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If By Reason of Strength
A GRIPPING TECHNO-THRILLER
"There were 3,260 rivets lining the walls, floor and ceiling of the airlock. Norman had plenty of time to count them. He remembered very little of the day in which (so he was told) he killed four of his crew-mates..."
After serving nearly 300 years in prison, convicted murderer, Norman Gilmore is released a free man, and the oldest living human on record. But he shuns his fame and heads off to Mars to find the answer to a question that has been plaguing him for nearly his entire lifetime.
A 280-year-old crime. A one way ticket. A pharmaceutical company. A bioengineering discovery.
A gripping story filled with the ghosts of the past.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jamie Todd Rubin is a science fiction writer and blogger. His fiction has appeared in Analog, Apex Magazine and Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show. He writes the Wayward Time Traveler column for SF Signal and he vacations frequently in the Golden Age of science fiction.
"There were 3,260 rivets lining the walls, floor and ceiling of the airlock. Norman had plenty of time to count them. He remembered very little of the day in which (so he was told) he killed four of his crew-mates..."
After serving nearly 300 years in prison, convicted murderer, Norman Gilmore is released a free man, and the oldest living human on record. But he shuns his fame and heads off to Mars to find the answer to a question that has been plaguing him for nearly his entire lifetime.
A 280-year-old crime. A one way ticket. A pharmaceutical company. A bioengineering discovery.
A gripping story filled with the ghosts of the past.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jamie Todd Rubin is a science fiction writer and blogger. His fiction has appeared in Analog, Apex Magazine and Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show. He writes the Wayward Time Traveler column for SF Signal and he vacations frequently in the Golden Age of science fiction.
- GenresScience Fiction
34 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2011
24 people want to read
About the author
Jamie Todd Rubin
12 books125 followersJamie Todd Rubin writes fiction and nonfiction for a variety of publications including Analog, Clarkesworld, The Daily Beast, 99U, Daily Science Fiction, Lightspeed, InterGalactic Medicine Show, and several anthologies. He was featured in Lifehacker’s How I Work series. He has been blogging since 2005. By day, he manages software projects and occasionally writes code. He lives in Arlington, Virginia with his wife and three children. Find him on Twitter at @jamietr.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 2, 2012
Definire i microrganismi che hanno colonizzato i tessuti del pilota Norman Gilmore non intelligenti è una contraddizione in termini, infatti una volta entrati da una ferita provocata da una caduta durante una ritirata improvvisa da Marte, hanno saputo aspettare le condizioni ottimali per la riproduzione e salvezza della loro specie. Chiamateli stupidi!
C'è qualcosa di zen in questo racconto.
C'è qualcosa di zen in questo racconto.
October 19, 2011
Io e Jamie Todd Rubin a quanto pare ci perdiamo a porci domande simili (http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/6... lui è andato oltre e ha creato una risposta, io invece mi limito alle domande non avendo particolari doti di fantasia, ma d'altra parte è lui lo scrittore.
Insomma, l'idea di base del racconto è stata per me immediatamente affascinante e interessante. L'inizio sembrava una promettente risposta, sembrava poter creare una buona storia. Purtroppo questa risposta mi è parsa alla fine rimanere solo abbozzata e poco sviluppata, non fornendo i dettagli necessari a mantenere l'intera trama. La narrazione insomma non va in crescendo, ma dopo le battute iniziali si assesta su un livello medio, che, seppur buono, non riesce a creare ulteriore coinvolgimento.
La sensazione ricavata alla fine è che ciò che doveva essere l'elemento principale sia stato tralasciato, quasi ininfluente sul resto e persino intercambiabile con altri scenari, come se fosse stato all'inizio "messo lì" a rendere la storia peculiare e poi inutilizzato.
Però, oh!, finalmente un 40k che mi piace un po' meno! Cominciavo a sentirmi troppo di parte.
Insomma, l'idea di base del racconto è stata per me immediatamente affascinante e interessante. L'inizio sembrava una promettente risposta, sembrava poter creare una buona storia. Purtroppo questa risposta mi è parsa alla fine rimanere solo abbozzata e poco sviluppata, non fornendo i dettagli necessari a mantenere l'intera trama. La narrazione insomma non va in crescendo, ma dopo le battute iniziali si assesta su un livello medio, che, seppur buono, non riesce a creare ulteriore coinvolgimento.
La sensazione ricavata alla fine è che ciò che doveva essere l'elemento principale sia stato tralasciato, quasi ininfluente sul resto e persino intercambiabile con altri scenari, come se fosse stato all'inizio "messo lì" a rendere la storia peculiare e poi inutilizzato.
Però, oh!, finalmente un 40k che mi piace un po' meno! Cominciavo a sentirmi troppo di parte.
April 3, 2012
‘I never believed that my strength would be labor and sorrow.’
The title of this novel caught my attention, and I added it to my reading list. When I was offered a copy by the editor of 40k, I really couldn't resist. 40k, as I discovered, is an Italian eBook publisher which specialises in original short fiction. I don't read a lot of short fiction, but this story drew me in.
Norman Gilmore was a pilot on the first manned mission to Mars. He is also a convicted murderer, and at 313 years of age, the oldest man alive. While on Mars, Norman and some other crew members picked up a virus-like alien disease. Norman survived, and when he returned to Earth, he was tried and convicted for murdering four crewmates. He was sentenced to four life sentences, a total of 280 years.
