Sunday, March 2, 2008

LRSF #31, By Fools Like Me, Nancy Kress

Opening: Hope creeps quietly into my bedroom without knocking, peering around the corner of the rough doorjamb. I'm awake; sleep eludes me so easily now. I know from the awful smell that she has been to the beach.


Capsule: Well-written post-apocalyptic story. The setting was nicely described and the characters, and their inter-relationships, fully fleshed out. Conceptually, however, I found this story a little lacking (considering we've already seen many of the elements on display here: the discovery of books, forbidden in this particular society, the religiosity in response to a technologically-enabled catastrophe/warfare, etc.). In conclusion, I don't think this represents Kress' best short-length work, falling a little short of remarkable, but it's worth reading for the skill of the telling and the atmosphere it evokes.

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