Blow-Up

Eric, a technician at a facility that disposes of nuclear waste by teleportation, suffers a psychotic break following a major malfunction in a routine operation.

In a Chernobyl-like incident with faulty equipment, inadequately trained personnel and lack of attention to safety procedures either a wormhole or parallel universe is created, with loss of personnel.

Eric's final words to his doctor - "I am the killer of worlds."

This is eerily remeniscent of J. Robert Oppenheimer's comment on the success of the first nuclear bomb test - "I am become death. Destroyer of worlds."

An excellent read with concise and riveting dialogue.

gino

. . .An excellent read with concise and riveting dialogue.

The dialogue was, indeed, very well done. The characters all spoke in different ‘voices.’ It adds depth and individuality without any true infodumping description or narration.

And the story, it was scary enough that it should have been in the October issue.

If I understood the thing, a little industrial mishap began the destruction of our entire universe, but at the same time, created an identical copy.

The story, itself, is told from the perspective of the copied universe.

No difference? Maybe so.

Unless you're the copy of the one who just screwed it up and who got a glimpse of the carnage you had rained-upon the universe.

Imagine knowing that for the next several billion years, creeping along at the speed of light, is an ever-expanding, new Big Bang that will eventually absolutely destroy the entire universe that you remember as your own? That a little, insignificant planet in the middle of one arm of a midsized galaxy was responsible for TEOTUAWKI.

Chilling. And as good a reason to go bonkers as any other.

The mechanics of the story needed a little more attention, though. Little things, but distracting.

That they would locate a nuclear waste disposal site inside an after-meal confection called the Mojave dessert, made me pause. Perhaps they should have put it in the Mojave Desert, instead. More room there. . .I think.

And just how did it come to pass that the guards dolled out a few bruises? In the future, do they use dolls instead of billyclubs to subdue violent people?

Man, we Chatty Cathy'd his ass after he spit on Joe-Bob!

Might sound like I'm being overpicky, but these kinds of mistakes are:

A. Relatively easy to find and correct.

B. Something that can distract the reader and take them 'out of the moment,' and more importantly, out of the story.


Can't say these things ruined the story, but they sure didn't help it, either.

One of the problems with spellcheckers is that we rely on them for more than they are capable of delivering. And don't me wrong, I love my spellcheck, but when all the red-underlined words are accounted for, the rest of the misspellings are correctly-spelled, but wrong words.

So the reader has to stop, figure-out if the author really meant to say something, translate it, and then try to get back into the story.

We all do it, all of us. But it really is a Bad Thing from a writer's point of view.

A truly well done story, Mr. Weaver.

I'm looking forward to more from you.

Bill Wolfe