Thursday, October 27, 2011

Against Eternity

Short Story by David Farland

Old Man's War, but instead of uploading elderly soldiers to new human bodies, we're uploading them to mechs and spaceships. You are uploaded into one of these spaceships, and it gives you a shot at immortality, if you're rebellious enough to seize the chance.

The story is told in second-person, future tense, which gives events a sort of inevitable feel. I think future tense makes the whole second-person narration thing work much better, because rather than telling you what you did, it's telling you what you will do. Given that the story is set, presumably, within my natural lifespan, I don't mind it so much.

That said, it's a very short story, just this side of flash, and not a lot happens. As I implied by linking to a rather famous novel, this isn't something entirely new, although the story is simpler and more pacifistic than said book. Honestly, if it weren't for the second person narration, which I actually sort of liked her, this would be a very boring story. But it is short enough that you aren't wasting your time, and the POV is fun.

3 Aspiring spaceships out of 5.

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