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A review by thereadingoutlaw
Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 92 by Neil Clarke
4.0
I, like many recently, read this as part of my participation in the 2015 Booktube SFF Awards, not to mention it's inclusion on the Nebula list.
While this short story, like many short stories, takes a moment to sink in to (I listened to Kate Baker read the piece as part of the Clarksworld podcast) but is so ultimately rewarding for the effort. The story of the Meeker, a multi-limbed being who pilots a ship called the The Bulb, through space along with his companion the All-Seeing Eye. The Eye is a kind of universe in and of itself, composed of thousands of stars and planets that have been eaten by the Eye throughout the millennia. Their eons-long journey of travelling the galaxy harvesting dead stars to be deposited into the Eye's "Great Corpus" eventually brings them into contact with a crystal carrying information that, when decoded by the Eye, produces a human lifeform named Beth. I won't continue the plot from there, as the story is so worth reading for itself, but safe to say that existence for both the Meeker and the Eye will never be the same.
One of the most powerful tools of the short story is it's ability, as a form, to function as a magnifying glass on various traits of society, perhaps even more closely and cruelly than can be done in longer fiction. Kressel's piece here is no exception! We're brought in to discussions of power (the Meeker is called that simply because his being meek allows the Eye to be stronger) as well as the currently very apt discussion of when discovery crosses a kind of ethical or humanistic boundary by causing pain to it's subjects. Here I'm thinking of various forms of medical research, weapons development, and technological advancements that on the one had answer so many questions we have as a species while also equipping us to do great harm to one another. The relationship that forms between Beth and the Meeker, as well as the Eye's continued repeating of the phrases "I know, but tell me again" and "yes" at the sight of Beth's unfolding pain goes miles in establishing the characteristics of both characters, and clearly calling the reader to consider the line between the benefits of knowing and the downfalls of being the all-knowing.
Kressel does a simply amazing job at unpacking and unspooling the possibilities of a future in which not only worlds, but entire universes, look nothing like what we imagine because they simply have ceased to exist. In just under 6,000 well crafted words we've been presented with a sense of both scope (temporally) and distance (physically) that makes the story seem so much longer - and so much bigger - than it actually is. The only caveat I have, and the only point I would have liked to have seen expanded on, is the ending! And as far as I'm concerned, and short story where the only thing you're left wanting is for it to be longer, is a win in my book.
While this short story, like many short stories, takes a moment to sink in to (I listened to Kate Baker read the piece as part of the Clarksworld podcast) but is so ultimately rewarding for the effort. The story of the Meeker, a multi-limbed being who pilots a ship called the The Bulb, through space along with his companion the All-Seeing Eye. The Eye is a kind of universe in and of itself, composed of thousands of stars and planets that have been eaten by the Eye throughout the millennia. Their eons-long journey of travelling the galaxy harvesting dead stars to be deposited into the Eye's "Great Corpus" eventually brings them into contact with a crystal carrying information that, when decoded by the Eye, produces a human lifeform named Beth. I won't continue the plot from there, as the story is so worth reading for itself, but safe to say that existence for both the Meeker and the Eye will never be the same.
One of the most powerful tools of the short story is it's ability, as a form, to function as a magnifying glass on various traits of society, perhaps even more closely and cruelly than can be done in longer fiction. Kressel's piece here is no exception! We're brought in to discussions of power (the Meeker is called that simply because his being meek allows the Eye to be stronger) as well as the currently very apt discussion of when discovery crosses a kind of ethical or humanistic boundary by causing pain to it's subjects. Here I'm thinking of various forms of medical research, weapons development, and technological advancements that on the one had answer so many questions we have as a species while also equipping us to do great harm to one another. The relationship that forms between Beth and the Meeker, as well as the Eye's continued repeating of the phrases "I know, but tell me again" and "yes" at the sight of Beth's unfolding pain goes miles in establishing the characteristics of both characters, and clearly calling the reader to consider the line between the benefits of knowing and the downfalls of being the all-knowing.
Kressel does a simply amazing job at unpacking and unspooling the possibilities of a future in which not only worlds, but entire universes, look nothing like what we imagine because they simply have ceased to exist. In just under 6,000 well crafted words we've been presented with a sense of both scope (temporally) and distance (physically) that makes the story seem so much longer - and so much bigger - than it actually is. The only caveat I have, and the only point I would have liked to have seen expanded on, is the ending! And as far as I'm concerned, and short story where the only thing you're left wanting is for it to be longer, is a win in my book.