Norman lived to complete that term, and he's released, famous as the oldest living human. Now he wants to return to Mars. The only way he can achieve this is by making a deal with the world's most powerful pharmaceutical company. Will he find what he's looking for when he reaches Mars?
`Without meaning, without something to strive for, a body is just another form of prison. It's not about having the time - it's about making the best of the time you have.'
It's an interesting short story which invites the reader to reflect on the meaning of life, and to question the future. All of our actions have impacts and consequences.
My thanks to Letizia Sechi, editor of 40k, for providing me with a copy of this story.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
The title of this novel caught my attention, and I added it to my reading list. When I was offered a copy by the editor of 40k, I really couldn't resist. 40k, as I discovered, is an Italian eBook publisher which specialises in original short fiction. I don't read a lot of short fiction, but this story drew me in.
Norman Gilmore was a pilot on the first manned mission to Mars. He is also a convicted murderer, and at 313 years of age, the oldest man alive. While on Mars, Norman and some other crew members picked up a virus-like alien disease. Norman survived, and when he returned to Earth, he was tried and convicted for murdering four crewmates. He was sentenced to four life sentences, a total of 280 years.
Norman lived to complete that term, and he's released, famous as the oldest living human. Now he wants to return to Mars. The only way he can achieve this is by making a deal with the world's most powerful pharmaceutical company. Will he find what he's looking for when he reaches Mars?
`Without meaning, without something to strive for, a body is just another form of prison. It's not about having the time - it's about making the best of the time you have.'
It's an interesting short story which invites the reader to reflect on the meaning of life, and to question the future. All of our actions have impacts and consequences.
My thanks to Letizia Sechi, editor of 40k, for providing me with a copy of this story.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
October 16, 2011
Tri-centenarian ex-con Norman Gilmore is the victim of the planet Mars, the judicial system of future Earth, and, it can be argued, big pharma. He has spent 280 years in prison for a crime that was far from premeditated. From inference, his defense team is clearly incompetent and evidently over all those years is unable to have his sentence commuted or get a re-trial. He has little control over anything that happens to him. The one choice he does make seems coerced, though noble. His one chance at redemption is robbed from him. Victimized again.
Because Norman is a victim, If By Reason of Strength is hard to engage with on an emotional level. There are a number of characters here in this long short story / short novella, but none provided that relationship needed for a strong story. The final denouement feels tacked on. Everything is spelled out for the reader; there are no real revelations. There are no clear antagonists; it’s a slice of Norman’s life at the end.
However, there are many interesting ideas going on here that I wanted explored: What would a man be like after having spent that much time in prison? What ghosts have haunted him and how has that played out in his psyche? What techniques has he employed to avoid going stark raving mad? Norman is just old, and I didn’t get the impression of the weight he carried.
I wanted Norman to take over, to come up with something during those 280 years that could provide him with some sort of redemption, no matter how slight. If the theme is that no one ever truly gets redemption, then maybe that makes sense, but I’m still not convinced the story proved that.
The story may suffer from the new malady of the age: ease of publication. With ebooks, everyone can be their own publisher. The cost of publication is slashed, with authors taking back their rights and providing electronic copies from their own websites, far from the control of the big publishing companies and their exorbitant percentages.
If By Reason of Strength is not a bad story. It flows well, with a few clichéd moments and a few proofreading issues (not the author’s fault). It just felt as if it wasn’t quite ready for publication.
Because Norman is a victim, If By Reason of Strength is hard to engage with on an emotional level. There are a number of characters here in this long short story / short novella, but none provided that relationship needed for a strong story. The final denouement feels tacked on. Everything is spelled out for the reader; there are no real revelations. There are no clear antagonists; it’s a slice of Norman’s life at the end.
However, there are many interesting ideas going on here that I wanted explored: What would a man be like after having spent that much time in prison? What ghosts have haunted him and how has that played out in his psyche? What techniques has he employed to avoid going stark raving mad? Norman is just old, and I didn’t get the impression of the weight he carried.
I wanted Norman to take over, to come up with something during those 280 years that could provide him with some sort of redemption, no matter how slight. If the theme is that no one ever truly gets redemption, then maybe that makes sense, but I’m still not convinced the story proved that.
The story may suffer from the new malady of the age: ease of publication. With ebooks, everyone can be their own publisher. The cost of publication is slashed, with authors taking back their rights and providing electronic copies from their own websites, far from the control of the big publishing companies and their exorbitant percentages.
If By Reason of Strength is not a bad story. It flows well, with a few clichéd moments and a few proofreading issues (not the author’s fault). It just felt as if it wasn’t quite ready for publication.
September 25, 2012
La novella racconta del ritorno su Marte di Norman Gilmore, pilota del primo viaggio su Marte avvenuto secoli prima. Si intercalano quindi i ricordi del viaggio passato - e di tutte le sue complicazioni - e di quello presente che ha un obiettivo ben preciso.
E' un racconto interessante con diverse buone idee, limitato però dalla lunghezza del formato.
E' un racconto interessante con diverse buone idee, limitato però dalla lunghezza del formato.
January 5, 2013
A lot of stuff sure did happen for no other reason than to make the plot work.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews