★★★★☆ A fun little story with a very nice protagonist.
(Superhero) Sam’s ability is modest, but he’s still excited to be accepted into the Super Team. Now he just has to figure out how he can make the biggest difference—assuming he can do more good than harm. (9,691 words; Time: 32m)
"Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super," by A.T. Greenblatt [bio] (edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas), appeared in Uncanny Magazine issue 34, published on May 5, 2020.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2020.292 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: This is about Sam trying to fit into the team, but, in his case, his problem isn’t getting his teammates to accept him; it’s learning to accept himself for what he is and to be proud of that. With his ability to set himself on fire, it doesn’t look like he’ll be doing a lot of rescuing people, even though that’s what he dreams of. More accurately, he dreams of impressing the people who dumped him when they learned he had a super power.
The parallel between the Supers in the story and the engineers and scientists in real life is very strong. So is the parallel with gay people coming out of the closet.
Con: For some reason the story never engaged my emotions. There wasn’t much tension either.
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A.T. Greenblatt Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Pro: This is about Sam trying to fit into the team, but, in his case, his problem isn’t getting his teammates to accept him; it’s learning to accept himself for what he is and to be proud of that. With his ability to set himself on fire, it doesn’t look like he’ll be doing a lot of rescuing people, even though that’s what he dreams of. More accurately, he dreams of impressing the people who dumped him when they learned he had a super power.
The parallel between the Supers in the story and the engineers and scientists in real life is very strong. So is the parallel with gay people coming out of the closet.
Con: For some reason the story never engaged my emotions. There wasn’t much tension either.
Other Reviews: Search Web
A.T. Greenblatt Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
I agree with the rating. I really liked this story. It was also sort of realistic too. Your friends are freaked out.
ReplyDeleteI felt a bit bad for Sam as clearly having powers did cause a lot of problems for him, and it was a very dramatic onset of the powers too.
The tension was in what Sam was going to do with himself with these powers - run away and hide or contribute as best he can.
Worth reading for award consideration.