A short horror story in space. And it is scary, but it jumps a bit and while I appreciate some surrealism in a horror story, I think the story was hurt a bit by the amount of time I spent at the climax trying to figure out why the narrator was no longer in his office. Really, the opening should have been more clearly marked as a flashback and it would have been very good. 2.5 out of 5 because the horror just didn't get across like it should have due to my trying to figure out where the hell the narrator was.
The Author has this to say about the above issue:
I think it is worth taking into consideration the circumstances under which the 1st-person narrator was writing, something that isn't clear to the reader until the end, but which had to be taken into account during the writing of the story. This is by no means an excuse for any of its shortcomings, but our narrator, who was not a professional writer, was highly motivated to prolong the tale while writing in horrible conditions at the behest of the worst and perhaps least patient editor imaginable. I think this accounts for what Mike and others have commented on regarding its abruptness and disjointed transitions. Of course, there is also the question about how Dr. Hedge might have revised the final manuscript before releasing it into the universe.
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