I read ten pieces of short fiction this week ranging from about 1,500 words to almost 25,000 words. To view the entire list of what I read, look at the top ten entries in the table at the bottom of my Short Fiction page.
Two of these stories were five stars for me. The first was Sarah Pinsker’s And Then There Were (N-One). I read it as part of her collection Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea which my book club is reading this month. It is a very strange story indeed. In it, Sarah Pinsker (but not the actual author) is the main character and storyteller. She is invited to a SarahCon where she meets other Sarah Pinskers from across the multiverse (presumably even our author). When one of these Sarahs dies, the insurance investigator narrator Sarah is called on to look into it. This is a fascinating look at both identity and what might have happened if we had only made different choices.
The other story I loved, from the January issue of Uncanny magazine, is A.T. Greenblatt’s The Doorkeepers. The titular doorkeepers are essentially chaperones to small rooms where paying customers can experience a brief glimpse of the near future. The only caveat? Anything you take from that experienced future does not survive leaving the room. So, no Grays Sports Book problems like in Back to the Future II. The story is a well-written exploration of how our choices and behavior can affect our futures. And how trying to manipulate the future doesn’t turn out like we expect.
And only now am I seeing how the theme of choices is integral to both of my favorites this week. Interesting. I wonder if there will be a connecting theme for my favorites next week.
