph Adams), appeared in Lightspeed Magazine issue 110, published on July 1, 2019.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2019.402 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: It’s rather sad once we realize that Noah’s wife and partner died a long time ago, and that most of what he’s experiencing is delusions based on his radiation-damaged memories.
The twist at the end (if I’m reading it correctly) is delicious: When the orderly says “I said you’d have to take your medicine eventually” and “All these years and you don’t remember what you did for Arkady. Makes this harder, somehow.” It seems clear that even though Noah has delusions caused by too much time spent on the lunar surface without adequate shielding, the orderly really is there to do something bad to him. At the end, he realizes this, and he accepts his fate.
It’s curious to find two stories about Alan Shephard’s golf balls in two months. Compare this story with “Mulligan,” by Bud Sparhawk (Analog Science Fiction and Fact; May/June 2019)
Con: We don’t really find out what happened. Did Noah die? And what did he do for Arkady besides dispose of some bodies? Did he actually kill anyone?
Other Reviews: Search Web
Andrew Penn Romine Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
Pro: It’s rather sad once we realize that Noah’s wife and partner died a long time ago, and that most of what he’s experiencing is delusions based on his radiation-damaged memories.
The twist at the end (if I’m reading it correctly) is delicious: When the orderly says “I said you’d have to take your medicine eventually” and “All these years and you don’t remember what you did for Arkady. Makes this harder, somehow.” It seems clear that even though Noah has delusions caused by too much time spent on the lunar surface without adequate shielding, the orderly really is there to do something bad to him. At the end, he realizes this, and he accepts his fate.
It’s curious to find two stories about Alan Shephard’s golf balls in two months. Compare this story with “Mulligan,” by Bud Sparhawk (Analog Science Fiction and Fact; May/June 2019)
Con: We don’t really find out what happened. Did Noah die? And what did he do for Arkady besides dispose of some bodies? Did he actually kill anyone?
Other Reviews: Search Web
Andrew Penn Romine Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
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