Review: An immaginative tale that has some messages
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 7, 2011
Troy has missed Michelle for some fifteen years in this fine sci-fi short story, a tale that stimulates the reader's imagination and provokes thoughts about this world, science, and the future. All was well fifteen years ago before the world was struck by the "Four Horsemen," four diseases that wiped out the plentiful world crops. People starved. Many escaped to other planets. Others gave up and "converted" by giving up their worldly lives and allowing their minds to become part of a computer system where they continued to live in the computer software, a happy eternal virtual but not real life. (Is this a comment on religious conversions?) Michelle disappeared at this time.Troy wanted to speak to her, hear her, feel her again. He paid dearly to be hooked up to a virtual program where he could do so. But while he saw her, it didn't work well because he didn't pay enough and didn't get the best hook up. While agonizing, he discovers that she is still alive, she hadn't converted or been forced by the government to convert, she was working for the company that did the virtual programs.... I leave the details and the rest for the reader to enjoy.