Utopia, LOL? by Jamie Wahls
My rating: 4/5 cats
WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
boilerplate mission statement:
for the past two years, i’ve set december’s project aside to do my own version of a short story advent calendar. it’s not a true advent calendar since i choose all the stories myself, but what it lacks in the ‘element of surprise’ department it more than makes up for in hassle, as i try to cram even MORE reading into a life already overcrammed with impossible personal goals (live up to your potential! find meaningful work! learn to knit!) merry merry wheee!
since i am already well behind in my *regular* reviewing, when it comes to these stories, whatever i poop out as far as reflections or impressions are going to be superficial and perfunctory at best. please do not weep for the great big hole my absented, much-vaunted critical insights are gonna leave in these daily review-spaces (and your hearts); i’ll try to drop shiny insights elsewhere in other reviews, and here, i will at least drop links to where you can read the stories yourselves for free, which – let’s be honest – is gonna serve you better anyway.
HAPPY READING, BOOKNERDS!
links to all stories read in previous years’ calendars can be found at the end of these reviews, in case you are a person who likes to read stories for free:
2016: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…
2017: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…
scroll down for links to this year’s stories which i will update as we go, and if you have any suggestions, send ’em my way! the only rules are: it must be available free online (links greatly appreciated), and it must be here on gr as its own thing so i can review it. thank you in advance!
DECEMBER 2
#CharlieSamarkand: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
#CharlieSamarkand: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
#CharlieSamarkand: aaaaaaaaaaaaohgodwhat’shappening
#Kit: Charlie!
#CharlieSamarkand: what? what is happening what
#Kit: You’re a bird!
#CharlieSamarkand: I NOTICED THANK YOU
#CharlieSamarkand: WHY ARE WE BIRDS
it’s the future! people are even more impatient than they are now, but they can also be birds or floor tiles if they so wish! that’s just how it goes when you are uploaded consciousnesses in distributed Matryoshka brains. normally, i wouldn’t have a lot of interest in this kind of thing, but i liked the way it was handled – it starts off as a mad humor-romp, and ends with some stone-cold tragic solemnity. and THAT’S how you win my heart.
the mystery interlude was just icing on my cake, and i did, indeed, LOL at it.
that’s all you get for this one – tick, tock december and all that.
HAPPY HANUKKAH!
read it for yourself here:
http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/ut…
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